For Lisa and Noah’s Bozeman Montana Kelly Canyon Wedding Day celebration, it was important to return to their cultural roots.

They met two years ago through online dating here in Bozeman. As their relationship flourished over the next two years, Noah would eventually propose to Lisa on his family farm Kelly Canyon outside of Bozeman, Montana. The two currently live in Kirkland, Washington where she works as a computer scientist and he has started his graduate school program with a developing interest in Chinese medicine. When it came time to plan their wedding day, there was no better place to host it than on his family’s farm back where it all began.

Their wedding would be a wonderful hodgepodge of tradition and a unique blend of the couple’s own interests.

Their shared love of medieval fantasy book genres influenced their wedding decorations, outfits and even an honorary object for the day. The wedding party all took turns wielding the wedding couple’s actual battle hammer named “Schmerglehermer”. With a sense of humor throughout, the wedding couple and party included the hammer in the festivities. It was walked down the aisle during the ceremony, guests posed throughout the day with it in photos and it even found it’s way onto the dance floor. I love a couple and community that geeks out together. It was no short of epic.

The bride and groom’s friends and family gathered together on Noah’s family farm to witness the bride and groom’s traditional Quaker wedding ceremony in the Montana summer sunshine.

Tucked back against a large stand of pine trees, they decided on a traditional Quaker wedding ceremony to honor Noah’s family roots. The bride and groom were married “under the care of a Quaker meeting” before God and gathered family, friends, and meeting members — but was for all purposes officiant free. The idea is based on the tenet that only God can join a couple in marriage. Quakers believe that no church official is essential for a marriage to take place. Instead family and friends throughout the hour-long ceremony would occasionally break the silence by stepping up to the microphone to give words of advice, tell stories or well wishes. I found it to be a really relaxing and thought reflective ceremony. To hear the words of the important folks in their lives in front of all was a special way to honor their guests just as much as they were honoring them.

Like all good weddings, they sealed theirs with a kiss surrounded by a roar of cheers from their surrounding loved ones. The wedding celebration moved on to their evening reception at the Lindley Center in downtown Bozeman where dancing, outdoor games, a good steak BBQ and a Greener Visuals Photo Booth were utilized in full force. It was an awesome time and a wonderful reflection of all the things that are important to these newlyweds lives. I could not be more excited for these two. I wish them all the best! -M

To see all of their fun wedding photos, click here.