One year ago today July 28, 2011, I was nervously putting away my tent, picking up my flowers, and hanging up my wedding dress. Our wedding was absolutely wonderful and completely different. This past year has been full of challenges and a lot of laughter. Not everyone knows our wedding story so I am going to write about it now.
Chance and I decided that we wanted to do something different for our wedding. We had been planning a traditional, cake, guests, food, outside, summer wedding. Well, things changed and we came up with a better, less stressful idea-Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
I had never been there and Chance had when he was little. I started to do some research and considered the main things I wanted: photographer, witnesses (I'll get to this in a moment), a place to stay, a place for the ceremony, and someone to marry us.
I found the most adorable looking bed and breakfast called Teton View. I looked to see what days they had availability and sent off an email to the owners. I figured the owners would know better than anyone the answers to the rest of my questions.
I never thought I would be typing out an email asking if someone would be witnesses to my wedding and if they knew of a preacher in town. I soon had a reply in one of the friendliest emails saying they would be happy to be our witnesses and gave me the name of Tom Jordan the Municipal Judge. I called him to see if he would be free on a certain date, he agreed, and we had a plan!
Looking back at it now it seems almost crazy but it worked out perfectly it's almost funny.
Mr. Jordan and I had a few phone conversations about what type of ceremony we wanted and he put together the most unique and beautiful ceremony. I had asked him about a photographer and he gave me the name of a lady in town. I called her, she was available, in our price range, and we had a plan!
We drove up to Jackson Hole and camped the night before our wedding because the B&B was full, which I had all of this planned well before we left. We also picked up our marriage certificate right when we got into town. The morning of our big day we packed up our camping gear and headed into town to pick up some flowers at Albertsons. I didn't want anything fancy just a simple colorful bouquet. The rest of the morning we set up at the B&B, they were so kind for us to check in early to get ready. Our ceremony was to be in their beautiful back yard and we wanted to meet our witnesses who ended up being the owner and her neighbor down the road, both wonderful ladies!
I took pictures of my dress and got all ready while Chance got ready downstairs. Our room was on the second floor and there was a deck outside that went down into the backyard which is what I used as my "aisle". Everyone showed up right on time, we all met, and then I started my nervous walk to my future husband. There was no music, no crowd of people, no bridesmaids, or flower girl, it was just a sunny mountain day with a breeze in the aspens and it was lovely.
Looking back at it now it seems almost crazy but it worked out perfectly it's almost funny.
Mr. Jordan and I had a few phone conversations about what type of ceremony we wanted and he put together the most unique and beautiful ceremony. I had asked him about a photographer and he gave me the name of a lady in town. I called her, she was available, in our price range, and we had a plan!
We drove up to Jackson Hole and camped the night before our wedding because the B&B was full, which I had all of this planned well before we left. We also picked up our marriage certificate right when we got into town. The morning of our big day we packed up our camping gear and headed into town to pick up some flowers at Albertsons. I didn't want anything fancy just a simple colorful bouquet. The rest of the morning we set up at the B&B, they were so kind for us to check in early to get ready. Our ceremony was to be in their beautiful back yard and we wanted to meet our witnesses who ended up being the owner and her neighbor down the road, both wonderful ladies!
I took pictures of my dress and got all ready while Chance got ready downstairs. Our room was on the second floor and there was a deck outside that went down into the backyard which is what I used as my "aisle". Everyone showed up right on time, we all met, and then I started my nervous walk to my future husband. There was no music, no crowd of people, no bridesmaids, or flower girl, it was just a sunny mountain day with a breeze in the aspens and it was lovely.
We said our vows, listened to Mr. Jordan's words of wisdom, exchanged rings, and kissed. The Carol (the owner) had thoughtfully planned an entire reception for us and even bought bubbles to blow after we kissed. The photographer was a funny lady and we all enjoyed homemade brownies Carol baked and sparkling cider. They even got us simple beautiful gifts, and they hardly knew us!
After our brownies we loaded up in the car to drive up the road a few miles to take pictures in Grand Teton National Park, this was an adventure in itself but so fun!
That evening, after pictures, we found leftover brownies, bubbles, and flowers in our room. Instead of eating out at a fancy restaurant we bought some groceries from Albertsons and had a feast on our private little deck.
For our honeymoon we went through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Why not get married at your honeymoon destination?