Meg + Hayden

Story: Maria Brezny - Photos: Danielle Mullens Photography

An Interview with Meg:

Tell us a little bit about your love story.

“We met at Tips Up in Big Sky at the  Ski Bar. Hayden was living there and taking a gap year after school, and he was working property management at Yellowstone and just skiing a bunch. And then I was on a girls ski trip for a couple weeks. So we met at a bar.”

What venue did you get married at and why did you pick it?

“I'm from Boston, and Hayden is from Alabama, and we met in Montana. We were like, this is crazy. We're from across the country from each other. We've moved around a lot for different life things. Right now we live in New Orleans. So, when we were looking to get married, everyone was like, go to Montana. We felt like it was where our story started, so we really wanted to get married there. We ended up looking at a bunch of venues.  We actually never intended on touring Rainbow Ranch. We drove past it when we were looking at other venues, and we were like, "What's that?” and ended up pulling over, and there was a wedding set up already.  We ended up just chatting with them and fell in love with the creek and the awesome scenery and the big yard venue, and that everyone could stay there. We ended up doing our ceremony and our reception at Rainbow Ranch. We did a welcome party for everyone at our wedding the night before at The Riverhouse, which is awesome, and we did a kind of a Western scene, pictures of that are so fun.”

What was your wedding must have?

“Music was super important to us. We had a really fun string trio, The Bridger Creek Boys, who played during our ceremony and at our cocktail hour.  And then we had an awesome live band, the MAC Band, for our reception. They were a blast. We actually spent a lot of time going through all of their “could play” songs and really curating it.  Everyone at our wedding, the feedback was like, oh my gosh, the band was amazing. Every single song was amazing. So we keep telling everyone, go through the playset lists, make sure you know what you don't want them to play and what you want them to play.  So that was big, and I really wanted a tent. We were able to do a sailcloth tent at Rainbow Ranch, which is awesome.”

What was your something borrowed?

“I had a bracelet on that was my grandmother's.  I had super simple jewelry on. I just had earrings, and then just a bracelet that wasn't something borrowed, that super simple silver bracelet, but she always wore it and loved it. So just in memory of her.”

What was your first dance song?

“It's a song called Love Song by Marcus King, who actually, ironically enough, Hayden's from a very small town in Southern, Alabama, and Marcus King is going and performing at this really small venue in a couple weeks, so we're actually going to go see him.”

Was there a detail within the wedding that really made it your own?

“I am obsessed with wedding merch, and Hayden is obsessed with koozies. All of our friends know this about him. Wherever he goes, a bar in Boston in the dead of winter or a beach in the Bahamas, he always has a koozie in his pocket. They go through the washer.  Like, I pulled them out of the washer because they're always in his pants. So we had three different koozies throughout the weekend. We put these really fun koozies into our guest bags, our welcome bags for our guests.  And then we had a koozie for the welcome party at Rainbow Ranch, so it was more Western themed. And then we had a koozie that matched the crest, which was on a decal on the dance floor, on our invites, and it was on the koozie. So I would say merch was pretty big for me.  I love, love merch. I worked with an incredible designer and invite person in Denver, Laney.  She's amazing. We did really cute custom postcards in our welcome bags for our guests. We did two different matchbooks. We did really fun cups.  So it was definitely merch, and then the cool part about that is actually my aunt is an artist. She's a really successful painter, and she was kind enough to create a couple really cool watercolors for us, and she did our crest.”

Did Hayden cry?

“He cried during vows. We decided to do private vows.  We were back and forth on if I wanted to do a first look and not, and I thought I didn't want to do a first look, but our photographer convinced us it was a good idea, just based on timing and what we wanted to do, and how we wanted to be able to go to our cocktail hours. So we did private vows before the ceremony, which was the best decision ever.  He 100% cried. He smashed his vows out of the park way better than mine.”

Who are some of your vendors who went above and beyond?

“Two come to mind. The first one was the person I just mentioned, Laney. She did all of our invitations, and she was so creative and fun to work with. Like I said, she helped me do matchbooks, cups, postcards. She helped me do all my signage for the wedding.  She was just a joy to work with and so excited for us and for all. We went very colorful with everything, like our flowers were crazy and colorful. So she was amazing to work with, my favorite vendor by far.  And then we had a day of coordinator. Her name is Alison Herron. She's out of Bozeman, and she was phenomenal, spectacular to work with.  So helpful. I think I shipped like 50 boxes to her house because we were planning a wedding from New Orleans in Montana. So she was incredible, took all of our crazy ideas and helped them come to life.  And then her friend, Anne Olson, did the florals. I don't think Anne does florals for many weddings, but she smashed the florals, and it was awesome.”

Vendors:

-Bridal Makeup: Beauty by M @beautybym_

-Venue: Rainbow Ranch Lodge @rainbowranchlodge

-Gown: I Do Bridal Couture @idobridalcouturecovington

-Photos: Danielle Mullens Photography @daniellemullensphotography

-Wedding Coordinator: Alison Herron Weddings @alisonherronweddings

-Content Creation: The Aura Editorial @theauraeditorial

-Rentals: Montana Party Rentals @montanapartyrentals

-Cake: Thorn Apple Baking Co @thorn_apple_baking_co

-Reception Band: The MAC Band @macbandmontana

-Bridal Hair: Moody Girl Hair - Emily Mion @moodygirlhair

-Bridesmaid Hair: Emily Young Artistry @emilyyoungartistry