Our daughter has a vision of an "elegant barn wedding" and after touring several options, knew she had found exactly what she wanted when she and her then fiance visited Flying Horse Ranch (FHR) . A week later, I flew to Colorado to see FHR, a...nd we were excited to sign a contract for August 22, 2020 which was just over a year away. One of the many appealing features of this beautiful venue was that there were MANY , large, indoor and outdoor spaces for ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing (meaning we could move things inside in case of inclement weather). Little did we know when we mailed "Save the Dates" in January 2020 just how important that would be as the year unfolded.
Planning a wedding is busy and stressful enough, but add COVID to the picture and multiply that by 100! There were months when we didn't know if we could have a wedding of any size, but our Bride and Groom soon decided that even if they could only have their immediate families, they would get married on August 22 at Flying Horse Ranch. That way, their pictures would still be what they had envisioned, even if there weren't many guests there to experience it.
We let Megan at FHR know that we would still be coming on August 22 and stayed in constant contact with her as State and County variances were approved. She was always honest with us, but also kept looking for ways to say "YES", even when many were saying "No". We set up tables that could seat up to 8 with just four guests, all vendors wore masks, the venue installed handwashing stations and sanitizer around the property, we set up more chairs than guests at the ceremony so everyone could space out. After Megan shared an idea, we had Green, Yellow and Red bracelets to let each guest show his/her comfort level.
While haze from the Wildfires obscured the mountains normally seen from Flying Horse Ranch, and we had only about half of the guests originally invited, we all had a spectacular, beautiful wedding day (with ceremony, cocktail and dancing all outside...the latter under a starlit night) which we will remember in our hearts forever! Flying Horse Ranch was the perfect backdrop to a perfect day in the midst of a crazy year! Thank you, Megan and team!