What makes for an ideal chair? I was standing in an open field under relentless sun contemplating the merits of differing back rail, spindle and manchette configurations when I realized I was out of my depth. A glance towards my bride-to-be confirmed she, too, was overwhelmed at the thought of sorting through minutia of endless seating iterations.

The rustic ranch we were touring and had hoped would make an ideal setting for our upcoming Utah wedding quickly proved to be too blank a slate. Details we’d never before contemplated, much less had informed opinions about, abounded with the potential to submarine the whole event. While people likely wouldn’t notice if the table linens were slightly differing shades of cream, it’d probably catch their attention if we neglected to order any table linens in the first place. In desperate need of help, we headed to Deer Valley.

Now to be clear, neither of us who would be exchanging vows is particularly persnickety or prone to overwrought notions of what an ideal wedding entails. But that isn’t to say we weren’t keen to put on a good show. We’re both Utah imports—I’m from near Chicago and she’s from outside Hartford—who moved here to ski for a winter and never left. It’s a familiar tale on the chairlifts around these parts, but despite nearly a decade of us living in Park City, Utah it was a foreign concept to many of our guests. It meant a lot to us to be able to share the mountain ambiance and experience that we’d built our lives around with everyone traveling here for the wedding.

That vague notion is just about all the detail we provided when we first met with a wedding planner at Deer Valley, but it was enough for them put us on the right track. We toured a few potential venues and gravitated towards Empire Lodge, where the Ruby Express chairlift and aspen groves in full fall splendor would provide the perfect backdrop to impress visiting New Englanders who never stop gushing about how great the leaf-peeping is in Upstate New York. We were hooked.

Next it was time to discuss the finer points. Did we have a preferred baker or specific vision for a cake? Nope. Did we know what we wanted to feed people? No idea. Had we thought about how to best layout the indoor space by arranging tables, the dance floor and the bar? Not a chance. We had enough to worry about already, like seating that one outspoken aunt as far as possible from that one in-law’s former colleague, due to the rather large chasm in political leanings between the two.

Deer Valley’s in-house staff would design a beautiful cake, arrange a fantastic, diverse menu and set up a few tables near the bar on the far side of the fireplace, so those richer in years would have a quiet place to ask each other why on earth I chose to wear such bizarre socks on my wedding day. Oh, and they can help us out with chairs, too? Excellent. We completely forgot about those.

When the big day arrived, the on-site coordinator, Scott, kept everything running smoothly and on schedule. The staff effectively herded the increasingly lively crowd from ceremony seating to cocktails to dinner and dancing throughout the event, which is no easy task. All anyone asked of us was that we enjoy ourselves, have fun with all our guests and not sweat the small stuff. The only thing missing was a moose to wander behind the altar during the ceremony.

Deer Valley handled all the essentials with incredible food and décor coupled with the hand holding and guidance that make for a very low stress, high payoff experience. Every aspect of the planning was taken care of and subsequently run by the two of us to ensure it’d match the aesthetic and character we were looking for. A wedding can be overwhelmingly hectic for the parties concerned, and without the professionalism and expertise Deer Valley brought, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.

Ultimately when I think back to our wedding day, I don’t remember what the chairs looked like. Honestly, I think that’s kind of the point.

To inquire about Deer Valley Resort venues, call 435-645-6650 or email weddings@deervalley.com.

You also may want to read A Destination Wedding at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah

Originally written by Tony Gill for Deer Valley Resort