• Real Weddings

A quick twenty minute drive from the airport and you have reached Weatherwood Homested. A quiet and private step back in time where wide plank floors, covered porches and rustic charm are mixed in with modern comforts. The ideal location for Lexi and Dan's rustic Montana destination wedding.
We're head over heels in love with all details and charming touches put into this event. From Lexi's homemade bridesmaid gifts to their fabric wrapped homemade jam favors. All carefully thought out and planned by Lexi, of course with help from family and friends. Lucky for us, she shares all their wedding planning details. All beautifully photographed by Shannon Hollman Photography and as always you can see more details in the full gallery by clicking here.

Bridesmaid Gifts-I made all of my bridesmaids Montana Survival Kits as their thank you present. I learned all about the chemicals that go into body product and make-up and started my own hobby of making lip balms, body cream, deodorant and even shampoo for myself and loved ones, so I thought it would be fun to put a whole kit together for my girlfriends. I played it up by giving the girls handkerchiefs for their tears, a bear bell for our hikes in Glacier, pocket knife for fun, a friendship bracelet, homemade hand salve, bath salts, hand sanitizer and deodorant.Bridesmaid Dresses-I had originally wanted the bridesmaid in yellow, but I know that’s a hard color for most girls to wear, so as I looked around on Pinterest, I become more enamored with the idea of cream. I think a group of women in whites/creams looks amazing especially with a simple bouquet of lavender. I think all of my friends have a great sense of style so I wanted them to pick their own dresses. I just asked that they all be short, simple, cream or off white dress. A friend also told me that according to an old British tradition, if the bridesmaids are dressed in white, it confuses the evil spirits and protects the bride – which I thought was an amazing tale. My pictures with the bridesmaids and the flowers girl are some of my favorites!

Florals-Karalynn Kress with Stage Road Blooms. Karalynn grows her own flowers and gathers flowers from nearby farms and friends. It was amazing to work with her. She asked me which flowers I wanted and we collaborated with what was in season and made sure to have a beautiful variety of colors and textures. I knew I wanted my bridesmaids to carry simple bunches of lavender so I also called Purple Mountain Lavender and ordered a few bushels of lavender to ensure that we had enough for the wedding.


Groomsman Attiere & GiftsDan and I picked his suit out together at J.Crew. We were so in love with how it looked that we wanted the groomsmen to look similar but not exactly the same. We decided on denim shirts and the matching vest and slacks to Dan’s suit would look Western and fun. Dan wanted a pocket watch for himself, after his arrived in the mail, he immediately ordered unique watches for each of his friends. He got them all engraved and I know that the guys loved the gift!

Ceremony Decor-As far as my invitations, save the dates, escort cards and table numbers, my dear friend Jessica Vanderberg owns the company Rose & Virginia and she designed and printed all of our paperwork. She also decorated our ceremony area with doilies banners and special details.

Ceremony -Dan and I both agree that the ceremony was the most meaningful part of our wedding day. We both meditate regularly, practice yoga and try to live thoughtfully, so having someone we trusted to lead the ceremony was very important to both of us. Turns out that Dan’s mom’s next door neighbor is an Episcopal minister and she was the best match for us! She has such a loving and warm spirit. She thinks of God as love and she let us handcraft our ceremony.

Venue-
Dan grew up in Great Falls, Montana and he spent the summers on Flathead Lake with his family. Dan brought me out to Flathead early in our relationship to visit his parents and I immediately fell in love with the area.
 After getting engaged we booked a trip out to Flathead last summer to figure out as many details about our upcoming wedding as we could. Dan and I knew that we wanted our wedding to have a barn dance so we put together a list of venues nearby with our barn dance ready criteria and once we got going with the planning things started falling into place.


Weatherwood was the first venue we checked out and we were completely taken aback by the majestic beauty of this old homesteader ranch! The barn is actually a training arena for horses, so it’s huge, but the owner, Patti, has an amazing eye and has transformed the barn with a big dance floor, indoor bar, tables and chairs to sit at and a festive décor.


Reception DecorWe picked the Huckleberry Jam from Eva Gates in Bigfork. I love their pretty fabric tops and Jess from Rose & Virginia and I thought it would be a pretty way to display the escort cards.


I decorated the center pieces for our dinner tables myself. I wanted combine rustic (Dan) and delicate (me). So we rented big barn-wood dinner tables and I thought it would be sweet to contrast that masculine heavy look with doilies! We laid doilies down as the ‘table runner’ and then in order to create some variation in height I used cigar boxes. I collected boxes for antique shows and ordered a lot on Etsy. This would allow people to be able to see across the table and we could place flowers out on different levels. We then added some lanterns a family friend let us borrow, pinecones found in the area and few objects from Patti’s amazing basement at Weatherwood. I had been practicing making mock tables-capes on our dining room table before we came out to MT, so I knew exactly what I wanted tings to look like.

 As you can tell, the wedding was a real team effort. Dan was very helpful and we made sure to have as much fun as possible with the whole planning process. We took dance lessons together and I we spent time together picking out his outfit, picking out the food and assigning tables. We found a beautiful location and from there everything else happened by word of mouth. I would tell people my ideas for how I wanted things decorated or ask if they knew someone who could help me out. It made the event feel really personal and fun!

Photographer: Shannon Hollman Photography Stationery: Rose & Virginia Venue: Weatherwood Homested Pies & Caterer: Simple Chef Catering Prop or Furniture Rentals:The Party Store Makeup: Jacqueline from Alchemy Mineral Blends Hair: Stephanie Kuhl from Red Union Salon in Whitefish Dress Designer: Novella Bridal in San Francisco Jewelry: Rent the Runway Groom's Attire: J. Crew Groomsman Pocket Watch Gifts: amazon.com Live Band: Spring Wagon String Band Coordinator: Corinne Ferrara | Jam: Eva Gates in Bigfork, Montana | Officiant: Rev. Edwina Acker | Flowers: Karalynn Kress, Stage Road Blooms