10 Reasons To Have A Winter Wedding In Jackson Hole, Wyoming
A winter wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Cold, snowy & complete bliss.
If you’re a snow bunny or want to change up the ball game, you’re at the right place. Most folks opt to tie the knot in warmer months of the year, but personally, I don’t think that means you have to. If anything, it gives you more reason to change it up. I’ve been thinking about love, mountains and snow an awful lot since planting my roots in the wild west, and below you’ll get a taste of why you probably want to consider the option of tying yours here during the winter.
- The most obvious, you’re a snow bunny. If you love winter like most Teton Valley residents, it seems that it should only be a given that you’ll celebrate not only the love you’ve got with your person, but in your favorite setting and time of year. This day, be it a huge celebration or an intimate moment, should never stray from celebrating YOU in every way that you can. In the end, that’s the reason you’re doing this, and it should remain as true to the roots of this love as possible. Jackson has seen more snow in the past few years than it has in a long time, so it’s a given you’ll be surrounded by a wintery bliss and have endless options to celebrate doing the things you love.
2. Planning. Naturally, with a less-popular time of year to tie-the-knot, you’ll have more and easier access to the logistics of planning. Especially if you’re hoping to reserve a specific venue, caterer, or anything up that alley, you’ll have a higher likelihood of having the date you’d like with the artisans you want to help make your day, well, yours.
3. With planning, comes budgets. Not only is your likelihood of picking your choice date & artisans involved higher, but the likelihood of also reducing your budget, or getting more in your day with your budget, higher. That’s win-win. If you want to stay simple, this is a great choice to help you do that. If you want to extend what you can do with your budget, the same goes. Either way, that makes the whole process just a bit sweeter and less stressful.
4. Elopements. If you guys know me or my work at all, you know I love intimate weddings and capturing celebrations among a small group of incredible folks who love one another with all their heart. The beauty of eloping (just you guys or a small group with you) during winter is that it often IS more complex to get to the location you’re going to unite your lives, which means the moment will be yours without distractions of tourists around you, visitors to the area, or any of those complications that can play into fair-weather celebrations.
5. With those complex journeys, you have the opportunity to capture something unique & true to the lives you lead outside this day. Be it on skis, a splitboard, snowshoes, a mountaintop helicopter landing, or a snowmobile, you get the opportunity tolive a day that is not only a celebration of your best love as humans, but in a way that celebrates the activities that you fell in love doing. That will hold more emotional content for the day than just about anything else you can add to your story, because it IS your story. [And, this is a great chance to get the most of your investment with your photographer as well as find someone who REALLY gets you and yours, which is a fundamental piece of creating incredible imagery.
6. FOOD. Whether you’re working out to get to your “venue”, or taking a simple journey to the place you’re tying the knot, it’s chilly. That means comfort foods, warm drinks, and all the closeness is a must, which brings out smiles, emotions and happy human beans. Everyone, and especially snow bunnies, know that there’s nothing quite like the feeling of warm drinks filling a chilly core… so why not make that a part of your day?
7. Honeymooning opportunities are endless. The beauty of choosing a place that loves this season as much as you is that you have options for how to celebrate that never stop. From a more resort-relaxing experience at one of the many luxury spots in Jackson Hole to the backcountry explorations for my wilder-souls, we got it. Hit a backcountry hut with your newly-forever partner in crime, take a hot springs adventure to one of the many around the Tetons. I could probably go on about this for a year if you let me… and come on, if you’re a wilder soul as I am, there’s really nothing more romantic.
8. Keep the family and friends clan occupied too. If you’re sharing the day with a few, or a bunch, there are tons of things you can send them off to explore so that it’s a trip worthy of excitement on all levels. The elk refuge is a rare and awesome experience, and totally kid-savvy. Wrap up in blankets and take a sleigh into the refuge to learn and experience the elk herds. Hit the mountain for a day… you’ve got options. Send them to Snow King Resort in downtown Jackson, the infamous Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, or pop over the border to Idaho and hit Grand Targhee! Plus, with a list this large, not only do you have leverage to get your favorite human beans to Jackson to join you, but you have the option of joining them or having a worry-free adventure with your love while they’re busy exploring!
9. Your images. As a photographer, I can’t help but think in this sense. If you’re staying around the valley for the day, consider talking to one of the mountain resorts about a ride to the top for your portraits. There aren’t a lot of views that can compare to those, and if you’re after high alpine complete glory, JHMR’s tram will take you right there with snowy bliss and winds that make your images momentous and full of intensity and movement. Plus, you can then reboot your core temps with gourmet waffles at Corbets Cabin… at nearly 10,500 feet! If you’re after something a bit more intimate and personal, the remote location options are essentially endless and you really can’t go wrong no matter what fits you best.
10. Finally, a few words that remind me of the roots we hope to plant & celebrate on this day:
‘In the depths of winter,
I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.’
-Albert Camus
