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When you book a Pikes Peak Wedding or one of our other wedding packages, we know that you want a ceremony that's a little different than most. At Blue Skies Inn, we have several appealing options both for your ceremony and for your wedding venue.
For an outdoor wedding, you may choose between our Waterfall Garden and the Woodland Garden. Our gardens, full of flowers and birdsong, are a poetic places to wed. Sounds of our waterfalls will provide the perfect background for your very romantic event.
A deer may wander by to watch you wed, and you are sure to be celebrated by butterflies among the flowers and birds singing overhead. Rose petals will be strewn in the bride's path. Up to eighty guests have plenty of room in either garden.
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The Waterfall Garden is highlighted by an extravagant wrought iron wedding arch that we designed and built specially for a "secret garden" theme. The flowered, leafy arch beautifully frames couples for wedding photos.
In summer, our handsome wedding tent will provide you with shade. It creates a soft filtered light that makes wedding photographs sing. In winter or on misty days, our tent will provide your guests with shelter.
For those brides who choose to be wed in the snow in our winter gardens, you are welcome to borrow our white satin cape or furry stole for warmth. Red rose petals on snow create a dramatic background for a wedding.
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Our Woodland Garden is tucked into the ancient oaks that overhang a wooded area full of Springtime daffodils.
In the Woodland Garden, we have built a stone waterfall sloping down from the large red rocks that make up the background of our garden areas, then under the ancient oaks and through the densely green and verdant gardens surrounding the waterfall pools.
As part of our wedding package, your wedding officiant is included. We have several officiants of differing backgrounds from which you may choose one whose belief structure is most similar to your own. After booking, we will provide you with biographies of our officiants.
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Prospective brides and grooms have noticed that some of our weddings feature brightly colored ribbons. The Ribbon Ceremony can include up to seven family members or friends who will drape the ribbons around your hands.
Blue Skies Inn has taken the idea of the ancient Celtic wedding tradition of hand-fasting and developed a sweet ceremony around it. For the exchange of vows, the couple faces each other and touches the other's hand, palm to palm. Rather than wrapping one cord to symbolize the union as was the tradition in the Middle Ages, seven ribbons are used, each a different color of the rainbow. You may choose the colors.
You may ask up to seven friends or family members to come forward to wrap each ribbon as vows are said. We will help them rehearse before the ceremony. This is a lovely way to involve your family or children in the wedding. Some examples of the vows are, "Will you respect one another, will you laugh with one another," and so forth. After each vow, the pastor says, "And your spirits are joined anew." |
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When all seven vows have been said, the ribbons are slipped off and tied in a loose knot by the officiant. The bride and groom each hold one end of the ribbons and complete the tying of the knot to symbolize the union of their spirits. The couple takes the ribbons to their home and hangs them in a special place to remind them of their wedding day and the vows that they have said to each other.
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Our gardens constantly change throughout the seasons. Flowers bloom from March until late October, and we are always at work in the garden to make it beautiful for weddings.
Here is a view of the Waterfall Garden as seen from the top of the stairs by the small bridge - the waterfall tumbles through the stones on the left.
It’s a bride’s view, since this is the stairway most brides use to make their entrance into the Waterfall Garden. Guests are seated under the shaded tent.
To the top left, under the umbrella, is the raised dais we use for wedding license signing and the cutting of wedding cake. On the far side of the tent is the bridge that leads to the Woodland Garden.
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This is a wedding guests’ view of the Waterfall Garden taken from under our tent. The waterfall pools outlined in red stone that run down the right side of the stairs.
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On the far side of the tent is the arched bridge that leads to the Woodland Garden. We take group photos of guests on the bridge.
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A walk through the Woodland Garden. You probably have viewed our gardens through the lens of the wedding photos we have posted on this website. From those mini-wedding albums you are able to see small areas of the gardens. Our gardens are extensive and bloom continuously from March until late October. Of course, the best way to see the gardens is in person, but for those of you who are far away, here are a few views of the Woodland Garden taken one afternoon on a July day.
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The Woodland Garden can be approached by a shady garden path that winds up from our 1873 Carriage House. Along the way, you will cross a little bridge. The waiting groom will be able to watch the bride as she slowly ascends the stairs.
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The bride may choose to walk up these stairs to the Woodland Garden ceremony site.
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This is the Woodland Garden set for a ceremony. The officiant and groom wait for the bride in front of the rock waterfall.
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The gently flowing waterfall creates nature sounds behind the couple as they wed.
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This is a view from where the couple will stand to be wed.
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Here is another bride and groom's view from the Woodland Garden altar site. This view shows the lower pools of the Woodland Garden waterfall and the arched bridge leading over to our wedding tent.
Sally will be waiting to photograph the wedding party as they cross over the arched bridge into the Waterfall Garden. The newlyweds will sign their license, have a toast, and cut their first bite of cake there. Guests will be seated under the wedding tent. |
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402 Manitou Avenue
Manitou Springs, CO 80829
(800) 398-7949
(719) 685-3899
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