Wedding Blog

After dinner, our band took the stage. We’d hired Good Wood, a bluegrass band from Kalispell, for their awesome sound and great price - $1200 for 3 hours! Neither of us had ever heard our band live before.

We just knew that Polebridge’s hand-built stage deserved live music, and something with a local flair. Good Wood was the first band that turned up after a Google search for “Kalispell and Whitefish bluegrass bands” and after much more extensive research, they remained the best. What can I say; they make a good first impression.

I was sad that I wasn’t able to see them perform during my trip to Glacier in May, as I had planned (thanks to a flat tire), but once they took the stage I knew for sure we’d chosen right…

Unfortunately, many of our more “dressed up” guests (as well as many of the older folks) left as soon as dinner ended and the dancing began. They were probably cold and uncomfortable, and we were sad to see them go. But it was their loss - these guys rocked!

They played a few songs while everyone made their way into the stage area, and then it was time for the first dance. Er… sort of. Remember how I said I had eyelash glue stuck to my contact? Well, I’d put up with it through the ceremony and dinner without too much bother, but now my eyes were feeling particularly gross and gritty. As the music started, I sent both my mom and maid of honor to find some saline solution so I could clean my contacts, but two songs had passed and they hadn’t returned. The band was ready to start our first dance number and so were we, but we certainly couldn’t do it without them!

I embarrassed myself by yelling “MOOOOOOOMMMM” to try and locate my mother, and we had the band keep playing – but no one would dance because we hadn’t had our first dance yet!

A few minutes later, the ladies came back, I scrubbed off my eyes, and we were able to get started…

Our first dance was “Love and Some Verses” by Iron and Wine. I fell in love with this song when I heard it years ago and I always thought it would make a great first dance. I asked Good Wood if they would learn it for us, and they agreed. It was so sweet. My aunt took this short video clip (and the others in this post) of us awkwardly swaying…

We hadn’t planned on a parent dance (personally, I think they’re silly), but we suddenly found ourselves doing one. But to quite the fast number! My dad had a hard time keeping up. And I was having a hard time keeping the left side of my dress out from underfoot. Not to mention, both of us had a bit to drink and weren’t in prime dancing form. I think in the photo below, we’d just stepped in a hole in the grass…

Thankfully, after that, everyone joined us in dancing, and kept it up for the rest of the night.

My aunt took this video early in the evening while I was dancing with my grandfather, and Mr. CP was dancing with my mom…

We also invited all the strangers who were visiting Polebridge, and all the patrons of the saloon and bakery to join us in dancing and drinking. It took some convincing by the band to get them to come down, but once we did, they stayed and partied with the rest of us.

Good Wood put on a great show!

I can’t believe that we had a band for three hours. It seemed like only a few minutes between when they started playing and the last of several encores. It was dark by that point, and the first bus was ready to take guests back to their hotel. As soon as the band packed up, it started to sprinkle lightly, and then it was raining again!

Mr. CP took this photo with his college friends before they got on the bus back to Glacier…

Most of the wedding party, and a few other close friends had decided to stay with us for an after party at the saloon. We had the second school bus at our disposal and could hail it for a ride back to Glacier any time we liked.

All of us curled up on pillows in the sound booth for a little bit and listened to some music that the saloon broadcast over the stage speakers. Then, we headed into the saloon for more drinking and dancing. We still had over half a keg left over! (We gave the keg back to the saloon, which had purchased it, and they refunded some of our money.)

At 11PM, the generators shut off in Polebridge and the saloon was lit by lantern-light. I don’t remember much about this part of the evening because I was pretty intoxicated and still exhausted beyond belief. We stayed for a little longer before heading to the bus and bumping our way back to the hotel.

I slept a bit on the 45-minute ride “home,” but I do remember the bus stopping several times – so the guys could get off to pee in the woods!

And thus, our wedding day came to a close. We crawled into bed near 1AM – not TOO late, but late enough that we didn’t get up until 10AM the next morning to make our first appearance as a married couple.

Next up: Looking back on the day through the details. Stay tuned!