Great movie, right? Dylan (Miller) and I have had a long 9 year journey getting us to this trip. We felt like the movie loading up in a massive loaded Chevy Suburban for our 2000 mile drive from Virginia to Colorado with our dog. So naturally we picked the tag We're the Millers. It was a hard choice between that and It's Miller Time. Sometimes a common last name isn't all that bad!
Although I had been planning this 2 week elopement honeymoon vacation combination for over a year, it is the definition of DIY. We rented a house up in the mountains with no cell or wifi and a view of the continental divide. Key part was the huge 30x30 deck (and hot tub).
This post is part 1, because we ended up doing a 2 day wedding! We really wanted to elope because we wanted it to be just the two of us and our dog. We didn't want our day to be about anybody else but us. However, we felt really bad leaving my sisters and our friends out of it because of all they have done for us over the years. So we decided to make it a multi-day event.
Day 1- August 6, 2018
2:00am-- wake up to get ready. I did my own hair and makeup because I decided asking someone to come to the house at 1am on a weekday was unlikely, and if likely, unreliable
3:00am--left our house to drive to trailhead: Arapaho Pass. 7.1 mile sunrise hike
4:00am- hit the trail in pitch black night with our headlamps
5:30am- reached half summit where we scoped out spot to say our vows at sunrise
5:45am- sun started to rise, had to wait for 3 bull moose to let us pass the trail
6:00am- I changed into my dress behind a tree!
6:25am-- we said our vows amidst Alpine Glow
At this point we were about 4 miles into the trail
8:30 am: continued hiking to reach the trail end on the summit of Arapaho Pass with Lake Dority below us. We did not continue to the lake because wind gusts were around 40 mph (and at that point my hair was done)
2:00pm: return to our car, and headed straight into Nederland to eat some breakfast (or lunch, really)
We spent the rest of the day trying to process what had just happened and how perfect it was.
See my post here about how we came to chose this spot and planned this trip!
Photos credit to our amazing photographer: Maddie Mae from Adventure Instead
