Vanessa and Bret were married at Whispering Pines Mountain Hideaway in the Rocky Mountains.

"Both Bret and I actually cared very little about the wedding", explained the bride. "We just wanted to spend five days at the mountain with our friends and family. We focused on offering everyone an experience. All our guests were flying in from NYC or Brazil, so we wanted them to get to know a bit of the place we call home, Colorado. It was fantastic, the leaves were changing color for the fall (something the Brazilians had never seen before!) and everyone took their time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, walk around Downtown Estes and just really enjoy time together! We were going for a laid-back, woodsy vibe."

The bride's amazing dress was from BHLDN, which she wore with a flower crown and veil made by her mother. "Everything for the wedding was DIY", she continued. "My mother ordered fabric that matched our invitations and made every single napkin for the tables. Bret's parents cleaned the entire yard and put together all the furniture and rentals. I shopped for vintage brass candle holders, brass apple bells for our flower girls, and created a botanical backdrop for our guest book. I went to thrift stores both in Denver and NYC looking for vintage trunks, luggage, and other props to decorate the reception. The rug that we stood on during our ceremony was a handmade crocheted rug by my aunt Neide."

"The teepee was 100% my mother's project with the help of my friends Daniele and Juliana. She sourced vintage fabrics, rugs and pillows to make the teepee comfy enough. She also made all the favors which were fabric hearts filled with lavender. She also made all the deserts."

"One of my most special memories from the day is from Olivia", Vanessa said. "She is three years old and is my best friend's daughter. I consider her a niece. When she arrived at the house on Friday she was a bit confused. She knew she was flying from NYC to Colorado to see me and that there was a celebration involved. She must have assumed it was my birthday, maybe because it's the type of celebration she has experienced the most in her life. So, when she saw me, she kept saying: 'Happy Birthday!' she was so sweet, she would rest her little hands in my face and keep repeating: 'Happy Birthday!'. At some point she asked where was my cake and candles. We brought one of the tiny cakes out and even sang Happy Birthday to make her happy. The next morning, the wedding day, she helped me out all day, we did facial masks together, and she carried a small brass apple bell to announce I was arriving for the ceremony yelling: 'Vanessa is coming!' Her special little voice will never leave my mind! She was a highlight that day! After the ceremony, her father went to put her down for her nap and she said to him: 'Dad, I think Vanessa just got married!' She finally got it!"

Nearly all of the wedding was DIY, but there was one aspect the couple did not want to do themselves. "The photography was the most important aspect of the wedding for me, so it was the thing we spent the most on. However we saved money by shopping for all the food ourselves, as well as the drinks. We didn't really splurge on much, everything was rather simply, homey and we wanted our guests to feel comfortable."

"Our advice to future brides and grooms would be to focus on what matters: the marriage, not the wedding", Vanessa concluded/ "The wedding is one day and it's over and soon enough you can barely remember. What's important is to cherish the person you chose to spend your life with, to respect and admire each other, to create plans and goals together and work hard to achieve them."

"With that being said, Bret and I thought it was important to erase anything we knew about other's peoples weddings. We wanted something that truly reflect the couple we are. There were personal aspects everywhere. We didn't think much about what it would look like, but how we wanted to look like us: fun, simples, untraditional, unique, different than anything else our guests had ever seen. We skipped many traditions that didn't make sense for us. There were no bridesmaids, maid of honor, groomsmen, no choreographed ceremony or first dance. We didn't want it to look like theater. We wanted as crazy and spontaneous as possible."