BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The perfect wedding day, captured in the winter wonder of Colorado’s mountains. So why not shred it? It’s all in a day’s work for Gabrielle Stowe.
“I say I am a skiing wedding photographer, and they’re just like, ‘Wait, what?’” Stowe told Denver7.
Her photography business, Ski the Day, documents the downhill. She shoots skiing weddings, complete with brides in dresses on boards, and grooms in suits on skis. Her portfolio includes ceremonies, actual skiing, lift and gondola rides and post-ceremony runs.
“It does feel kind of magical, because you're kind of breaking the rules of a traditional wedding,” Stowe said in a Zoom interview. “And because of that, that gives you more permission to just have it a little bit more laid back and just, like, have a good time with it.”
Her days at work consist of herself on skis, with multiple cameras and gear, skiing ahead of her subjects and stopping to snap photos of their big day.
“You're moving and your subject’s moving. And you're trying to get a portrait and you're trying to be creative. And so just as I’m skiing down the mountain, I’m trying to look at everything and come up with creative compositions,” she said.
Her most popular work of dozens of wedding guests skiing down a Colorado mountain went viral on Instagram, with the caption “When you tell your friends you’re having a ski wedding and they understand the assignment.”
“I think there’s a re-watchable quality to it because so much is happening in like 3 seconds,” she said.
Stowe says she’s now done somewhere around 30 ski weddings across Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states. She’s gotten inquiries from across the country, as well as internationally.
“These couples, they get married on skis because that's their favorite thing to do with their favorite person,” she explained.
Stowe's now built a business around love, and two people bound together with boots and bindings. She just captures in on film.
“The energy on the mountain is amazing because you're surrounded by people who love the same thing you do. And so they see you and they're so surprised, and then they're just so excited. So it's awesome," Stowe said.
Stowe also runs a more traditional wedding photography business, Gabrielle Stowe Photography. More info on Ski the Day can be found at www.skitheday.com.
