Denver-based Lesley Pace and her fiancé, for example, decided to match in green, symbolizing both their hope for their future and their love of nature. “That is how we wanted to step into marriage together with the concepts of growth,” she says. It was a uniquely personal decision for the two, who married last year in private, with no guests, and used their engagement shoot to notify loved ones of their nuptials. “It was kind of a series of conversations of us sitting down trying to determine how we wish to express ourselves and celebrate this moment that we may not have gotten to have with everybody,” says Pace. A former beauty pageant contestant, Pace picked a sequined mermaid gown from her own archive to fulfill her love of “being sparkly,” while her fiancé ordered a traditional Nigerian suit from an artisan on Etsy.
