Wedding Wednesday- Tweedlebud Megan's Mountain Wedding

Hi again, it’s Tweedlebud Megan!

Just over two years ago Bryan and I got married in the perfect place...the mountains! Bryan and I had met in Ontario and moved to Invermere, BC in 2006 and knew it was only natural that we’d be married ‘out west!’ Plus, we had a lot of family and friends who needed a reason to finally make the trip out to visit.

Bryan proposed on Christmas Day while we were skating on the lake with my sister! 

Cleverly he did it while my sister was taking our picture...and it was all captured! She later said, “I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept taking pictures!” It’s pretty neat to have them all!!

Since, like Miss Tweedle I am a teacher I knew that the summer was when the wedding needed to take place AND I knew that I wasn’t waiting a year and a half...so that meant a wedding in 6 months!! YIKES! Decisions needed to me be made fast!

I too did all the planning, organizing, decorating etc for our wedding. Okay, I can’t lie, Bryan helped. In fact, I found out that he was far more particular than I expected! I was more of a no fuss, let's just make the decision, we don’t need much kind of bride while Bryan...well...he wanted it all!

We quickly needed to nail down the big ticket items- location, date, invitations, oh and- THE DRESS.

Since we weren’t set on a particular date, this did make it a little easier. Now, this is when living in a small town can be a plus. It was either location A (where Bryan worked) or location B. We chose location B, Fairmont Hot Springs Resort.They have a great ski chalet nestled half way up the mountain that was PERFECT! Thankfully they had a few dates open early July, so we settled on the 17th. Not right once school was out, but not the end of the summer either!

We weren’t sure if we wanted to get married at the chalet or not. Just around the corner from the school where Miss Tweedle and I worked is a really neat old church. St. Peter’s, known to the locals as The Stolen Church.  After checking in out, we knew that was the spot for us. The love story behind the church was perfect and it was just the right size. 

I figured that once those two things were done the next big thing needed to be the invitations. We went the simple route- plain white cardstock with a black boarder. The local print shop did them for us at a steal of a deal. We didn’t bother with RSVP cards as we opted to use a wedding website. The website was perfect for all of our out of town guests as we were able to post great information and links about the big day and things to do in Invermere.

Now we were down to the last BIG thing...the dress. I knew that I didn’t have much time to order and look, so it was off to Vancouver to meet up with my little sis to do some shopping! Well, we hit the jack pot! The second store we went to was a little independently owned place that had ‘the dress!” It was a new sample dress to the store and was in perfect condition. It fit like it was meant for me. The only worry was ordering one in on time. Now this is where I got lucky! The woman at this little shop said- "you can buy this one if you want!!" Well, my sister and I went over the dress from head to toe and couldn’t see a single thing wrong with it, so we bought it! I couldn’t believe it! Only 2 hours into dress shopping, the 5th dress I tried on and we were done!! The only thing the dress needed was proper hooks to bustle it and I knew my Mom could do that!

Now I knew right away who ‘my girls’ would be. My best friend from Ontario, my sister, and two great friends from Invermere. I also knew that it would be hard for them to get dresses that matched and looked good on them all since only two of them lived in the same place. I decided on a colour (keeping in mind that they would look good with mountains and sky in the background) and a fabric swatch from J.Crew and then told the girls to pick! It worked out perfectly. We ended up with 3 different dresses that suited each person perfectly!

A friend of ours is a fantastic photographer and we were lucky she was free to shoot our wedding! We had planned on starting with pictures at this really neat barn and then heading to a few different places but it was HOT! and the barn provided perfect shade. She did an amazing job! Here are some of our favourites from the day from KAP Photography.  

I was extremely lucky to have a very talented hairdresser (who also happens to be a great friend) do my hair and make-up for the day; as well as all the girls' hair too! Now, I knew that I wanted my hair in an up-do. The problem with is was that my hair wasn’t really that long. Just long enough to make it into a wimpy pony tail! This is where Giselle stepped in!! She ordered extensions, highlighted my hair to match them perfectly and made an up-do!! She worked her magic like none other...! I LOVED my hair! At the end of the night I didn’t want to take it out so I slept in it and figured if it was horrible in the morning, I could take it out. Well, it wasn’t!!! I got to have this great hairdo for 2 days!!!

All the little details that came together and each have their own story are so special! My accessories did just that. I could write a post about each one but won’t. Here’s the long and short of it all! The veil- so special because it was borrowed from a bridesmaid who wore it on her big day, along with a few other Invermere friends. Something old- my maternal Grandpa passed away about 4 years ago and my Aunt now has his wedding ring and she let me wear it for the day! My one of a kind, hand made glass bead bracelet, made with love by an amazing local artist. The earrings- also handmade and given to me by a sweet Scottish woman! 

Our wedding cake, is not to be forgotten! It was made by one of my bridesmaids! Not only was she in the wedding and made the cake, but she was 4 months pregnant and running around after an 18 month old!! I’m not sure where she found the time to fit it all in, but we sure were lucky!!

I knew that I wanted a way to share with all of our guests many pictures of our time in Invermere, but I wasn’t keen on a slide show. I wanted them to be able to look at the pictures for longer; to talk about them and share stories! We borrowed paper picture frames from a friend who had used them at her wedding and decided to alter them just a bit, since we didn’t have a similar place to hang them as she did. I gathered up some of my favourite pictures of Bryan and I in Invermere and began to print, sort, cut, glue and tape! The final product was exactly what I was hoping for. When our guests entered the ski chalet they walked right towards this wall. 

It only seemed fitting that our first dance would be outside on the ski chalets big deck with the sun setting over the mountains as the back drop. I can’t really say much more about it, the pictures say it so well!

Lastly, there always are wedding antics and if you know me, I CANNOT resist competition. I just can’t. Leading up to our wedding Bryan and I did a workout program called P90X. At first I wasn’t so sure, but then I learned that my sister-in-law was also on a get-fit-kick. We talked back and forth about our workouts and how we were improving on what I call ‘boy push ups’. You know, the military style- on your toes, not your knees! As the night wore on my maid of honour, who’s also a personal trainer, decided it’d be a good idea to see how all my training had faired and she challenged me to a push-up contest! Like I could say NO!!! She was a good sport and even managed to squeeze 2 more out of me when I thought I was done. 23 push ups in a wedding dress! Yahoo...! 

Now, my sister-in-law saw this happening and figured it was a great time to challenge me too! She figured she’d have me hands down since I had just done 23! Well, she was wrong!! I don’t remember the exact number she made it to, but I do remember a good congratulatory handshake after whooping her!!! 

Our mountain wedding was all I hoped it would be. I loved that it was small, about 70 people. I loved that we were able to visit with everyone without feeling overwhelmed. My brother and sister-in-law are talented videographers and producers and captured most of the day on film. They quickly (literally...it was ready by lunch the day after!!) whipped up this video of the day played to our wedding song. It sure does a fantastic job of capturing it all!