I’m Married!

I’m married! But maybe the most exciting part of that announcement is that I’ve been married for a year! Remember when The Boy and I watched the sunrise from Summit Lake on Mt. Evans? That was our wedding! We eloped!

 

Our wedding picture! Fitting that I’m wearing a headlamp, no?

We kept our marriage to our close friends and family and then made a bigger announcement on our one-year anniversary. We’re not fancy people, but our friends and family wanted a celebration and my brother-in-law helped us throw one heck of a party last week in Montana. My brother-in-law has a dream house in the Bridger Canyon so we spent the weekend in the mountains with our people and between 50 and 200 elk at any given time (seriously!). We went fly fishing, spent our anniversary on the hike where we got engaged, and hosted 50 of our nearest and dearest loves.  One of my favorite parts of my untraditional celebration was leading about 10 people on a hike to Lava Lake in the Gallatin National Forest. I loved that my friends and family were game for a mountain hike at 7 am!

With one of my favorite friends at one of my favorite places

Another favorite person!

Yup, love these guys, too.

We were super lucky to have a 25% off friends and family coupon at REI so after the hike and before the reception I stopped by the REI. Me and my friend had about 30 minutes before we had to be back.

Me to guy welcoming people: Are you up for an adventure?

Guy: Yeah! What’s up!

Me: I’m getting married today and I have a friends and family coupon and 30 minutes. Think you can help?

Guy: You’re getting married?! Awesome! You’re the coolest bride!

He proceeded to high-five me multiple times and be the most epic REI employee ever (thanks, Leif in Bozeman!). 20 minutes later I had a Thule box mounted on my car, a 4 season tent on order, a dog pack, and a white fleece to match my white dress if it got cold later.

Luckily the weather was perfect for the party and the best I could tell everything went off without a hitch. We had an incredible farm to table dinner, a bluegrass band, and my brother-in-law flew in the head pastry chef from Chez Panisse (!) to make our cake and late night party snacks.  Skipping a ceremony and having a small party at our brother’s house meant that we could spend lots of time with our beloved family and friends and do so with minimal stress. It was the best. I highly recommend it.

The cake! It was a croquembouche and the tradition is that the bride and groom “crack” the cake with a little mallet. I was pretty bad at cracking it, but I had no problem eating lots of it! 🙂

Guests came while we were taking pictures in the barn- I’ve come a long way from DC!

 

 

Bridgers behind us

Our dinner was completely perfect and overlooked the Bridgers while the sun set.

We, um, took a break from veganism.

Not surprising that this is my brother. Maybe more surprising that we’re not twins.

My favorite picture. It captures just how happy we were the entire week to be celebrating something so special.

It’s pretty cool to have so much love in my life and to celebrate it in such a beautiful place. No one pinch me.

 

 

 

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