Mary Chloe Ourisman was out having dinner with a friend when she first matched with Timothy Carey on Bumble. “I told her I had matched with my future husband,” Mary Chloe recalls. “We were both from D.C., loved D.C. sports, loved to ski, and had the same job, so we had a lot to talk about.” (They both work in product strategy for tech companies.) And even though Mary Chloe spotted their compatibility immediately, funnily enough, Tim didn’t ask her out on a date, rather he suggested the two “network.” “It makes him cringe to this day,” she admits. Their “networking” event started out at a brewery, extended into dinner, and a year and some change later, the two became engaged.
When looking for their wedding venue, the couple was slightly limited by the large number of guests they wanted to invite. “One of the things that was really important to me was our guests feeling a sense of community at the wedding,” she explains. Thankfully, the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek offered just that. “All of our guests stayed at the hotel and everything was within five minute walking distance. The end result was that a ton of people made new friends and all of our guests got to mingle a bunch.”
For help with the planning, they hired Allison Jackson of Pineapple Productions and together worked on creating a unique aesthetic, inspired by Southwestern patterns and themes. “Given the Colorado backdrop of the wedding, it was really easy to draw inspiration from the scenery and the classically Western elements that surrounded us,” she adds.
While grooms usually find their looks easily while brides fret for months searching for their dress, in the case of this couple, the opposite occurred. “All of the outfit drama came from Tim,” Mary Chloe says. While she found and bought her dress, a long-sleeved lace Lela Rose design, on her very first shopping trip, Tim agonized over his suit’s color options and styles for months. “He purchased and returned three different suits!” the bride recalls. “About four weeks before the wedding, he still didn’t have anything to wear and was basically out of options. His mother and I marched him down to Suit Supply where we found the perfect gray suit.”
The ceremony was set up under a see-through tent on the lawn outside of the Park Hyatt. Instead of an altar, the couple stood under a deconstructed tepee, and hops, flowers, and Southwestern rugs decorated the rest of the space. “We wrote our own vows, and my brother was our officiant,” explains Mary Chloe. “He did such an amazing job at making the ceremony meaningful and personal. He was also hysterical! Afterwards people asked me if that’s what he did for a living—it isn’t.”
After they were declared husband and wife, the newlyweds and their guests headed to the Park Hyatt’s ballroom which had been completely transformed. “The linens, the place settings, the hops hanging from the ceilings, the Aspen tree-lined stage—the whole thing was unbelievable,” Mary Chloe says. After speeches and dinner, it was time for the couple’s first dance to “Anything You Want” by Roy Orbison. “I showed this song to Tim not too long after we met and he absolutely hated it,” the bride says. “Leading up to the wedding, we angsted pretty heavily, bouncing around between the Beach Boys and the Beatles. One day Tim said, ‘What about ‘Anything You Want?’ That song’s pretty good.’ Apparently, he had listened to it every day since I played it for him—I guess it grew on him.”
After their dance ended, guests stormed the dance floor and according to the bride, the party became a madhouse while their band, The James Gang, played hit after hit. “I have so many memories of just looking around the dance floor and thinking, ‘This is the best day of my life,’” the bride shares. “People are still asking us about the band!”
