Nicki Thee & Jake Ehrlich

Nicki and Jake gathered their closest friends and family for their wedding at Bella Vista.

Wedding stories Nicki Thee & Jake Ehrlich Saturday, September 1, 2020

Nate Shepard Photography www.nateshepard.com

Steamboat Springs locals Nicki Thee and Jake Ehrlich got engaged in quite possibly the most quintessentially Steamboat way – at the top of Chute 1 at the Steamboat Ski Area. The avidly outdoorsy couple had spent that morning exploring the backcountry on snowmobiles, which they followed up with Jake’s proposal at the top of the iconic Steamboat ski run.

Nicki, originally from Pennsylvania, and Jake, from Greeley, met during their studies at the University of Utah. Leading up to their fall 2020 wedding, they settled on Pink Diamond Events as the wedding planners and began working out the details with owner/principal planner Casey Muller. Due to the pandemic, the couple had to postpone their wedding from June 12 to Sept. 1, but Nicki says Casey made the months of constant adjustments stress-free. “We had a lot of changes due to COVID, but she presented a lot of options,” Nicki says. “It was nice having Casey because she talked to all the vendors and gave us options, so all we had

to do was just pick from them.” Nicki and Jake chose Timber & Torch, located at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area, for the rehearsal dinner. The couple had originally planned to invite 150 guests to their wedding, but trimmed that number to 90 due to the pandemic. “We were OK with The couple's dog, Ryder, wears a downsizing – the group wreath at the ceremony. was small enough at the rehearsal dinner that we could all sit at the base with plenty of room,” Nicki says. The week before the wedding, Nicki and Jake drove up to Buffalo Pass just outside of Steamboat to collect aspen branches that had fallen in a recent wind storm. The following week, Jake constructed an arch out of the branches, which Linden Co. Floristry decorated with flowers for the ceremony. The day of the wedding, Brio Salon met with Nicki and her bridesmaids to take care of hair and makeup leading up to the 3:30 p.m. ceremony. Nate Sheperd snapped photos as the day went on and the party made its way to Bella Vista, where the couple and their guests celebrated with a cocktail hour on the back porch. The ceremony was officiated by a lifelong friend of Jake’s who grew up skiing with him in Steamboat – a fitting

choice, as the couple shared many friends during the nine years they dated leading up to the wedding. “It was amazing having all of our friends and family together in Steamboat,” Nicki says.

One of the couple’s favorite moments was when Nicki’s mother walked their dog Ryder down the aisle. A family style dinner, put together by chef Lulu Cox of Amuse Bouche, consisted of salmon, steak and locally sourced fare. At the end of the night, the whole wedding party made use of the perfect September weather and jumped into the Bella Vista pool. While fires and smoke were a concern in fall of 2020, Nicki says that the conditions cleared up just in time for their wedding celebration.

While COVID put a damper on Nicki and Jake’s original plan for

The intimate size of Nicki and Jake's wedding allowed them to spend quality time with their friends, including the wedding party.

Jake and Nicki stand at the Bella Vista overlook, with the valley spread out below them.

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Jake and his groomsmen jump for joy at Bella Vista.

a honeymoon ski trip to Japan, they turned the situation into a positive and followed up the wedding with a paddleboarding trip down the Colorado River with a group of friends.

Nicki and Jake live in Steamboat, with Nicki currently in nursing school at Colorado Mountain College and Jake working toward starting his own bike suspension company.

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Planner: Casey Muller, Pink Diamond Events Rehearsal dinner: Timber & Torch Transportation: Go Alpine l