Full Day Elopement In The San Juan Mountains Guide

Thinking about planning your elopement in the San Juan Mountains? Let me share with you why planning a full day elopement is a great option. The San Juan Mountains are one of the best mountain elopement locations to elope. There’s just so much stunning locations to explore and some amazing activities to do. With that said, let’s get into why you should plan a full day elopement in the San Juan Mountains.

When you plan a full day elopement, you get to enjoy the full experience. You will have 8+ hours to enjoy your day from getting ready to the ceremony to exploring locations. Your full day timeline can be customize to your liking. You can plan your day around a sunset elopement or sunset. You can even do both and take a break mid-day.

1) Elopement In San Juan Mountains | Enjoy The Full Experience

This is really about planning a timeline with your photographer and plan out what you are doing for your day.

Example Sunset Elopement Timeline:

• Getting ready at your Airbnb – can be together or separately

• Head out to ceremony location – Velocity Basin

• Vows + Ceremony

• Portraits after ceremony – just the two of you, if guests are invited, family portraits can also happen at this time

*Have a small picnic

*Head to second location of your choice ( California Pass for example)

*Sunset portraits

*Head back to Airbnb

*First dance at Airbnb + s’mores or starphotos ( evening activity of choice)

This is just one example of what the experience could look like. But planning your full day elopement allows you to slow down, be in the moment and just enjoy every moment of your day. You can do whatever you want!

2) More time to explore multiple locations

The San Juans Mountains in Colorado stretch from Durango to Ouray. There are so many places to explore. So, depending on where you choose for your ceremony location – you can explore other locations that are nearby. Some of my favorite locations for ceremonies are in Ouray and Telluride but they are 1 hour apart.

The more time you have, the more locations you can explore.

Best Locations to elope in the San Juan Mountains:

• Lake Como – One of my favorite alpine Lakes – Perfect for ceremonies
• Velocity Basin – Similar to landscape to Lake Como but easier to access
• Remote Alpine Lake in Ouray
• Altas Lakes in Telluride
• Yankee Boy Basin – wildflowers in the summer
• Governor’s Basin – Wildflowers in the summer and the most amazing mountain ranges