it’s nice to meet you
I’m Ashlee Bratton
Adventure Elopements + MicroWeddings in COLORADO
Serving the Rocky Mountains & Beyond
South Fork / Creede / Pagosa Springs / Telluride / San Luis Valley / Vail Valley / All the Valleys
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I believe that we were all wired with gifts and talents and dreams. I believe in having vision, goals and reasons to laugh. I believe in movie nights on the couch. I believe in having both little and big things to look forward to. I believe in planning, foresight, spontaneity and flexibility. I believe in taking care of people. I believe in working with talented and professional vendors and creatives to paint the picture of a lovely day or season of life. I believe we were meant to pursue things we love and to fall in love.
I am a Colorado mountain elopement photographer that tends to giggle from behind the camera because I love what I do. I am an observer and like to study group dynamics. Hear me out. That MAY sound creepy, but that is literally what I am paid to do. I take real pictures for real people. I love what I do because I get to know so many amazing people. I offer customized luxury elopement packages that create a stress-free day and give the ultimate mountain elopement experience. Whether you’re an adventurous go-getter or the laid back, chill, we-just-want-pretty views for our “I Do” moment–I get it. You don’t just need pictures, you need anniversary-making memories. The kind you want to share with friends, put on your wall, and gift to your parents when the day is done.
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Admittedly, I am a travel junkie. I am also a couch potato. I am completely and totally 100% addicted to travel and adventures and spend hundreds of hours on the road every year, but I also do all my editing in sweats and leggings enjoying a cup of coffee in my signature messy bun.
I like my couch. I also like the unknowns of the open road too. You name it and I probably want to go there (or I can be easily convinced over a glass of wine). Admittedly, I need adventures in my life and it is important to me to have people in my world who also love that too. That’s how I fell in love with wedding and elopement photography. Intimate, small, passionate adventures with just the ones who matter most. Now I live in an area that has the Rio Grande National Forest and all its beauty at my fingertips and can share it with my couples. My family even has a bed & breakfast on the river with private cliffs and ceremony site.
Yes, I’ve shot the big weddings and done the big parties and soirées. They’re fabulous! But my heart lies in the simple, quiet moments. The unplanned candid moments. Give me a couple in love saying vows to vista views on a random Tuesday, or any other day of the week.
I am grateful that wedding photography has sent me all over the world and scratched my itch to roam. I’ve had the honor of shooting in the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Hawaii and beyond. Have a specific location idea? My passport is always ready for that next stamp, but my heart and home are in Colorado. Let me show you the awesomeness of my back yard in the San Juan Mountains. Let me introduce you to my family’s cute B&B on the river (with phenomenal gourmet breakfasts, might I add). My love for Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and the adventures held in my heart will never die.
Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
– Dr. Seuss
My story:
the reason why
I do what I do
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It all started with a bucket list. True story.
When I was in my twenties I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do before I was 30 years old and I wrote it on a napkin. I called it my “30×30 list.” Yes, it had a specific timetable on it, but most of us would recognize it as a good ol’ fashioned bucket list. I had a wonderful career with a fortune 500 company and was getting my master’s in business when life grabbed me and I completely changed directions.
Within this bucket list were “category buckets” of travel goals, financial goals, education goals, health goals, relationship goals, and adventure goals. Putting pen to paper — or quite literally pen to a napkin — my 30×30 list led me to adventures such as skydiving, scuba diving, getting my master’s degree, running a marathon, becoming debt-free, writing a book, and ended by going on a hot air balloon ride on my 30th birthday.
Wanting to pursue several passions and interests on my new bucket list, I wrote down “learn photography” on my 30×30 list. One of my colleagues in my MBA program was a wedding photographer and I ended up assisting him on one of his shoots. Eventually, I ended up interning under an additional wedding photographer before I got the courage to start my own business. Before I knew it I was hooked. Everything in me lit up and in those moments of shooting I knew what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be. I started my own photography business and Ashography was established in 2011 and I’ve been going ever since. All my corporate years working in travel & tourism, event management, communications, and pursuing multiple degrees rolled into what I now truly love to do…wedding & elopement photography in my backyard forest.
Photos remind us of the strength, courage and hope that reside in all of us the way few other things can. Yes, photography is my livelihood but it also feeds my soul. Turns out, I was blessed to have completed 29 of the 30 items on my 30×30 list. Checkity check check — thank you Lord! I believe in putting pen to paper, giving God your plans, pursuing the things that bring us joy, putting in the hard work, and in always chasing our dreams. I get the honor of helping people enjoy important moments in their lives. That is pretty stinkin’ amazing.
I am so grateful for bucket lists!
I Genuinely Like My Life
This is me
