110+ of the best small wedding venues in Colorado, curated by a local photographer with experience from over 275+ elopements and intimate weddings. This guide includes affordable venues and ceremony sites on public lands, outdoor venues with epic mountain views, luxury boutique hotels, unique elopement venues, vacation rental homes, and traditional venues that offer elopement and micro-wedding packages—something for everyone!

Small weddings and elopements have become increasingly popular in the past couple of years, and I think the trend that started as a way to get around group size restrictions during the pandemic is here to stay. Whether you are planning a micro-wedding for 30 people or a casual elopement weekend with only your immediate families there to celebrate with you, this guide will help you find the perfect small wedding venue in Colorado.

Micro wedding in Breckenridge Colorado

While you’ll find other guides listing just about every venue in the whole state, I’m focusing on venues that are actually a good fit for smaller weddings, and have intentionally left out many venues that I love because they would feel too big for anything less than a traditional wedding. My goal with this guide is to help you see all the beautiful options available in Colorado—without wasting your time on venues that I’d never actually recommend to one of my couples.

If you’re planning your micro wedding from out of state, you might be wondering where in Colorado to start your search. I recommend reading my post about the best places to elope in Colorado—the info about each town is just the same for small weddings, and should give you a good idea of what makes each mountain town special.

Small weddings on public lands

Outdoor wedding venue at Maroon Bells Amphitheater in Aspen, Colorado
Maroon Bells Amphitheater

Looking for an affordable small wedding venue in Colorado? Even micro weddings can quickly become expensive when you add up the cost of a venue, food and beverage, and all your vendors. If you want to save some money, focus on what matters most to you two—whether that’s the views, the food, or the photography—and prioritize spending most of your budget on those things while saving elsewhere.

The cheapest ceremony venues are always going to be ones on public lands, and they usually don’t include much beyond the use of the space for anywhere from an hour to the whole day. The cheapest options for receptions are picnic shelters, pavilions, and properties rented out by the town or county. A picnic shelter might not seem like a wedding venue, but consider hiring a day of coordinator to help you style the space with rentals. It’s incredible how high-end picnic tables can feel when you add the right fabrics and tableware. With this combination you can book a beautiful ceremony space and a space to celebrate with everyone afterwards for between $75-2000.

Affordable micro wedding venues

Evergreen Lake House wedding ceremony
Evergreen Lake House

Looking for something a bit more established than the venues on public lands? The following venues are all affordable compared to other options across Colorado, but provide more privacy than venues on public lands. And while “affordable” is subjective, these venues are all in the $1000-6000 range.

My favorite micro wedding venues

Small wedding at Gold Mountain Ranch in Ouray, Colorado
Gold Mountain Ranch

These venues are all a perfect fit for smaller weddings, with between 15-50 guests depending on the venue. It’s not just that the venues are smaller, but you can feel how they’ve been intentionally made for gatherings of this size. These are venues that I’ll wholeheartedly recommend to my own couples, and I’m always stoked to photograph weddings here.

Luxury wedding venues

Dunton Hot Springs in winter
Dunton Hot Springs

Looking for a truly one-of-a-kind micro wedding experience? These luxury wedding venues might be perfect for you. But if you’re spending $20,000-80,000 on a venue, I highly recommend that you book a local wedding planner first, who can help with everything from budgeting to vendor management. A good planner will save you money in the long run, and make sure you can enjoy the whole experience without stressing about the details. (Need a planner? Reach out and I’m happy to recommend my favorites!)

Big venues with micro wedding packages

Piney River Ranch small wedding venue in Colorado
Piney River Ranch

Traditional wedding venues are made for anywhere from 100-300+ guests, and can feel cavernous for a wedding where the guest count is much lower. (Some online guides recommend venues like Devil’s Thumb Ranch, which has a starting price well over $100,000, or Lunch Rock at Winter Park Resort, which has a minimum of 75 guests for all receptions. I don’t want to waste your time with those.)

Ever since the pandemic, many larger venues in Colorado have started offering elopement packages as a more affordable alternative. These are usually only available Mon-Thu, and sometimes only in the off-season (late fall through early spring), and allow for a smaller number of guests than their normal packages. The venues I’ve included here are ones that I think would work well for a smaller wedding.

Ceremony venues

Wedding ceremony at San Sophia Overlook in Telluride
San Sophia Overlook

Some of the most coveted ceremony venues in Colorado are located at our ski resorts. While the reception venues are often too big for micro weddings, it can be worth reserving a ceremony deck for the incredible views—and the experience of riding a ski lift or gondola up to get married. Some resorts do offer

If you’re planning a small wedding in Colorado, I bet you’d like sweeping mountain views for your ceremony backdrop. These outdoor venues all have great ceremony views, and range from the foothills of Boulder up to the top of ski resorts in the mountains. The ski resorts wedding venues are usually a bit more pricey, even for small weekday weddings, but you can’t beat the experience of having your guests ride a gondola or ski lift to your ceremony! And you can always do a ski elopement for just the two of you first, then head to a separate venue for your reception.

Venues with lodging

LGBTQ+ wedding at Surf Hotel in Buena Vista
Surf Hotel & Chateau

If you are coming to Colorado from out-of-state to get married, what better way to celebrate than with a small wedding at a venue that can host your ceremony, celebrations, and lodging all in one? These boutique hotels and resorts all have ceremony sites, private dining rooms, and lodging options perfect for small weddings. Denver also has a large amount of hotels that offer micro-weddings, but you will have to drive somewhere else for mountain views.

Restaurants with private dining

Surf Hotel Buena Vista wedding venue
Wesley & Rose

Many of my couples want to combine a private elopement ceremony with a dinner celebration with their guests. If you’re looking for somewhere to host a group of people for dinner, but don’t need a ceremony space, booking a private dining room at a restaurant is the perfect solution. Some restaurants are small enough to offer full buyouts for weddings, while others have private dining rooms or patios that you can reserve. While many restaurants have a food and beverage minimum spend for private events, this still ends up being more affordable than paying for a traditional venue and catering on top of venue fees. I’m also including breweries and distilleries with private event spaces here!

Vacation rental venues

Vacation rental wedding in Colorado

Vacation rental homes like vrbo and Airbnb are the perfect venues for couples who want a down-to-earth, chill wedding day with their closest friends and family. Colorado mountain towns have lots of large homes to choose from, and these can easily be combined with an outdoor ceremony in nature, or an epic hike for couples portraits.

Stay together for a long-weekend, book a private chef to prepare dinner for everyone, and enjoy the celebrations without having to worry about driving back to your lodging at the end of the night. Just make sure that you rent a vacation home that allows events! For more on how to plan a small wedding at a vacation rental, check out my guide to airbnb and vrbo weddings here. I also have a whole guide to my favorite properties that allow events here, but below are a handful of my favorites.

When do you need a venue for your small wedding?

Woods Walk wedding in Crested Butte
Woods Walk

If you plan to have more than 10-15 people at your wedding, including yourselves, guests, and vendors, you’ll want to reserve a ceremony site or book a small venue. Most free locations in nature have strict rules on the number of people allowed in a group, and you don’t want your ceremony interrupted by a park ranger because you unknowingly broke those rules. It’s also hard to guarantee parking and privacy at most public trails in Colorado.

With a small wedding venue, you have the perfect place to celebrate your marriage without worrying about tourists and hikers gawking in the background, or not having all your guests be able to get parking at a trailhead. Some couples book a ceremony site in nature, then celebrate at a vacation home rental afterwards. Others prefer to book a venue where they can have both the ceremony and reception all at the same place.

And if you’re dreaming about those epic Colorado mountain views for your couples portraits, book a local photographer before you book your venue! That way we can help you find a venue that’s close enough to a hike or scenic area for you to get the best of both worlds.

When can you elope without a venue?

Sunrise hiking elopement in Colorado

While the rules around group size varies from place to place, you can generally find an epic place to elope in nature without needing to reserve a ceremony site or pay for a permit if you have less than 10-15 people in your group, including yourselves and all guests and vendors. It’s really important to respect these limits, as bringing large groups onto public lands can be harmful to the environment and go against Leave Not Trace principles.

The rules for special use permits can be complicated, so I highly recommend finding a local photographer in the area where you want to elope first, and we’ll help you find the perfect location and navigate any permits and rules. (Oh hey, I’m one of those photographers!) You can learn more in my Colorado elopement guide.

4 Comments

  1. Hello, I’m looking for a wedding venue for around 50-75 guests, that allows our dog. We’re looking for somewhere within an hour of Denver, but not in Denver. Can you please send me some options? Thank you!

    Reply

    1. That’s the kind of research I do for my booked couples. I unfortunately don’t have the time to spend hours putting together venue options for couples I’m not directly working with beyond what you can already find on my blog 🙂

      Reply

    1. Thanks Traci! There are so many good venues out here, but many of them can be hard to find!

      Reply

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