As Justin and I finished up our portraits together, our guests were invited from the cocktail area to the reception tent by the ringing of a dinner bell.

We intended our reception to be rustic, casual, and comfortable, like sitting down to dinner with family. For me, the pièce de résistance of our wedding day will always be the ceremony, but I absolutely loved how our reception turned out. There were no fancy linens, lighting, music, slide shows, or sound systems… just tables enough to seat ninety, a few hand-designed details, and a buffet of astounding regional food and drink. It was perfect, despite the drenching downpour that started as soon as dinner began…

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Filed under: Food & Drink, Photos, Recap, Weather on March 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

After showing you all those guest pictures of our wedding recently, it seems only fitting to share with you a few more photos that I took, afterward.

The day after our wedding (which was Sunday, 9/7) turned out to be sunny and amazing. It was a bit of a letdown to see clear skies after the intermittent rain on our wedding day, but mostly it was invigorating to be able to get outside in the sunshine.

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Filed under: Photos, Recap, Venue, Weather on December 8th, 2008 | No Comments »

After our cocktail hour it was time to head to the tent for dinner: a Polebridge-catered buffet of baked ruby trout, buffalo tri-tip, grilled veggies, herbed potatoes, fresh-baked bread, garlic noodles, and organic salad greens. YEEEE-HAW!!

Our guests were getting restless, hungry, and probably a bit drunk off the “purple stuff,” so our coordinators led them back to the tent when the buffet was ready. But we were so engrossed in taking photos that we didn’t notice our allotted hour had passed! Everyone had been helping themselves to the buffet for more than a few minutes when one of the team though to come get us. Oops!

We took a few more pics, and might have been tempted to use up the last of the waning light, when it started to rain. The timing was perfect. The rain forced us into the tent and the tent walls were closed behind us, just as it started to ABSOLUTELY POUR.

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Filed under: Cake, Food & Drink, Photos, Recap, Weather on November 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

In this edition of “Married in Montana,” I’ll take you deep into the Glacier backcountry on our pre-wedding, 2-night, 3-day trip to Cracker Lake. The trip was fraught with action, adventure, and… ah, mostly angst … and a lot of rain. Plus, there was some extremely gorgeous scenery:

But the real reason I’m writing about this trip isn’t just to share glorious photos; it’s to tell you about “the fight“.

Now, a lot of people will tell you that wedding planning is more than enough to bring out the worst in the most loving of couples. You’d be hard pressed, however, to find a more peaceable pair than the Justin and I. We certainly have our differences of opinion, and every so often find ourselves in a disagreement, but we rarely, if ever, have what I would call a fight. Even though our wedding planning, when I was sweating bullets and he was confusedly aloof, neither of us once lost our temper.

But three nights before our wedding, we were trapped in a tent at Cracker Lake duking out some serious issues and I found myself wondering, quite spitefully, if either of us knew what the hell we were doing.

But let’s back it up a bit so we can start at the proper beginning of this story…

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Filed under: Photos, Pre & Post-Wedding Fun, Recap, Weather on November 10th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

This evening’s webcam image of Lake McDonald. Forecasts for the week are in the upper 80s and will start cooling toward month’s end. Four weeks and we’re on our way!

Filed under: Venue, Weather on August 4th, 2008 | No Comments »

Late last week, my mom decided that she’d like to join me on my trip to Montana for my Super Wedding Weekend. At first, I was a little worried about my mom being there. It meant that couldn’t have any “secret single behavior” time on my grand solo adventure.

I don’t know what “secret single” things I imagined doing out there in a secluded cabin, but I don’t get to spend a lot of time alone, so I was looking forward to it.

Anyway, after about five minutes of selfish wheedling, I realized just how great it was that my mom wanted to come. She’s been very busy and somewhat detached from the wedding planning process so far, and I’ve gotten used to that. On the one hand, I’ve been happy that neither she, nor Justin’s mom, nor any other relative tried to take the reigns from me. On the other hand, I’ve felt overwhelmed by the planning at somewhat alone in my enthusiasm for the wedding a lot of the time.

I’ve been so used to going it alone that it didn’t even occur to me to ask her to come with me. Once I realized that this would be the perfect way to get my mom involved in the planning process, I was really psyched. We’d get to do wedding stuff… together!

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Filed under: Travel, Venue, Weather, Wedding Madness! on May 14th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

The following weather information for the first week of September is from Weather.com:

Filed under: Weather on December 12th, 2007 | 1 Comment »