When Bryan and Melissa first met, Melissa was living in Edwards which is about an hour, or an hour and a half drive (depending on who is driving) away. When Bryan suggested they meet up, Melissa's reply was "Well, maybe in the summer after the snow melts... if we're both still single".

"Well, my car works in the snow," Bryan replied, "meet me at the Rose in Edwards at 5:30 on Wednesday."

"Wait... are you serious?" asked Melissa.

"You'll just have to show up to find out, I'll be wearing a brown hat."

And so the adventure began....

As time went on the two grew closer as they travelled, hiked, backpacked, camped, rivered, danced, and laughed their way into each others hearts. The good times were good but when they both realized that even the bad times were good, they knew they were onto something that both hadn't experienced before.

As Autumn gave way to Winter and the snow began to fall, the ski's reappeared along with Bryan's desire to hike the bowl at Highlands, his self-proclaimed "happy place". After a warmup day at Snowmass revealed that Melissa had a little ways to go before being able to tackle the bowl, Bryan created the Big Perm Ski Academy and a program based on hiking Mount Everest to help Melissa realize her goal of hiking and skiing the bowl. That winter, as Melissa progressed from Camp 1 to Camp 2 and all the way up to camp 4, Bryan knew she was ready to summit. Bryan also knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and devised another plan.

So on closing day at Aspen Highlands, Bryan and Melissa began their journey up the bowl, accompanied by several close friends, and hundreds of strangers. When they reached the top, Bryan proposed and Melissa said yes and everyone rejoiced, including someone dressed as Elvis who offered to marry us right then and there so by the power invested in Graceland, we were pronounced man and wife.

We are thrilled that you all can join us when we do it again on October 5th.

Photos