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A Black-Tie Morning at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, CO |
Kyle & Taylor
Some couples want a field and a mountain and the wind doing something dramatic to their hair. Kyle and Taylor wanted a martini, a marble staircase, and a revolving brass door - and honestly they were right.
We spent the morning inside and around The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver's grand old dame of a hotel, the one that's been standing since 1892 and still makes you lower your voice a little when you walk in. Black tie. A bow tie that needed fixing on the front steps. A dress that caught every bit of golden light coming in through those stained-glass windows. It was the kind of night that doesn't need a landscape to feel like an occasion and the building that does the work for you.
If you are looking for an indoor Denver engagement or elopement venue with real character, this historic downtown hotel is hard to beat.
A Golden Morning on 17th Street
We started outside, under the arched sandstone entrance on 17th Street, before the light became harsh. The Ship Tavern awning, the old church down the block catching the early morning light, and the two of them walking and not quite able to stop grinning at each other. Then we went in.
The Atrium and the Grand Staircase
Upstairs is where the Brown Palace really shows off. The atrium, the gilded arches, the ironwork railings that go up and up and up. We found a luggage cart and READER, WE USED IT. Some of my favorite photos of the whole morning are just the two of them, squeezed onto a brass bellhop cart under fluorescent lights, laughing at nothing.
And then the elevator, the dip. All of it was utterly perfect.
Martinis at the Churchill Bar
The Churchill Bar is all oxblood leather and low lamplight and a wall of bottles, and it turns out a martini and a good Chesterfield sofa are a whole personality. We shot a few frames there I keep coming back to - and the two of them mid-laugh, her ring against the glass, a stolen kiss that I mostly caught in the mirror. The smell of old cigar smoke lingering in the air. You can hear the history in this beautiful bar.
Planning a Downtown Denver Elopement?
The Brown Palace Hotel is one of my new favorite indoor elopement and couples-session location in Denver - grand, warm, and made exactly for this kind of black tie event. If you're dreaming of a downtown Denver elopement, and anniversary session, and engagement somewhere with history and gold trim, get in touch and let's build yours.
Wayward and Wild Photography - elopements, couples, and the moments in between, serving Denver, Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, and Boulder.
