Wedding Blog

Besides our ceremony, the thing I was most looking forward to on our wedding day was the music and dancing. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to hire a band to play live. It’s not that I was all that adverse to an iPod reception or even to a DJ - I’ve been to plenty of weddings that worked well with them - but I love live music, and neither iPod nor DJ seemed to fit into Montana ambiance or our Americana theme. Our wedding just seemed to call for a band - so I started to search for one.

I found our band, Good Wood, as the first hit in a Google search for local Montana bluegrass. After I listened to a few clips, I thought, “Damn, these guys are good.” I made a mental note to come back to them later. Then, I scoured search results, local directories, and MySpace for more worthy bands and could find nothing that compared. So, I listened to every streaming mp3 that Good Wood had to offer, was suitably impressed, and dropped them a line. Two days after we started entertaining the idea of live music, we had booked our band.

Like our photographer, they were the first we found (by random chance) and the only option we really considered. In both instances, we were more than satisfied. There was no choice - it was fate!

After dinner and dessert, our guests were again called to attention by the ringing of a big ol’ cowbell. They dispersed from the tent and made their way back over to the stage area, where we had previously held cocktail hour.

Christian, the lead musician from Good Wood, welcomed our friends and family by walking amongst them playing his red mandolin…

While Christian was on walkabout, the rest of the band accompanied him from the stage, playing on flute, violin, and electric and acoustic guitar…

Our guests arrived to find the wooden tables from cocktail hour decorated with the dahlia-filled jars that had previously hung from shepherd’s hooks along our ceremony aisle. We also set out about fifty tin-can lanterns that Mr. CP and I had hand-punched over the months before the wedding. Each of these luminaries featured a different design and held a long-burning tealight for accent.

As dusk fell and the rain dried, the lanterns, stage lamps, and twinkle lights on the fences provided a warm and welcoming atmosphere…

After everyone had arrived and settled in a comfortable vantage point, the band started the song I’d requested as our first dance… a cover of “Love and Some Verses” by Iron & Wine.

Ever since I first heard “Love & Some Verses”, I knew I wanted it as the first dance at our wedding. Even though it’s not the most well-known love song, it’s always made me tear up, and it seemed particularly complementary to Montana’s ambiance. Because Mr. CP didn’t have a strong preference, we made an easy compromise.

Good Wood did a beautiful job performing the song, and liked learning it so much that they’ve made it part of their regular repertoire.

Mr. Cherry Pie and I felt very much at ease as we took center stage. Even though we’re not accomplished or graceful dancers, we know a few real moves from some ballroom classes in college, and can always fall back on the “high-school sway” if all else fails.

As much as I like the tradition of a “first dance”, I do wish that people thought it acceptable to join in, especially because I’d forgotten that our chosen song was a good four minutes long with a down tempo beat. I felt like we were out there forever with everyone watching!

To give you an idea of how weird it is to be in the spotlight, here’s another photo of us dancing, this time with the camera facing our guests - who are all shooting photos or taking video of their own.

But then, a long solo dance meant that our photographer had more chances to capture great shots like the one below, showing such a tender look on our friend Jaye’s face.

It also meant that Nicole was able to get some shots from a distance (the first three in this post are taken from the sound booth above the “grotto”) and some close-up photos of us slow dancing.

We had hoped for a warm late-summer evening, but this cool, post-rain twilight wasn’t half-bad either. And in these photos, thanks in part to the lights strung along the fence, you can’t tell it wasn’t anything but the most perfect of summer eves.

And, really, it was wonderful to be there, in the ass-end of Nowhere, Montana, dancing with my new husband…

… listening to our amazing, local band play wonderful music. Seriously, now that I’m writing this, sitting in a cafe that’s playing Iron & Wine, I think their version might have been better than the “real thing”.

And, Good Wood had such poise, style, and authenticity. They were very much Montanans - casual, good folk, unpretentious - but they were also extremely professional. They showed up early and stayed late, taking feedback and requests for songs (rock, bluegrass, etc) that they knew, and adjusting their play time to our schedule.

They’re a seasoned group that plays weddings and private events by request - not a band that plays weddings (or cover songs) by default. You can tell they’ve played together a long time, and their music/performances are TOP NOTCH… but they had such an affordable rate - only $1200 for three hours of play time!

Not to mention, they’re so photogenic…

Well, I’ve made our first dance story longer than it really is, but I think you can guess how it ends. He dips me, I dip him for good measure…

… and the band moves from our love song into a much more upbeat number…

Let’s get this hoedown started, y’all!

I have no idea at whom I’m making that “oh no s/he DI-IN’T” face at… I even have video of the offending emote, but I can’t see what I’m looking at. I like to imagine I’m looking at Rachel and Micah’s dancing.

Before we knew it, we’d been separated for an unplanned father/daughter and mother/son dance instigated by my mischievous Maid of Honor.

This is when my dress started to get underfoot. It turns out that my bustle was tied too low on one side causing the dress to drag, but I didn’t figure that out at the time and continued to try to dance while stepping on it and having it stepped on by the rest of my dance partners that evening, until my sister dug her heel in and busted it for good. Oh well!

Anyway, back to the photos… Isn’t my dad a cutie?

And Mr. CP’s mom just looks so happy to be dancing with her son. She was so very proud of him. (As am I… he just recently followed in her footsteps and became a nurse practitioner!)

Our friends and family joined in the dancing. Thankfully, none of them seemed reluctant to boogie, which I admit is the perk of a) having a good band and b) having a good crowd.

Here’s groomsman Jason dancing with his soon-to-be wife, Kelly:

Also, I love this photo of our friends Anne and Geoff, particularly because they look so good wearing their finest Northwest casual/Western wear…

As you can see below, we didn’t have a dance “floor” to speak of, because we thought that bringing an uncovered surface out into the open to get slippery with rain and dust on the uneven grass was just asking for trouble. The bumpy Polebridge lawn was another reason we asked our guests to consider sensible shoes at our wedding.

But everyone seemed eager to dance, and those who weren’t so inclined could rest at the tables/benches nearby and enjoy leftover cake and tarts, beer, wine, Cokes, and cocktails from the “bar” next to the stage.

That doggie above is named Brutus and came with his people all the way from Portland, Oregon, to our wedding. He was fast friends with the Polebridge pups by the end of their stay.

Our considerate liaison at the Saloon also had four nice, strong boys set out this heavy wood stove and light it so that our guests could stay warm. They then filled it with fragrant sage, which smelled very nice.

My littlest sister stayed close to the wood stove. She hasn’t got any meat on her bones yet.

Most everyone kept plenty warm by dancing. We had a few slow songs, but we kept a lot of the music lively so we could keep moving!

Here’s the mister dancing with our officiant, and our flower girl dancing with her daddy…

Everyone was having a wonderful time, and the music just kept on playing…

… until we took over the stage to toss the bouquet and garter!

Next, we classy up the joint by throwin’ stuff at our friends!

[Credits: All original images and post-processing courtesy of Piknik Studios.]

Previously:
Married in Montana: The Rehearsal
Married in Montana: The Girls Get Ready
Married in Montana: The Guys Get Ready
Married in Montana: The Bus Ride to Polebridge
Married in Montana: Pre-Ceremony Preparations
Married in Montana: Staging the Ceremony
Married in Montana: Our Wedding Ceremony (Part 1 of 2)
Married in Montana: Our Wedding Ceremony (Part 2 of 2)
Married in Montana: Receiving Line & Refreshments
Married in Montana: Cocktail Hour
Married in Montana: Bride & Groom Portraits
Married in Montana: Family Photos
Married in Montana: Wedding Party Portraits
Married in Montana: Our Rustic Reception
Married in Montana: Toasting
Married in Montana: Just Desserts
Married in Montana: Making it Official
Married in Montana: Glamour Shots!
Married in Montana: Portraits of Our Guests