Text by Melanie Saxton | Photos by Frances Marron of Frances Photography

Sugar Land beauty Anna Kurkjian had no idea that she’d one day meet and marry a Colorado native. She attended Clements High School while Travis Talaric attended Monarch High in Louisville, Colorado, and, as luck would have it, both enrolled at Southern Methodist University. They hardly knew each other as undergraduates, but sparks flew during their fifth year on campus as they pursued master’s degrees in accounting. This led to a courtship, a proposal and an exquisite Colorado Springs wedding at Shove Chapel, followed by a breathtaking reception at the Broadmoor on Aug. 12, 2017.

The perfect pair left Anna’s Texas roots for the mountains of Colorado, where they now reside. Anna is employed as an accountant for Leprino Foods Company, and Travis is employed as a technical accounting consultant for KPMG.

 

First Date

Throughout their first four years of college, Travis was too intimidated to approach Anna and assumed she had hundreds of suitors chasing after her. But as they entered the graduate program, he crunched the numbers. Of the 50 males in their graduate program, he realized that 16 were in serious relationships, nine didn’t speak English, and at least three were interested in men, leaving Travis a 1 in 22 chance. He mustered all his courage, updated his Facebook profile picture, and sent Anna an invite to the Wine Wednesday event that Travis and his roommate Michael Shapleigh were hosting at their apartment.

Thankfully, things began to heat up quickly after Wine Wednesday. Travis’ mom visited him in Dallas, knowing full well that Anna was the girl he wanted to be with. He invited both to breakfast at Breadwinners and sat next to his mom instead of Anna. And thus, the first date went as awkwardly as he could have imagined.

 

Courtship

They tried another date – this time without his mom – and it went more smoothly. As Travis was quickly learning, it was better to let Anna plan what they were doing. At a coffee shop, she casually suggested that they see if there were any concerts playing in Dallas, and with a little research Travis discovered that Anna’s favorite band was playing that very night. Weeks later, he would realize that this was no coincidence, but rather a pre-orchestrated plan Anna had crafted.

Prior to leaving for the concert, Anna snuck Travis up onto the rooftop of the historic highrise in which the coffee shop was located for a sunset view behind the “South Side” marquee facing downtown Dallas. He became smitten, and an interesting and fun-filled courtship commenced. Throughout the next three-and-a-half years they
graduated, tried to maintain a long-distance relationship, and finally moved Anna out to Denver.

 

Proposal

Travis decided to trick Anna into going to Dallas to visit her best friend Melissa, who happened to live in the same building as the coffee shop. Melissa convinced Anna to dress up for a “girls night” and to go up on the roof for a drink or two. When Anna walked out onto the expansive rooftop, Travis was there waiting. He took her hand, led her right back under the “South Side” marquee, and got on a knee. Then he popped the question and immediately followed up with, “Don’t mind my dad hiding in the bushes to take pictures.”

 

Engagement

Their year-and-a-half long engagement was the perfect amount of time to plan the wedding. Hands down, their favorite part was the food tasting, which was a really good excuse to break their wedding diets.

 

The Wedding

The bride and groom envisioned an elegant ceremony amidst family and friends from their home states. The first night of the wedding weekend they greatly enjoyed a rehearsal dinner hosted by the groom’s parents at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, where guests fed giraffes at the cocktail party.

Bridal Party: Father David Price officiated with parents of the bride, Terri and Andy Kurkjian, and parents of the groom, Suzi and Jim Talaric, in attendance. Matron of honor Melissa Livingston stood with bridesmaids Jackie Wilcher, Mallorie Reynolds, Melanie Evans, Sarah Pritzlaff, Hayley Cook, Jennifer O’Neal, Caroline Sieber, Casey Talaric and Quinlan Talaric. EmiJayne Coffman served as the flower girl.

Best man Will Armijo stood with groomsmen Chris Vaughan, Scott Faulkner, Mitchell Rohrbach, Ian Hardman, Michael Shapleigh, Andy Nelson, Eric Yeash, Trevor Patch and Chris Kurkjian. Kellan Yeash and Fendley Kisner served as ring bearers.

Attire: The bride wore a full-length Badgley Mischka strapless satin gown with a sweetheart neckline, flowing skirt with pleating starting at the waistline, and the most unbelievable lace embroidery throughout the skirt down to the hem – a classic fairytale dress come to life. A full-length cathedral veil and Jimmy Choo peep toe heels with champagne sparkles completed the ensemble. Bridesmaids wore BHLDN fleur dresses in navy blue with crystal drop earrings.

The groom wore a black tuxedo and an OTAA linen bow tie. Groomsmen wore tuxedoes and linen OTAA bow ties.

Floral and Décor: The wedding colors of navy blue, silver, white and hints of blush were absolutely lovely at Shove Chapel, with candelabras, flowers along the pews, a floral runner for the altar table and a six-foot-long church railing garland with pops of flowers.

The bride’s bouquet included garden-inspired blush pink roses, ivory garden roses, blue café au lait dahlias, bombastic spray roses, astilbe and pops of Italian ruscus hand-tied with a beautiful ribbon to complement the wedding gown. Bridesmaids carried bouquets of white garden roses, white astilbe, cream spray roses and greenery. The groomsmen, grandfather, usher and two fathers wore boutonnieres of white ranunculus and Italian ruscus.

The Cake: A stunning five-tiered white vanilla bean cake was infused with Bailey’s Irish Creme, filled with toffee mouse, frosted in buttercream, embellished with bits of toffee pieces and topped with fresh flowers.

Top Wedding Moments: The groom anticipated that the moment he saw his bride would take his breath away. But the lights were shining directly in his eyes as the bride walked down the aisle, and he only saw her silhouette when she was about three feet from the altar. At that point he broke into a big smile and walked down the stairs to receive her from her father. Glancing down during the ceremony, the bride noticed that her groom was wearing Jabba the Hut Star Wars socks, always knowing how to get a laugh out of her!

 

The Reception

The couple’s love of dancing led them to Soul X, one of the top wedding bands in the state. They followed their wedding party into the reception and straight onto the dance floor for their romantic first dance to Into the Mystic by Van Morrison. They had practiced their moves a few weeks prior and hit every single step, which made the groom so excited that he forgot the dip at the end. Father and daughter danced to Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder. Mother and son danced to Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra.

A few of the younger guests snuck out onto the dance floor during dinner, and from that point forward it was never empty. In addition to traditional wedding dances, an “all father-daughter dance” had the bride’s mother and 93-year-old grandfather dancing to Daddy’s Little Girl, and the groom’s mother and grandfather danced as well. As the night wound down, the hotel brought pizzas out to the guests for a late-night snack. The band then played You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon so that their friend Al could lead the entire reception in a conga line.

Floral and Décor: The bride’s cousin Kelly Kurkjian designed the invitations, program, menu, escort cards and table numbers, which were placed in wood slice holders. A 40-foot wall of twinkling lights – a first for the Broadmoor – provided an extraordinary backdrop for the 40-person head table, which was adorned with a beautiful silver dollar eucalyptus garland with aspen leaves and pops of white flowers and candles. Silver chargers, Colorado antipasto platters, and vintage lanterns with white and blush pink florals, white hydrangea, blush garden roses, seeded eucalyptus, magi, blush/white astilbe and blush spray roses added festive touches to round tabletops. Beautiful menus and an Italian ruscus sprig were placed upon pocket-folded napkins. Centerpieces of silver mercury glass were filled with a low lush arrangements. In lieu of a traditional guest book, the couple collected signatures and well wishes in a Colorado coffee table book by John Fiedler.

Top reception moment: The Soul X Band surprised Anna and Travis by finishing with one of their favorite songs, Proud Mary, and invited the both of them up on the stage to belt out the lyrics. The couple left the reception feeling like rock stars!

The Exit: The reception lasted from 7 p.m. until midnight and concluded with an amazing sparkler send-off. Wedding guests lined the bridge crossing the lake behind the Broadmoor to light a path for Travis and his new bride.

The Honeymoon

The day following their wedding, the couple and their guests enjoyed a send-off lakeside brunch at the Broadmoor Lakeside Terrace. The newlyweds spent two days with family who had flown in to see them. The couple then flew by themselves to an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to spend their first week as a newly married couple without a worry in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MEMORABLE WEDDINGS

Anna and Travis