This Monday

Bryony and Shawn: Getting married in the mountains

Bryony and Shawn grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, which is the third largest city in Wyoming, with a population of 30,000. (Did you know Wyoming only has a population of 500,000? And that there are only one set of escalators in the state? I that I have visited 4 times?) Ever since she was little, Bryony wanted to get married in this little chapel in the mountains.
To get there, first you have to leave Laramie to go to the town of Centennial, population 100. It’s not really a town, it’s more like a street. But I am sure the citizen of Centennial, all 100 of them, would swear it’s a town and not just a gas station and gift shop, so whatever. The chapel where the wedding was at was 7 miles outside of Centennial. That’s how remote it is. You go up into the mountains on a curving road, then leave the road to go on an unmarked dirt path. Needless to say, that remote in the Wyoming meant it was really beautiful.

Instead of emergy from behind doors to walk down the aisle, Bryony and her family emerged from behind a very large set of trees She walked down the stone and dirt aisle to meet her husband, who was in front of the chapel. The ceremony featured a reading by her uncle and sister, and a cute little ring bearer ran down the aisle with the actual rings. I think the best part of the ceremony, though, was that Bryony and Shawn took a moment to go wander off in the beautiful scenery for a moment. .The took just a minute or so, away from all of us, to really be in the moment. While they were doing this, a bagpipe player played his bagpipes. They return, and then finished the ceremony.

After the ceremony, the families gave us sandwitches, cookies, and bottle water to eat. The reception wasn’t for another few hours, so we hung out on the mountainside for a bit. Then, the two girls who I was with and myself decided to go be adventurous and hang out in Laramie. However, we ended up just hanging out at the Starbucks, and then just drove up and down mainstreet about 10 times, before we went to the reception.

The reception was at Bry’s parents house, in their front yard. After watching Bry’s sister decorate the wedding cake, we went to sit at a table. We feasted on venison, that was shot by the groom’s father, fruit salad, and green beans. Bry and Shawn’s first dance was on the floor of the garage. They left the wedding in Bry’s father’s classic old car, and went to spend their first night together as husband and wife in a cabin in the mountains.

Bryony and Shawn live in Iowa, so I get the feeling that their family still in Larmaie did a some of the work. Bry said she only spent about two days planning the wedding! While I am sure she was overexaggerating, what was important to Bry was to be married, and to see all her friends and family gathered together, in the beautiful town she loves so much.

posted by This Monday Morning @ 6:59 PM