Overview

On August 2, 2025 St. John Media traveled from Philadelphia to Colorado to document Marissa and Nic’s intimate mountain elopement at Brainard Lake, a breathtaking alpine destination nestled in the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Colorado.

Joey St. John and Kiernan Gallagher first met the couple at a Wilmington wedding expo, where they learned about their unique wedding plans. Rather than hosting a traditional ceremony and reception on the same day, Marissa and Nic envisioned exchanging their vows in the Colorado mountains before returning to Pennsylvania several months later for a larger celebration with family and friends.

The production would take place across two states, beginning with an intimate lakeside ceremony in Colorado and culminating in a wedding reception at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.

What made this wedding particularly special was the couple’s decision to share their Colorado elopement film with approximately 200 guests during their Pennsylvania reception, allowing everyone to experience the ceremony even though they hadn't been there in person.

Planning a Destination Elopement in the Colorado Mountains

Destination weddings and elopements require a different level of preparation, particularly when filming in remote mountain environments.

Joey St. John and Kiernan Gallagher flew from Philadelphia International Airport to Denver, Colorado, before traveling to Boulder, where they stayed for three days to prepare for the production.

Arriving early gave St. John Media an opportunity to explore the surrounding area, scout the ceremony location, evaluate camera positions, and plan how to capture the wedding against the dramatic mountain landscape.

Brainard Lake, located within the Indian Peaks region of Colorado's Front Range, provided an extraordinary setting for an intimate wedding ceremony. Surrounded by towering mountain peaks, alpine forests, and reflective water, the location offered a completely different visual environment from the traditional wedding venues St. John Media frequently films throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

The team captured scenic B-roll of the surrounding landscape and aerial footage to help establish the setting and create a cinematic introduction to Marissa and Nic’s wedding film.

By taking the time to scout the location ahead of the ceremony, Joey and Kiernan could focus on documenting the couple’s experience rather than navigating an unfamiliar environment on the wedding day.

An Intimate Wedding Ceremony at Brainard Lake

Marissa and Nic exchanged their vows along the water at Brainard Lake, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Unlike a traditional wedding ceremony with rows of guests and a large wedding party, their elopement offered a much more intimate experience, allowing the focus to remain entirely on the couple and their commitment to one another.

St. John Media approached the ceremony with multiple camera angles, carefully positioned tripods, and wireless lavalier microphones to capture both the stunning surroundings and the personal words exchanged during their vows.

Capturing clean audio was particularly important. With the ceremony taking place outdoors in a mountain environment, the team needed to preserve the couple's voices while maintaining the natural atmosphere of the location.

Joey St. John and Kiernan Gallagher worked together to document the ceremony from complementary perspectives, combining wide cinematic compositions of the mountain landscape with closer shots that emphasized the emotion of the moment.

The result was a ceremony that felt both incredibly personal and visually expansive, with the Colorado mountains providing a spectacular backdrop.

A Wedding Cake and Personal Stories in the Mountains

Following the ceremony, Marissa and Nic continued their celebration at a nearby gazebo, where they shared a small wedding cake.

It was a simple, meaningful moment that reflected the intimate nature of their elopement.

Rather than moving directly into a large reception, the couple had an opportunity to enjoy the experience together while surrounded by the scenery that had brought them to Colorado in the first place.

During this time, Joey and Kiernan also captured conversations with Marissa and Nic about their relationship, including stories about how they met and the experiences that brought them together.

These personal reflections became an important storytelling element in the finished wedding film.

By incorporating the couple's own voices into the edit, St. John Media was able to create something more personal than a traditional chronological wedding video.

Their stories helped connect the scenic mountain footage, ceremony, and quieter moments into a cohesive narrative that reflected their relationship and the meaning behind their decision to elope in Colorado.

Bringing the Colorado Elopement to Bear Creek Mountain Resort

Several months after their Colorado ceremony, Marissa and Nic celebrated their marriage with approximately 200 family members and friends at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.

The reception provided a completely different atmosphere from their intimate mountain elopement.

While the Colorado ceremony had been a quiet, personal experience, the Pennsylvania reception gave the couple an opportunity to celebrate with the larger group of people who were important to them.

One of the most memorable moments of the evening came when a large projection screen descended in front of the guests.

St. John Media had completed the Colorado wedding film in advance, allowing Marissa and Nic to premiere their elopement video during the reception.

For many of the guests, this was their first opportunity to see the couple exchange vows in the Rocky Mountains.

The film transported the room back to Brainard Lake, showcasing the alpine scenery, lakeside ceremony, personal stories, and intimate moments that had taken place months earlier.

What had originally been a private experience between Marissa and Nic became something they could share with everyone gathered to celebrate their marriage.

Connecting Two Wedding Celebrations Through Film

One of the most distinctive aspects of Marissa and Nic's wedding was how their celebration unfolded across two different locations and two separate occasions.

The Colorado elopement allowed the couple to exchange their vows in an extraordinary natural setting, while the Pennsylvania reception gave them the opportunity to celebrate their marriage with a much larger group of family and friends.

For St. John Media, the project demonstrated how wedding filmmaking can connect experiences that might otherwise remain separate.

Joey St. John and Kiernan Gallagher approached the Colorado production with the understanding that the footage would eventually be shared with an audience that had not attended the ceremony.

That made storytelling especially important.

The combination of aerial footage, mountain scenery, carefully recorded vows, personal interviews, and intimate moments helped create a film that could stand on its own while also serving as the centerpiece of the couple's Pennsylvania reception.

Rather than simply showing guests what happened in Colorado, the goal was to help them feel connected to the experience.

Telling a Wedding Story Across Two States

Marissa and Nic's wedding was a reminder that not every celebration needs to follow a traditional format.

From meeting the couple at a Wilmington wedding expo to traveling from Philadelphia to Colorado, filming their ceremony at Brainard Lake, and later sharing the finished film with approximately 200 guests at Bear Creek Mountain Resort, St. John Media had the opportunity to document a wedding story that unfolded in two very different environments.

The project combined destination wedding filmmaking, cinematic landscape footage, professional ceremony audio, personal storytelling, and a reception film premiere into one connected experience.

For Joey St. John and Kiernan Gallagher, it was an opportunity to demonstrate how thoughtful planning and cinematic storytelling can preserve the emotion of an intimate elopement while making that experience accessible to a much larger audience.

The finished film became more than a record of Marissa and Nic's wedding ceremony. It became the connection between their private mountain vows and the celebration they later shared with family and friends back home in Pennsylvania.

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