You and your partner stand together in a white gazebo at the base of a valley surrounded by mountains and Aspen trees. Your friends and family look on in awe impressed by your love and your surroundings. Afterwards, you all dance the night away in an historic coach barn that’s both rustic and elegant with gorgeous wood beams, and crystal chandeliers. Does this sound like the venue for you? If you’re more interested in saying your vows in front of a stunning natural rock formation, and spending your wedding night at a black tie event in a bright and airy dance hall covered in twinkle lights, we’ve got the venue for you too! And guess what? It’s the same one.
Deer Creek Valley Ranch is an incredible Colorado ranch venue with a host of amazing options to say your vows, host your cocktail hour, and dance through your reception. You can rent either the historic coach barn location, the elegant homestead location, or the entire venue for limitless options for your special day.
The Homestead Venue
The Barn Venue
We sat down with Venue Owner Christian Marasciullo to learn a little more about Deer Creek.
Amanda: One of my favorite things about your venue is your own love story. It’s so special and adds to the magic of the space. Can you tell me the love story behind your marriage?
Christian: Sure! So Tim (my now husband) went on vacation to Hawaii, where I was living and working as a real estate agent at the time, and his brother wanted to set us up, and I hesitantly agreed. After our first meeting, Tim called the jeweler and ordered my diamond. He proposed two weeks later, and we got married on a cruise ship in Europe six weeks after that. However, we learned that due to legal reasons, we were not officially married in the U.S., so another three months later we had a traditional Hawaiian marriage ceremony with all our friends and family. It’s been 17 years since then, and we still celebrate our anniversary with something special every single month.
Amanda: So how did this lead to you owning and running a wedding venue in Colorado?
Christian: Tim bought the ranch shortly before he met me. He brought me there a few weeks after we got engaged. And when we first pulled in past the gates that open by the barn, we could see the valley and the horses and the mountain and watched as the sun set. It was so beautiful, I was moved to tears. He asked, “what are you feeling right now?” And I told him, “I feel like we need to share this.” I didn’t know exactly what that looked like at the time, but as we went through planning our own wedding in Hawaii, I started to think about what ideally I’d want in a venue. I’d want it to be privately owned, with all the package options put together for us, so the planning process could be easy and fun. That’s when we decided to turn Deer Creek into a wedding venue.
Amanda: How did your time as a real estate agent help you run and set up a wedding venue?
Christian: That’s an interesting question. I’d say that it’s been very helpful for the design-side of things. I was renovating and flipping properties around the world. I’ve been able to use that experience to think about not only what would work well for weddings, but how it would blend with our rustic ranch aesthetic. I’ve been fortunate enough to tour luxurious homes so that I can bring a sense of elegant elevated surroundings to the venue, while keeping the comfort of the ranch. We recently redid the cottage for the bridal party to get ready and I really focused on comfortable elegance.
Deer Creek boasts a gorgeous newly renovated cottage
Amanda: What would you say are Deer Creek’s most charming or quirky features?
Christian: The first thing that comes to mind for me would be the Man Cave, and not just that it’s for the guys, but the fact that it’s open for guests to be able to enjoy. In the basement of the barn venue, we’ve created a hangout space with games and a cowboy-themed bar that keeps its subtle nods to the previous history of the barn. While the grooms often get ready in this space, we open it to guests during the reception. From a guest experience standpoint, they enjoy that they have more options than just the dance hall. Similarly, at the homestead, we have a big patio with a hearth and market lights. If couples do not want to be dancing all night, they head out there to reconnect and take in the beautiful surroundings. I would say, to answer your question more succinctly, we love how many spaces our venue has that encourage people to connect and enjoy the night!
Amanda: We’ve mentioned the fact that you have two incredible venue options on your property, but we haven’t discussed its unique history yet! Something that I’m really drawn to personally is the idea of a wedding venue with a whole history behind it. I feel like it adds a level of intimacy to the day. Could you tell me more about the cool history of the ranch?
Christian: When we bought the venue, the previous owner gave us a stack of newspapers with info about the property that went back years. Through those and other research, we learned that the barn initially was the focal point for the stage stop between Denver and Fairplay back in the mid 1800s. Since back then, people were still traveling mostly by horse and wagon, it would take a couple of days to get to Fairplay. Deer Creek was kind of a good midway stopping point. And so a community developed. The shed near the barn, where we store the tables and chairs now, is where the blacksmith shed used to be. The bridal cottage was the original post office until 1922. According to records, it was the first post office to serve the community. The house where the caretakers live now was the old saloon. The Man Cave in the basement of the coach barn used to be where they would store gold at night to keep it safe. You can still see the holes in the ceilings of where the metal bars used to be! I’ve even heard that the town drunk found himself in those cells a few times. We have so much history here, and we’ve done what we can to preserve it for the guests.
Amanda: Changing topics a bit, but have you noticed any wedding trends or themes that you predict will be big for weddings in 2024 and 2025?
Christian: Nontraditional weddings are what we’ve been seeing. It started with people not wanting a big cake. Instead, they want a variety of desserts and just maybe a little cutting cake, that sort of thing. But we’re just seeing more and more brides rock those air forces instead of the stilettos under that wedding dress, you know. Also, incorporating more things that are personal. So instead of just having a standard centerpiece with a bunch of flowers, have photos of the different countries you visited together or the names of the different fourteeners they’ve sumitted, things like that. I have been seeing a lot more personalization, which I think is hugely important. More and more, wedding couples want their guests to have fun, and to be able to spend time with them, so they find ways to add time and the little things back to their wedding.
Amanda: Are there any cool bar experiences you’ve seen, or particular signature cocktails that have really elevated the experience for guests?
Christian: Mocktails! I love when couples have signature cocktails, but we’ve seen an uptick in adding mocktails to the event as well. It honors the guests who choose not to drink. I think this trend shows how couples are embracing both sides of people at the wedding.
Amanda: What have you seen as the best benefit to partnering with a bar catering company for your couples?
Christian: When we first started, we thought, well, we’ll just let people bring in their own alcohol and bring in bartenders through the caterer. And it was a disaster week after week, because our couples are not in the bar industry. So they would either buy too much or buy too little and the worst is when they would buy too little and then have to send the groomsmen out to try and find alcohol and Conifer at, you know, eight o’clock at night on a Saturday is not somewhere you can easily find alcohol.
Working with Peak Beverage has made it so seamless. Because you’re a one stop shop. Our clients get to connect with your team, and you always manage to express their needs before it comes out of their mouths. You know how to pair the drinks with the food that’s being served. And your bartenders are always awesome. They’re always on it. They’re hard working, they show up early, they stay late. They’re dedicated. I cannot emphasize how fantastic it has been working with Peak. It gives me a level of confidence being able to present Peak as our partner because we know you’re going to reflect well on us as a venue, and give the guests a good experience. And from the guest standpoint, they don’t know whether we are separate or not, because we work so cohesively.
Make sure to check out Deer Creek Valley Ranch for a perfect day of Rocky Mountain romance.