Wedding Pink Blog - The Latest News + Updates!
We have posted a full gallery of Sabrina and Rex’s wedding photos. It was such a beautiful day and wedding for a special couple.
You may see the full gallery here. Scroll towards the bottom of the page.
Sabrina and Rex had their first glimpse at their wedding venue, Spruce Mountain Ranch in Larkspur, CO. It’s a stunning venue and a perfect fit for their October wedding. Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings went over all of the details of their big day plus they had an opportunity to tour the entire venue including their ceremony site, reception room and where they will be dancing under the stars. Wow, we cannot wait!!
Ceremony site at Spruce Mountain Ranch.
Inside the Colorado Room where guests will enjoy cocktail hour.
Sabrina also had a chance to meet up with Cynthia Mazzara of Magnifica Bella for a makeup trial. Cynthia is a master at her craft and Sabrina is one lucky lady to have Cynthia do her wedding day makeup.
Cynthia putting the final touches on Sabrina during her makeup trial.
I had the pleasure of joining Sabrina and Rex for their tasting at Relish Catering today. It was simply amazing. The dinner and appetizer menu is all set and it’s hard to believe the wedding is in less than 5 months. We are all excited to share in their special day!
I was fortunate enough to join Sabrina and Rex along with Ann Marlin from Cloud 9 Weddings for a few of the vendor meetings. We are always appreciative of our vendors who go above and beyond to make The Wedding Pink a special day.
We met with Janelle from A Design Resource (florals), Chris the DJ from Elite Entertainment and Lisa from A Cake Come True. Who doesn’t like cake tasting on a Thursday afternoon? It was amazingly delicious!
Next up is the wedding dress! It’s another one of our favorite days to share with the bride and her family. Stay tuned for photos.
We are very excited to introduce you to our 2019 Wedding Pink couple, Sabrina and Rex! We were extremely moved by their story and immediately fell in love with them both. Because they are such incredible people, we decided to forgo the submission period and surprised them with the wedding as an early Valentine’s Day gift. Sabrina is a breast cancer survivor and Rex is decorated retired Marine. They have supported each other through so many of life's challenges and have been able to come out on the other side as loving best friends. They also actively give back to our community in too many ways to count. We are excited to bring Sabrina and Rex into The Wedding Pink family and cannot wait for their wedding October 17 at Spruce Mountain Ranch. It’s going to be beautiful!
Sabrina and Rex, upon learning that they were chosen for The Wedding Pink 2019.
More about The Wedding Pink couple can be found here. We hope you will follow along with Sabrina and Rex’s wedding planning journey. Stay tuned to our blog and Facebook page for updates!
A nice little surprise landed in my inbox yesterday. Cure (curetoday.com) has published a lovely article about The Wedding Pink. We are very honored.
You may read the full article here.
It's hard to believe that a month has passed since our beautiful wedding day. In looking back over the last year, we're so grateful to have been chosen for this experience. It was an enormous blessing in our lives and a time that we will cherish for years to come.
When we applied in November 2017, we didn't actually believe that we could be the chosen couple. It's like buying a lottery ticket-- it's fun to dream about winning, but you don't think that you'll actually win the jackpot. The shock and awe that we felt upon finding out that we had been chosen stayed with us throughout the planning process. It's hard to feel worthy of such a spectacular gift, but we are so thankful that The Wedding Pink chose us.
From our first visit to Denver in March of 2018, we knew that this would be a wonderful experience. During our first meetings, our wedding planner, Ann Marlin, was a pleasure to work with and made made everything so easy for us. During that trip, we saw our amazing venue-to-be at The Sanctuary golf course in Sedalia, met with our florist Janelle, selected a wedding dress at The Bridal Collection, and worked with our wonderful photographer, Katie Van Buren. Liz even had a chance to do a makeup trial with Cynthia of Magnifica Bella and felt so beautiful on the day of the engagement photos. It was such fun to meet Cheryl, Melissa, and other members of The Wedding Pink family. We felt very welcomed into this wonderful community.
On our second planning trip in July 2018, we worked on further details for the big day, including meeting with Rev. Kim Tavendale, who worked closely with us to ensure that our ceremony would be perfect. We also loved meeting Chris, our DJ from Elite Entertainment, and Turi Gustafson, who helped to customize the music for our ceremony and reception. We also got to meet with our awesome caterers from Relish Catering, and Lee's favorite part of the whole experience was tasting the delicious cakes with Lisa from A Cake Come True. We topped off the visit with a meet-and-greet with our vendors at Kendra Scott Jewelry, where we loved visiting with everyone and celebrating over wine and cheese.
When it was time for the wedding day, we couldn't have asked for a better experience. It was a beautiful Colorado fall day with clear skies and a chill in the air. While everyone says that your wedding day is never perfect, it truly was perfect in our eyes. From the lovely ceremony to a delicious dinner and a raging dance party, we had a blast with all of our family and friends in attendance. Throughout the day, we felt excited, grateful, and so happy to be there. All of our vendors, Ann, and The Wedding Pink team worked tirelessly to make it a beautiful, stress-free experience for us, and we are forever grateful to everyone involved. Many thanks to The Wedding Pink for making this possible for us and for future couples in the years to come.
Liz and Lee
Liz and Lee, the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2018
What an amazing day. Beautiful bride, lovely weather, everything was perfect. Here is a sneak peek of images. A full gallery of photos coming soon, please stay tuned.
Thank you to our fabulous photographers, Katie Van Buren and Paige Eden.
We are pleased to announce that Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings has joined our board of directors as Co Vice President. She has been an integral part of The Wedding Pink since 2013 and we are thrilled to have her on our team.
Ann is the CEO and Lead Designer at Cloud 9 Weddings. She has been planning weddings and events since 2000. She brings extensive event planning experience, enthusiasm and fresh ideas to every wedding and event.
Ann has planned and executed over 300 weddings at most every popular Denver-area venue including out of state weddings and has relationships with the finest wedding and event vendors.
Liz and Lee were in town recently to wrap up wedding planning before their big day. So much was accomplished as they had the pleasure of meeting with quite a few vendors including Cloud 9 Weddings, A Design Resource, A Cake Come True, Elite Entertainment, Erin Ferris (fabulous hair stylist), Relish Catering, Kendra Scott, Rev Kim Tavendale, Men's Wearhouse and Hipster Mama Productions.
I was fortunate to join in on the catering tasting at Relish. Wow, is all I have to say! So yummy!
Kendra Scott in Cherry Creek hosted our meet and greet with Liz and Lee. They were also gracious to donate 20% of the proceeds from the evening back to Wedding Pink. Thank you to Cynthia Mazzara of Magnifica Bella, Rev Kim Tavendale and everyone else who came out to join us!
Lee and Liz, the recipients of The Wedding Pink; Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings; Cheryl Ungar and Melissa Childs of The Wedding Pink.
We were so happy to receive Liz and Lee's engagement photos from Katie Van Buren of Van Buren Photography. They are all very beautiful and we can't wait to share them with you. Here is a sneak peek, the full gallery can be viewed here.
As the first bride to be awarded this amazing gift, and also a member of the board of The Wedding Pink, I have been lucky enough to witness many beautiful moments throughout this journey. So far, we have helped eight couples by giving them their dream weddings, right here in Colorado. One of my favorite parts of The Wedding Pink process is wedding dress shopping. Our brides have graciously allowed me to join in their once-in-a-lifetime experience, and for that I’m so grateful. I’ve met mothers, sisters, best friends, and it really makes me feel like we’re all one big family. Our “Pink Family” as Cheryl Ungar, our founder, likes to call it.
For the second year in a row, we have been lucky enough to partner with The Bridal Collection for our wedding dress needs. Last year, The Bridal Collection graciously donated two beautiful gowns to our 2017 bride, Laurie, and her wife Jessie. Jordan was our stylist and she was able to find two dresses that perfectly matched each of our brides’ personalities.
Liz trying on dresses at The Bridal Collection
This year Jordan was at it again, helping our 2018 bride, Liz, find her dream dress. Liz was in town from the East Coast last week doing some wedding planning with our rockstar wedding planner Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings. While The Wedding Pink is a Denver-based non-profit, we accept submissions from all over the country. Because we needed to fit as much planning into one weekend as we possibly could, The Bridal Collection was tasked with the tough job of getting Liz to “Say Yes to the Dress” in one 90-minute appointment. Jordan was up for the challenge. She would come sweeping through the sitting area under a mountain of fabric, pulling the dressing room curtain closed, while we sat with baited breath, waiting for Liz to come out in each dress. Jordan dazzled us with fancy words like moonstone, Swarovski, and French lace. It’s clear that she really knows her stuff. While each dress was gorgeous in its own unique way, we all knew Liz had found her dress when she came out with tears in her eyes. We all knew it was the one. The Madison James stunner of a dress was absolutely gorgeous on Liz. I know she can’t wait for her big day where she will forever be joined to her fiancé, Lee in October at The Sanctuary Golf Course in Sedalia.
Liz says Yes to the Dress with a little help from her BFF
Our happy bride Liz has selected a dress with the help of her BFF; Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings; Melissa Childs, 2011 Wedding Pink bride and the fabulous stylist Jordan from The Bridal Collection.
Our appointment at The Bridal Collection was my first time meeting Liz in person, but I couldn’t help but feel emotional myself. After all, what does a wedding dress represent? It signifies love, commitment, and unity. But for our brides, who are also breast cancer survivors, the wedding dress is a reminder to us that we fought through something horrific and we came out on the other side, survivors. We live to see another day and we get to experience a wedding with the love of our lives. For a brief second, we forget what we went through, and bask in the realization that our wedding day is approaching. As we wear this wedding dress down the aisle, everyone’s eyes are on us, yet our eyes are firmly fixed on the one person in our lives who has been in the trenches with us; our support system who loves us for who we are – scars and all. The wedding dress makes us feel like a princess. In the mirror, we don’t see a cancer patient. We see a bride ready to start our lives with our one true love. We are eternally grateful for The Bridal Collection’s continued support of The Wedding Pink and for helping our brides’ dreams come true. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
~Melissa Childs, Board Member, The Wedding Pink
We are beyond thrilled to introduce Liz and Lee, the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2018. We look forward to following their wedding planning journey leading up to their big day on October 25 at the Sanctuary Golf Course in Sedalia, Colorado.
You may read more about Liz and Lee here.
The winners of The Wedding Pink 2018 will be announced tomorrow live on Denver's Channel 7 The Now during the 4:00 hour. They livestream the newscast here: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/live
Please tune in to meet the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2018!
We are thrilled to have wrapped up our 7th annual Wedding Pink. Despite an unexpected and unusual May snow storm it was a beautiful wedding. Here is a sneak peek of Laurie and Jessie's special day.
A gigantic thank you to Ali & Garrett Photographers for their beautiful photographs.
As most of you know Laurie and Jessie were recently in town to meet with vendors and plan their upcoming wedding. One of the stops they made was to pick out dresses at The Bridal Collection. We wanted to extend a huge thank you to them as they donated brand new dresses to both of the ladies. We all had a fun experience watching them try on and pick out their special dresses. Don't worry, we aren't spoiling the surprise. The dresses that they picked are not shown below.
We recently asked Melissa and Rich, the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2015, to share their thoughts and experiences of being awarded the wedding. In case you are new to our blog Melissa and Rich had a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception at the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver this past June.
Photo by Hardy Klahold Photography
Reminiscing about our wedding gives us great joy. We were only engaged for a short time and never imagined receiving the amazing gifted wedding from The Wedding Pink. From the very beginning we felt that it was a whirlwind of excitement because we learnt that we were going to be working with amazing vendors in the local area. The vendors were very nice and helpful in assisting us to see the vision of our dream wedding come true. They truly helped us incorporate every idea to assist in making this one memorable and unforgettable event. We never felt pressure to conform to a certain idea or vision of anyone else, but rather we were allowed to really individualize and personalize every detail needed for a once in a life time event. All the vendors listened to our desires and helped create the wedding of our dreams. Throughout the process, Ms. Cheryl Ungar was present for each vendor meeting and whole heartedly invested her time with us to help ensure time frames were met and details were completed, so that the process would be a smooth one. From cake tasting to food tasting, creating our invitations to picking out the perfect flowers, working with The Wedding Pink was a joyful experience. We are very grateful and humbled to have been provided this opportunity.
Each day, we remember the happiness of our wedding day. Being married at the Brown Palace, was a dream come true and beyond our imagination. The Wedding Pink allowed us to start our lives together on a high note.
There was so much joy, laughter and tears that came from entire experience. One would never realize that a cancer diagnosis could lead to so many positive things such as our beautiful wedding and new found friend! We cannot thank The Wedding Pink and Ms. Ungar enough for the generous gift they bestowed upon us.
-- Melissa and Rich
Brown Palace Hotel - host of The Wedding Pink 2015
A reminder that submissions are open August 1-10 for the 5th annual Wedding Pink to be held next May at the historic Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver.
This is an opportunity for one deserving couple whose lives have been impacted by breast cancer to be awarded a dream wedding, nearly cost free and valued at over $40,000. We encourage anyone who meets our submission criteria to submit their story.
Everything for the wedding is donated, including the wedding planner, a catered reception, cake, flowers, photographers, DJ, wedding dress and much more. A complete list of contributing vendors, submission guidelines and the submission form can be found here.
Erika, the recipient of The Wedding Pink 2014 (photo by Van Buren Photography & M Photography)
It’s early July and I am still floating on air from our wedding that took place on May 15 of this year. As I sit here, I reflect on memories of the day and events surrounding it with an ear-to-ear grin. In one word, it was “perfection”.
To think that a year ago I had no idea what The Wedding Pink was or who any of the beautiful people that swept so gallantly into my life to give it to me were. I was engaged to a wonderful man, and I had short hair and a new outlook on life thanks to my cancer battle that had taken place the year before. My fiancé Mike, who is from New Zealand, and I did not have the slightest clue as to how to pull off our dream wedding in the wake of my illness and the tumult that accompanies it. We were shelling out almost $800 a month for my health insurance and just trying to get our feet on the ground after a big move from NYC to the Midwest.
We knew that above all, we wanted to bring our families together. Between the both of us, we have family members on three continents, spanning multiple countries. How many opportunities, we asked ourselves, would there be to bring everyone together like this over our lifetimes? Not many. But when it came down to it, we could not piece together a proper celebration with the budget we had and the energy we lacked. It became a source of stress and difficulty for us. We were so excited to get married, but completely lacked the resources to accomplish the task.
Enter: The Wedding Pink. I was at camp with First Descents (another brilliant cancer organization that does adventure trips for young adult survivors) when one of my camp-mates asked me about my engagement and if I had plans for a wedding yet. “Don’t ask!” I said jokingly, explaining the situation. She asked me if I had ever heard of The Wedding Pink and told me a fellow breast cancer survivor friend of hers had won it last year. We jumped on the computer to check the submission date for the next wedding and it happened to be the week after we returned from camp.
From that moment on, everything felt serendipitous. I submitted our story, with its twists and turns and genuine hope that we would be called for an interview. And we were. When we were told that we had won the wedding, I distinctly recall Mike and I hanging up the phone, looking at each other with the widest eyes, falling and laughing on the couch for about 20 minutes straight. “WHAT!! THIS IS AMAZING!!” we could not stop saying. It was.
Meeting Cheryl Ungar, the survivor that founded The Wedding Pink, was like meeting an old friend. Cheryl’s heart and soul soar with her work on this wedding giveaway and she does it out of the absolute kindness of her own heart. There is no reward for her except in bringing joy to others and it is a very special person that can offer that to others so selflessly.
Her entire team of vendors is of that same ilk. People often assumed when I told them I won a wedding that I had to just fall in line with whatever was decided for me. This could not be farther from the truth. When I met with Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings and her fabulous team, we were immediately assured that everyone participating in this wanted to give us OUR dream wedding – not a cookie-cutter version of things they decided for us. They asked us our style, got a sense of our personalities, figured out what our likes and dislikes were and did nothing without asking us twice before making decisions.
The day was, as I said, perfect. We were married at Crooked Willow Farms, an absolutely stunning location south of Denver. I described it to people as a country chic, which was just excellent for Mike and myself: a little bit rustic, but absolutely upscale and gorgeous.
When I walked down the aisle to see my future husband standing there and looked around the room at all of the people that had made the journey to Colorado from literally all over the world, my heart swelled. This was not just about our union, but it was so much more. It was a celebration of life, of love, of family and friends. It was an excuse to have a full day of utter bliss and happiness with no worries. For a cancer survivor, that is the greatest gift.
The Wedding Pink is the most remarkable cancer organization I have known, in the sense that it offers something truly unique – it has been said to be a silver lining after a dark cloud and that could not be truer. Winning the wedding in my post-cancer haze could not have offered a better point of focus for me, a point of happy distraction and an opportunity to look FORWARD to something wonderful, rather than dwelling consistently on what had passed.
We will always look back on the day with fondness and full hearts. There has been no greater gift to us, besides our health and happiness, that has come our way. The Wedding Pink and the team of vendors behind it are truly, truly special.
