A Snowy Winter Wedding in Aspen, Colorado

Ask Ashley O'Winter who the better skier is, she or her husband, Hughes, and you'll get a diplomatic answer. "It's technical. Alpine skiing, that's me," Ashley, a documentary producer and interior and event designer, explains. "But Hughes can telemark [an Alpine variation in which the skier's heel comes up] and snowboard, so it depends..." There's little doubt, though, that both of them can hold their own on the slopes.

Skiing is at the heart of the Denver-based couple's relationship, and it was their love of the sport that led them to each other: Ashley and her family were on a heli-skiing vacation at the art of 2011 in British Columbia, and Hughes was staying at the same resort. "My brother Hudson befriended him and introduced him as my 'future fiancé,'" Ashley recalls. "Big brothers can be so embarrassing." But he was onto something. She kept bumping into Hughes around the lodge, "and I became smitten." The feeling was mutual.

After several months of distance while Ashley finished college in Chicago, she moved to Denver to be with Hughes, who works for his family's ski-and-snowboard business. In April 2015, Hughes proposed during an adventure-filled vacation in New Zealand and Australia. Before they'd departed, Ashley's sister Lyndsay, a jewelry designer, had helped him create the ring. His first thought was moonstone, but "Ashley's a bit of a bull in a china shop," Hughes says a affectionately. "So we decided on a sturdier colored diamond." He presented her with the ring and a romantic letter when they were midway through a mountain-biking excursion, and, true to form, Ashley had banged up her legs. "I was bloody and messy, but so excited," she recalls.

The pair quickly settled on a winter wedding in Aspen, Colorado. "It holds a special place in our hearts because, growing up, we both took trips there with our families," says Hughes. They made the most of the location, planning a day of backcountry skiing for friends and family early in the week, and a rehearsal dinner in a remote wooded spot that guests could get to by ski or sleigh. "I think Hughes even took a couple of runs on our wedding day," laughs Ashley.

On March 19, 2016, 145 guests gathered on the rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum just before sunset to watch the couple exchange vows again the background of Aspen Mountain's snow-covered slopes. The party that followed lasted until the early hours of the morning, but, Ashley says, they still managed to make it to brunch at the base of the mountain the next day—"dressed in our ski gear, of course." Winter Wedding Ideas from Real Weddings Winter Wedding Ideas from Real Weddings