Married in Montana: Pre-Ceremony Preparations

When we arrived in Polebridge, there was still over an hour until the ceremony. I had expected to have maybe half an hour to prepare… a time that I could have easily filled with setup and organization. But given all the time we then had, I didn’t know what to do with myself except make sure that Mr. CP didn’t accidentally stumble upon me before the ceremony.

At the end of my last recap, you saw me holding my veil over the bus window to prevent him from looking in as he exited his bus and went into the saloon. I had definitely decided that his “first look” would have a bigger impact if it were as I was walking down the aisle. Unfortunately, we hadn’t exactly planned the logistics of how we’d be sequestered once we arrived at Polebridge.

Playing “hide and seek” like this seemed like fun at the time. But if I had to confess my one major regret of the whole day, it’s that we didn’t spend the hour before the ceremony together. I wish we’d had some quiet time to talk, have a drink, and maybe take a few casual photos. I made him wait to see me because I thought it would make our ceremony feel more significant. In truth, I think it would have been worth it to have had a few minutes with my future husband beforehand.

Instead, I spent my time before the ceremony pacing and preening, and nearly dumping Coca-Cola all over my dress. Here’s how it went down:

As Mr. CP stepped into the saloon with his groomsmen, the bridal party started to unload the second bus. Our arrival was met by family and friends who had come early, and by the better part of Polebridge’s residents. This little girl poked her head out the back door, seemingly to get a better look at the city folk who were storming her country home:

Though there are several weddings in Polebridge each summer season, most are small, local affairs, often without a white dress or a big reception. Our “big” to-do (90 people from out of town) was a strange occasion for a very tight-knit community. And though I haven’t blogged much about it, planning our wedding in Polebridge as “outsiders” wasn’t easy… it caused quite a bit of stress for them, and for me! I felt that I had to prove our loyalty to and knowledge of Polebridge and Glacier at every turn so that I could contradict the assumptions of residents and vendors that we were all city folk who wouldn’t “get” their way of life. (In reality, very few of our guests felt out of place.)

Though planning our wedding was a challenge, it all turned out well in the end, as will soon be evidenced here.

But maybe I’m wrong in reading that little girl’s expression. Maybe she was just looking at me funny because I got off a school bus in a wedding dress. Or maybe she was staring at me because apparently no one taught me how to carry my train:

Whoops! Lookin’ good there, Cherry Pie. Luckily I had my sweet (and hawt!) sister, Lizzy, there to help me out as we snuck around the side of the saloon:

My mom met me by the stage to help me get all straightened out:

Our band, Good Wood, a bluegrass outfit from Kalispell, was there setting up. A quick chat with the guys and I’d confirmed they were good to go:

Once we’d by passed the saloon, the bridal party walked over to the ice house cabin to set up the wedding supplies and make sure everything was in place. Our planners and coordinators, Katalin Green Design & Co. had taken care of all of the setup and organization of the cabin the night before. We were in good hands.

The next order of business was finding the bouquets and boutonnieres. Katalin and crew set out to adorn the groomsmen and direct the bridesmaids, and I had a few minutes to get acquainted with my new accessory…

Burgundy dahlias, montbretia, chocolate cosmos, brown hypericum berries, and wheat with other grasses:

I think my bouquet came out beautifully.

Here I am trying to rip off Miss Lovebug’s fabulous bouquet photo pose:

Next, Nicole took a few photos of me next to the cabin:

Did I mention I love the way the back of my dress looked after having it altered to a V? I think I did, but I’ll tell you again:

Love. It.

After that, I was ready to go, but there was still about an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to begin. Better to be ready early than running late, right?

I decided to cool off with one of the glass-bottled Mexi-Cokes we brought all the way from Seattle:

There was just one problem. The Cokes, which had recently been placed in ice for after the ceremony, weren’t quite cool yet. In fact, they were lukewarm. So when I leaned back for that big swig you see above, my Coke reacted like warm soda does… and foamed out of the bottle, onto my face, and up into my nose:

Married in Montana: Pre-Ceremony Preparations : wedding pictures recap seattle 14cokea
Look closely at this picture. This is how on top of things our photographer was. You can actually SEE about a quarter of the bottle of Coke sloshing onto my face, into my nose, and narrowly missing my eye.

Of course, what goes up must come down, and a second after I realized what was happening, there was Coke choking me, stinging my nose and splashing back toward my dress. What a disaster that would have been if I hadn’t reacted quickly, bending forward at the waist so I could drool all over the grass instead:

Um, oops. At the time it happened, I just thought it was funny. It wasn’t until at least three people ran over to make sure I was OK (as grim as if I’d just had a serious accident) that I realized I could have easily upended cola on my $1500, “wear once”, silk gown. I don’t think I would have been laughing if that had happened…

Checking my dress for Coke splatter. It was a relief not to find any. But there were plenty of grasshoppers and other bugs all over my train. They loved my dress. I couldn’t keep them off of it, so I had little bugs on me pretty much all day.

Meanwhile, I had developed quite and audience. As our guests arrived, they were winding their way to the ceremony site, often past the cabin, where they stopped to say hello and take pictures:

While it was fun to see everyone before the ceremony, it was also quite overwhelming. I was trying to use the time I had to prepare myself mentally for what I perceived as a very important ritual. Taking snapshots and making small talk was stressing me out more than it should have. When I realized that what I wanted was quiet time, and for our guests to see me only when I was ready to make my way down the aisle, I retreated to inside the cabin to practice my vows and sit quietly.

My mom and sister joined me briefly to warm up on their violins for the ceremony, but for the most part I sat by myself and waited for Katalin to tell me it was time to go.

About 10 minutes before the ceremony, she came to get me and brought me outside to put on my veil:

I bought my veil from La Belle Elaine’s bridal in Seattle, where I purchased my (Pronovias Diamante) dress. It was somewhat of an impulse purchase, because I wasn’t convinced that I wanted a veil. But this one looked so stunning with my dress and was so fun to play with that I couldn’t help myself:

Before the ceremony, we had a few spots of bright sun coupled with a very gentle sprinkling of rain: a sunshower! In Japan, they call this “kitsune no yome-iri”, or, “the fox’s wedding” (a similar phrase is present in a number of other languages).

I waited behind the “half-moon house” (yes, it’s an outhouse!) and checked my garter.

Boy, that flask full of whiskey sure was heavy (heh, heh) … I’d better take a little sip off the top to lighten it up! Or, do I mean to lighten ME up? Hmm…