Teton Anniversary

At the end of July, our family journeyed to the Grand Teton National Park to celebrate our 15th anniversary where we got married!

We loved seeing this special national park again and also sharing it with our two kids.

Steve and I got married in the Chapel of Transfiguration in the national park. This rustic chapel was constructed in 1925. We love this little, lodgepole pine chapel with that amazing window framing the Teton Range!

Enjoy some photos of our visit to the chapel. ❤️

Definitely stop by this beautiful and historic chapel if you’re in the Grand Teton National Park!

P.S. More vacation posts coming!

National Park Wedding

After falling in love in one national park and then getting engaged in another national park, it seemed fitting for us to want to get married in a national park.  Steve and I have visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks the previous year and loved it there! And so, we started investigating the options, costs, and logistics for a wedding across the country and in a national park!

We started planning this wedding in 2003. Mind you, the first iphone came out in 2007. So while we used websites and the internet, we still had to make lots of phone calls, snail mail, and even use the fax machine! (We really aren’t that old, but this sounds old thinking about the technology changes!) Check out my huge planning binder!

 

Wedding magazines helped a lot with ideas and planning suggestions for destination weddings. I remember finding one issue of Martha Stewart Wedding that had a a western-style wedding in it. That wedding incorporated their own western looks into a beautiful wedding. It definitely inspired me to add our own touches to our wedding.

For our wedding, we wanted a mix of a formal wedding, yet set in the national park.  We wanted the wedding to reflect us!

For our attire, we wore a formal wedding dress and tuxedos, but had photos done outside by this famous barn (T.A. Moulton Barn) and at the log chapel (Chapel of the Transfiguration). My dress ended up with some grass stains on the bottom, but didn’t care at all!

S K barn laughing

chapel

We rode a bus as our transportation to photos, the chapel, and back to the lodge.

getting on the busjust married bus

At the reception in the Jackson Lake Lodge, we had a stuffed animal surrounded by berries from our florist as our centerpieces.  Each table had a unique national park stuffed animal and we named each table after a different national park. Our head table was the Grand Teton National Park with a moose.

Reception national park tableStuffed animal centerpieces

We created the wedding and reception into something really special that fit us and our personalities.

Enjoy some more photos from this amazing day!

S k walking by barn

S K hiking by barn

The kiss

Group yahoo at chapel

I would highly recommend having a wedding in a national park!

 

15 years ago…

15 years ago in 2004, a few big things happened!

Greece hosted the summer Olympics.

Hurricane Charley hit Florida, Cuba, and Jamaica.

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918.

President Bush beat John Kerry for a second term.

Facebook is launched.

Martha Stewart gets convicted of a felony and sentenced to 5 months.

A 9.3 earthquake hit the Indian Ocean causing a tsunami that kills around 200,000 people in South Asia and Africa.

Disney released the movie, The Incredibles.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! is published by Mo Willems.

Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in all workplaces including bars and restaurants.

And…

I got married to an amazing guy in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

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July 24, 2004