Road Trip: Montana Wedding Part 2

And then there was a wedding!

Father of the groom, Uncle Butch, performed the ceremony.

Flower girl with all the sass (to match the bridesmaid!) Cousin Brooklynn

Brother of the bride and sister of the groom stood on the "correct" sides, and then switched to support their sibling!

The setting was gorgeous!  At one point the bride and groom went over and stood on this bridge just for a minute.  When they came back his dad had put on a tall white hat with a gold cross and started going "Mawwaige, mawwaige is wot bwings us together today" and everyone cracked up!  Unfortunately the hat wouldn't stay on in the breeze and I didn't catch a picture of it.  That and the sound decided to cut out right then, but we all knew what he was doing anyway!

Kiss the girl!

There was coloring on the paper tablecloths, cousins are happy!

There was an ice cream bar for dessert, and Joy will one day hate me for this photo, but it's too cute not to post.  Don't mess with a toddler's ice cream!

With Grandma and Aunt Priscilla!

Cousin Cassia was DONE.  Uncle Brian had a turn holding her and trying to get her to calm down.

Dancing with Aunt Priscilla!

These girls LOVE to dance.  They had so much fun.  When they weren't making a running dash for the open door on the other side of the hall!

Cousin Brooklynn showing off her dance moves!

Unfortunately because of said dashing and the time we didn't get to stay for much after dinner, just the parents of the couple dances.

Aunt Sheila and Joktan.  Happy wedding!

Road Trip: Montana Wedding Part 1

So, now that it's two months later and our summer of all the crazy is over I have a few minutes to actually get to the pictures I took... back in June!

We left off leaving Yellowstone a day early due to crazy hail and rain. We went back to spend the night with my friend in Bozeman and the next day headed over to Billings for Brian's cousin's wedding.

We stayed at a KOA, which was world's apart from the campground in Yellowstone... we even got a Kabin the first night as we heard it was going to rain again... it did!

The boys climbed this tree and then Noah realized just how far off the ground he was.

Daddy to the rescue!

I have zero pictures from the rehearsal dinner that night, but it was fun.  Time to see most of the family and have yummy food.  Also, the boys having (pool) noodle fights with cousin Keenan.

The next morning we went swimming with Auntie Allison and Cousin Cassia, who got in from Africa at midnight!

Then we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch... sorry, we were not impressed.

These cousins are stair stepped exactly 1 1/2 years apart.  Miss Brooklynn.

Brooklynn's mom Cassandra, and Cassandra's mom, Aunt Cindi!

After a mad dash to change into wedding clothes in Aunt Priscilla's hotel room we made it to the site for family pictures.  Noah fell asleep on the way so he was kind of cranky.

Then to entertain little girls for over an hour until the wedding starts... look Mommy, I'm picking the flowers that are part of the landscaping!  Whoops!

Tea for two!

The monkeys were from Aunt Eloise.  All the kids got one and they were a hit!  Sadly Noah's got switched for William's in August so it's taking a trip to Africa for adventures and hopefully we can trade back in December!

By the time the wedding actually happened we had to put the girls in our baby packs and pace at the edge of the seating area.  But otherwise they did really well.

The groom, Joktan, and cousin Cassandra

Cousin Cassia was distraught after many many hours on a plane and little sleep.  But shredding the grooms boutonniere was fun!

Gorgeous flowers as centerpieces

Joktan proposed to Caitlin after a long hike to the top of Granite Peak.  He actually hiked it once the day before to leave his guitar up there so he could surprise her!

Sadly, the ring got left at base camp on a rock wall and I'm not sure if they ever got it back even though he hiked up again the next day to try and find it.

Next post: actual wedding pictures!  This is why I will never be a wedding photographer, I don't have time to edit that many photos!

Wordless Wednesday: Big Sky Wedding

This wedding, of Brian's cousin, was the impetus for our trip to Montana and Yellowstone last week.  And of the whole week, the wedding turned out the best.  It was perfect!

Babies at a wedding

This past weekend the girls and I went on a road trip with my mom to a family wedding.  My cousin's daughter was getting married.  I haven't seen them in years, but I was in her wedding when I was 4 so it was appropriate!

The girls wound up with a new tea set from the lady we stayed with.  Her granddaughters have outgrown it and they had a blast playing with it all weekend.  Hope has been playing pretend with me at home for awhile now, "drinking" out of the stacking cups that we have here and sharing with me so this was perfect!

The wedding was Saturday afternoon in a beautiful old church... that had horrid lighting for pictures.  Not that I would have gotten many trying to keep babies quiet and entertained anyway!  They did really well and there were half a dozen other small children in attendance so I didn't feel too bad when they made little noises anyway.

The bride's niece, Averie, was the younger of two flower girls and she was adorable!  Waltzing down the aisle and forgetting to drop her petals until she looked back and saw the older one doing it.  Then dropping hers by the handful!

After the wedding we moved to the Lincoln Center for the reception.  It was a very cool vintage building... again with horrid lighting.  Here the girls are waiting (and waiting) for things to get started.

The dance floor was vacant while everyone milled around, but there was music playing.  I let the girls down and they danced their way across the floor.  It was completely adorable and Joy was even swinging her dress with her hands.  Unfortunately I couldn't chase and take photos at the same time.  And I would have had to use my flash anyway.

Audrey and Spencer!

The reception was lovely, my cousin had all the little details to make it fun.  From an old key on a tag with your table number to a popcorn bar for dessert and everything in between.

First dance!

The only downside was the photographer "crew".  Perhaps I am just ultra sensitive to this, but they were obnoxious.  There were three of them and they were completely in the way of everything.  You'll notice the cropping is a bit weird in the above photo... because the below is the original that I took without cropping.  And the guy with the video camera was actually circling them on the dance floor!  I didn't even bother to take pictures of the cake cutting because the three of them effectively made a wall in front of the bride and groom so not only could the guests not take any pictures they could barely see what was going on!

The bride's parents gave a toast and then played a music video they had created set to Welcome to the Family.  Oh yes, you must watch it!  All the people in it are the bride's immediate family!  It brought down the house!

We didn't get to stay too late, but had fun and the girls did amazingly well!