THE COCKTAIL HOUR

Cowboy boots were highly encouraged! Women wore sundresses, and many of the men wore jeans and blazers. Some guests even broke out the bolo ties! It was super important that everyone be comfortable and that our event feel as laid back as possible. During cocktail hour, guests could play corn hole, ladder golf, or have a seat by the fire pit. We had an outdoor seating area with blankets that guests could use to keep warm after the earlier storms had cooled everything off. In keeping with our Montana theme, our bar served all Montana-made wines, beers, and liquors. We had a menu that listed out these special options, as well as his and hers signature cocktails using some of our favorite Montana spirits. One included a huckleberry vodka and fresh huckleberries that our guests are still talking about! We had Montana trivia questions copper foil stamped onto our cocktail napkins so that guests could learn some fun facts with they sipped on their drinks. We opted out of some of the traditional wedding things like announcing our entrance to the reception (we just casually snuck into our cocktail hour), a bouquet toss, or garter toss. We replaced those with some of our own traditions like a set of shot skis that my dad made. He and my mom searched far and wide for months to find to get the perfect vintage wooden skis. My dad removed the bindings and affixed magnets to the skis that were strong enough to hold shot glasses. Having magnets on the bottom of the shot glasses made it so easy to swap them out each time. Each glass was engraved with our custom monogram so that guests could also keep their glasses as favors!

THE RECEPTION

Our reception was held in a tent along the Gallatin River. Our florist really helped us transform the space by creating and hanging 3 giant floral chandeliers down the center of the tent. Each of our dinner tables were named after Montana mountain ranges. Guests were directed to their seats with our escort display made from an old barn window that I found in a local antique store. The peeling rust-colored paint on the old wood fit with our wedding palette too perfectly to pass up! We used our wedding color palette to color code the designs on each menu based on our guests’ entree choices, and on the back was a thank you note to our guests who traveled so far to celebrate with us. Each menu was wrapped in suede cord that held a hand-lettered leather place card. My mom put her heart and soul into searching antique stores and thrift shops across Montana to find depression glass votives and vases and some old kerosene lanterns for our reception. The floral arrangements on each table were surrounded by a variety of these yellow, pink, and peach glass votives.