During his speech at the reception the father of the bride said it best when he said "it takes a village". SaraAnn and Torey's wedding came together in a small amount of time with a big amount of love and help from so many people in the surrounding community. I think it says a lot about the couple and the people of Northeastern Montana.
SaraAnn and I are several years apart in school and live thousands of miles away, but we're Facebook friends and keep up with each other's lives via social media. That's how SaraAnn found me. When she asked me to be her photographer I was honored and excited! Her and Torey's situation was similar to mine when I got engaged. SaraAnn was so excited to get married she planned her wedding in a few short months and picked the end of September to do it. Their anniversary is two days and four years after my husband and my anniversary. (Wow, I feel old!) I know how hard planning a wedding on the fly can be and SaraAnn went above and beyond anything I could have done! I was lucky enough to be more than just the photographer who showed up on the wedding day when everything was perfectly put together and complete. Through the power of social media, I got to hear about all the wedding planning ups and down and watch it all come together.
The ceremony site was a very special place. SaraAnn's father, Richard, poured his heart into the lot beside his home where his daughter would be married. It was also the ceremony site for one of his sons. He turned it from a grassy side yard into a beautiful garden ceremony site with colorful mums everywhere. I was very excited when he told me about all the planting, growing and gardening he was going to do, but in the end it blew me away. A lot of love and hard work went into that yard and it payed off. The reds, yellows, pinks and purples were the perfect Fall backdrop for a perfect couple. An outdoor wedding with flowers and greenery like that in late September is pretty rare in Montana! In fact, everyone was worried when the temperatures dipped near freezing for a couple of days before he wedding and people from all over town actually dropped off blankets and sheets to help cover the flowers. Now that's love!
Courtesy SaraAnn Rasmusas
There's a story behind almost every detail of this wedding, but I love how the mismatched benches came about. They were one my favorite parts about the ceremony site. I loved their randomness, color and character! The combination of woods, whites, greens and reds really brought out the colors of the flowers. Glasgow, Montana is a small town and finding enough benches to seat hundreds of people was not an easy task. At one point SaraAnn thought she had enough grey benches lined up for the entire ceremony, but that didn't work out. I'm glad because the fact that they were all different made it that much more special. Every bench had a story. Some of them were built for the special day, many of them were loaned to the family and some even came from 70 miles away!
SaraAnn did a wonderful job with all the details. She told me she wanted the wedding to be a combination of her and Torey. It turned out rustic and romantic just like she had planned! The wood for the white picket fence came from an old abandoned farm building in Larslan and the doors came from an old Catholic church. I loved the reception centerpieces with beautiful flowers, mason jars and antlers. SaraAnn even got succulents on Etsy that were shipped from California!
Courtesy SaraAnn Rasmusas
Everything was perfectly thought out and beautiful, but there was one thing no one could control. The weather in Montana is unpredictable! As I mentioned, an outdoor wedding in late September is a little risky. The forecast was perfect about a week in advance, but as the day got closer, the forecast got worse. Rain on your wedding day is good luck, right? That's what everyone tells a worrying bride, but no bride actually wants it to rain! Mother Nature must be a big fan of SaraAnn and Torey because a huge storm missed the wedding by about ten miles all day long! My husband, a weather guy, made sure to take a screen grab of the radar.
Courtesy Weather Underground
Rain or shine, nothing would have stopped this wedding from being a perfect day. It was beautifully done from every detail, to every speech, to every song. I'm so happy my husband and I got to be apart of it. Congrats to the newlyweds!
Lots of love,
Courtney
