Weddingbee Blog

( My bridesmaids and I on our personal “limousine” )

When planning our wedding, we decided to use school buses as wedding shuttles for several reasons. First, our venue (Polebridge) was about 20 miles from the Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park, and a number of our out-of-town guests weren’t renting cars. Second, about 12 miles of the road to Polebridge are rough and unpaved—we knew that some people might not be comfortable with rural driving and we wanted to make it easy for them. Finally, we wanted our guests to be safe coming back from the wedding in the pitch dark, after a night of drinking.

We asked our guests to RSVP if they wanted to ride the shuttle to and from the wedding, and when we got a good response, we booked two buses. We staggered departures from both the Lake McDonald Lodge and our rooms at Apgar Village and return trips at 10PM (when the music ended) and 12AM (when we figured the after-party would end). We then distributed this information to the guests’ rooms in packets I put together the week before the wedding.

I was looking forward to socializing with our friends on the bus, so imagine my surprise when we were only joined by two guests. At the time, I just assumed that most everyone had chosen to take the earlier bus with Mr. CP and his groomsmen– but it turned out that there were only a handful of people on his bus, too!

In the end, because more guests rented cars and car pooled than we estimated, the buses ended up acting as personal limousines, rather than wedding shuttles. But at a grand total of $370 for a whole day’s service, I think it was a worthwhile expenditure… not to mention the great chauffeuring we got (particularly on the ride home when all of us drunkards made the driver stop multiple times for in-the-woods potty breaks!). Having the buses as “props” also enabled us to get some truly unique photographs. Check it out!

Boarding the bus, I stopped to have an “en vogue” moment, probably just making sure I wasn’t walking on my train, which I was (at this point) still concerned about getting dirty:

A school bus ride also allows for some unique photo angles. Look at my phatty bun!

Everyone seemed to regress to the proper “bus riding” posture: hands on the seat in front of you…

Except Amy… she was having none of that.

The trip to Polebridge was scheduled for an hour because of the rural route, but we knew road conditions were good and that it would take us closer to only 35 or 40 minutes. It was enough time for me to start feeling extremely giddy. I needed some hand-holding from my best friend, Rachel, so I could calm down and stop bouncing. She’s wearing the bracelet I gave her as a gift at the bachelorette party.

I couldn’t stop smiling, laughing, and gabbing. I felt like an absolute love-struck fool…

The bus did well on the dirt road, bumping along like a champ.

In fact, it was only a few minutes until we caught up with the boys’ bus, which had been delayed at the far end of the lake picking up some guests. See them down a little ways along the road?

We had to make sure our windows were sealed tight to keep out the dust spit up by the road. But because it had rained the night before, there was very little dust– much less than I’d seen on dry days.

We passed along the North Fork of the Flathead River, and saw it was snowing lightly on the distant peaks. There were some dramatic clouds, but so far the day seemed determined to stay dry:

Our photographer, Nicole Tavenner, took hundreds of photos on the bus. The light was great, but she was worried that none of them would turn out due to the unpredictable bumping. So many of them came out beautifully, and are on my list of favorites…

She even got a couple very cool shots of my boots:

And, as if we needed reminding that we were deep in the remote reaches of Montana, we passed a herd of free-ranging cattle just outside Polebridge:

Suddenly, the bus in front of us was turning onto the half mile-long drive into the town…

And there it was! The Polebridge Mercantile, a red beacon heralding our arrival, and behind it, our reception tent:

We pulled up in front of the saloon just as Mr. CP was disembarking. Afraid he would catch a glimpse of me, I held up my veil to block the window from his view:

Once he was safely inside the saloon, we gathered our belongings and trotted off the bus. I couldn’t seem to go down the stairs with someone else holding my train, and finally decided it was best to do it myself:

So, there we were… a long way from home and ready to wed. But with over an hour to the ceremony, we had just a little more time to bide before we could call each other husband and wife.

Up next, my regrets, and a brief intermission as we wait for the wedding to begin.

[Credits: All images courtesy of Piknik Studios.]

Previously:
Married in Montana: The Rehearsal
Married in Montana: The Girls Get Ready
Married in Montana: The Guys Get Ready