A Laugh-Cry Down the Aisle and Dinner Beneath the Aspens: Olivia & Zach's Wedding at Their Family Property in Silverthorne
- Author: Natali Grace Levine
- Wedding date: 08/30/2025
- City: Denver
Love Story
They met in their fourth year at the University of Kansas, introduced by a mutual friend — the kind of meeting that doesn't announce itself as significant until, suddenly, it is. A few weeks later, Olivia was accepted into a nine-month study abroad program. Most connections don't survive that kind of distance. This one not only survived it — it became something. They stayed in touch the entire time and started dating the moment she returned.
Nine years later, they were getting married in an aspen grove.
The proposal came in Palm Springs, on a family trip, during a bike ride through a historic neighborhood. Zach took Olivia to the mid-century modern house where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon — and proposed there. The owners happened to see it happen and invited them inside to celebrate. "As an architectural designer from a family of architects, it felt unbelievably perfect," Olivia says. "Intimate, meaningful, and serendipitous all at once."
Olivia is an architectural designer who spent a year after college working with a furniture designer and builder. Zach studied mechanical engineering and likes working with his hands — "which is very nice for me," Olivia notes. They cook together, spend time with friends and family, and have spent nearly a decade building a life that looks a great deal like the wedding they chose to have.
About Your Wedding
The vision was clear from the beginning: great food, great music, and the people they love most. Everything else followed from that. "We wanted it to feel natural and deeply connected to the landscape, letting the setting speak for itself," Olivia explains. "Our vision was to keep the furniture and décor minimal and understated so the beauty of nature could really take center stage."
What shaped the entire aesthetic was the glamping tents from Wild Productions. "The scenery and tents really set the tone of the rest of our decisions," — and from there, every choice pointed in the same direction: natural, understated, rooted in the place itself.
The invitations were designed with the team at Wordshop in Denver. "Being in the design world myself, I am really particular," Olivia says, "and they were really helpful guiding us through the process." Wedding rings were an easy decision — gold cigar bands, both of them, simple and exactly right. For jewelry, Olivia borrowed her sister's diamond necklace—a family heirloom from her husband's family, the same necklace her sister had worn on her wedding day. She also borrowed jewelry and a coat from her aunt Robin. Nothing about the day was accidental, and almost everything was personal.
Morning Details
Their friends gave them the whole neighborhood that morning — one guest house for the bride, another for the groom, the mountain air between them. Olivia got ready in a guest house lent by dear friends for the weekend. Zach prepared at a neighbor's house just nearby. Two separate mornings, the same property, the same anticipation building quietly in each of them. Outside, the aspen grove was already doing what it does best — holding the light, staying still, waiting. The kind of morning that feels significant before anything has even happened yet.
Bride Getting Ready
The dress came with a story. Olivia had tried on many dresses and done extensive research before coming across one online. "Online, the dress looked blue, and I was a little worried about that, but once I tried it on, it wasn't blue at all. It was gray! I loved it immediately." She had been looking for a white dress — but this one, designed by Vagabond and found at a&be in Denver, simply felt right. Lucas at a&be styled her.
Her accessories were carried by people she loves. The veil belonged to her cousin, who had worn it at her own wedding and was also their officiant on the day. Her sister sourced and arranged all the flowers. The bridesmaids wore what they wanted, in no particular color palette beyond comfort — because this was that kind of wedding. Manolo Blahnik flats completed the look, at least for part of the day, before practicality took over.
Groom Getting Ready
Zach got ready at the neighboring house in a suit from Suit Supply — relaxed, unhurried, exactly in keeping with the tone of the entire weekend. The mountain morning did the rest. There's something particular about a groom getting ready on the property where he's about to be married — no travel, no transition, just the slow building of a day that had been nine years in the making. He had chosen his suit the way they had chosen everything else: simply, and with purpose.
First Look
The first look happened on the property — and it delivered. Zach cried. "I think he was relieved and excited to finally be together again," Olivia says. "It was cute." He thought her dress was beautiful and perfect for her. She was simply excited to see him and thought he looked so handsome. After nine years and a nine-month study abroad program that had tested them before they'd even properly begun, finally, here. The aspens behind them, the rest of the day still ahead, and nothing left to wait for.
Photoshoot Before The Ceremony
Golden light through the aspens, and a camera that barely had to try. Tippy Jordan — chosen after what Olivia describes as their hardest planning decision — had been the right call from the start. "She really understood us and made us feel really comfortable." The property needed no direction. Every part of it was already a photograph. Moving through the grounds before the ceremony, with the tents visible in the distance and the grove just ahead, the whole landscape felt like it had been arranged specifically for this day — which, in a sense, it had been. This land had held this family for years. It knew exactly what it was doing.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place in the aspen grove — next to the spots where Olivia's sisters had each gotten married before her. "We all have our special spots," she says simply, and the weight of that is enormous: three sisters, three ceremonies, the same grove, the same family watching.
The band Thumpin' played Hermanos Gutiérrez's Cerca de Ti as Olivia walked down the aisle. She cried immediately upon seeing Zach. Her father walked beside her, and they laughed and cried together all the way down. Zach was laugh-crying too. "It was loving" — her word for it, and the right one. Their two nieces were flower girls. Their three nephews carried the rings.
Photoshoot After The Ceremony
Married now, with the aspens as witnesses and the mountains still watching. The couple moved through the property for portraits as the afternoon light shifted — the same landscape that had shaped every decision of their wedding weekend, now holding them as husband and wife. There is a specific quality to photographs taken on land that belongs to you: a rootedness, a familiarity, a sense that the place is participating rather than simply providing a backdrop. Tippy captured all of it — the light through the trees, the stillness, the two of them finally on the other side of the day they had been planning for a year and a half.
Wedding Venue & Decor
This was Olivia's family's private property in Silverthorne, which meant the wedding wasn't just held in a beautiful place. It was held at a place that belonged to them. The color palette was minimal: white, natural wood, and the landscape itself did most of the work. Glamping tents from Wild Productions set the tone for everything else — the aesthetic, the atmosphere, the feeling that guests were being invited into something specific and unhurried.
"We wanted our guests to feel really a part of it, and get to experience this special place with us," Olivia explains. "That is why the three days made it so special — we really got to spend time with our loved ones and not just a quick hi and bye." The wedding wasn't a single day. It was a weekend, and the property held it all.
Real Wedding Couple's Advice
"Have a plan, but don't let the plan become more important than the experience. Things will go wrong, or at least differently than expected. The bride and groom set the tone. If you can laugh, stay present, and keep choosing joy, your guests will feel that too. The day really is only as good as you make it."
Reception
The first dance was to Al Green's Let's Stay Together. The food was family-style, inspired by an Italian wedding with fresh summer flavors — catered across the entire three-day weekend by Byron Borel, a family friend and private chef. "Asking someone to cater three days for three meals is a huge ask," Olivia says, "and he and his team really nailed every meal and made our weekend so incredible." The cake came from Mulberries in Brighton — chosen carefully, delivered beautifully.
And then there was the band. Thumpin' made the reception what it was. "Dancing to our band — they made the reception unforgettable for us." That was the key moment Olivia will carry longest: not the ceremony, not the photographs, but the dancing. The music. The room is full of people they love, moving.
The weather had other plans earlier in the evening — colder than August should be, tables moved in and out of the tent and the forest three times while Olivia was getting ready with her girlfriends. Zach insisted on dinner beneath the aspens anyway. "It was always our vision, and it would not have felt the same under the tent." The guests moved tables. The family showed up. "It truly took a village, and that ended up meaning even more than expected."
Wedding Team
- Photography @tippyjordan
- Band @thumpinband
- Tents and other rentals @_wild_productions_
- Dress @aandbe_portland
- Suite @suitsupply
- Hair @joelie_serrano
- Catering Byron Borel
- Cake Mullberries
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