Lacey Middlestead is a Montana native and freelance writer currently living in Helena, Mont. She loves meeting new people and helping share their stories. When she’s not busy writing articles for newspapers like the Independent Record and Helena Vigilante, she can usually be found indulging in her second greatest passion–playing in the Montana wilderness. She loves skiing and snowmobiling in the winter and four wheeling, hiking, boating, and riding dirt bikes in the summer.
Montana was founded by adventurers, dreamers, and fearless rebels who sought to create a life for themselves grander than any conventional plan laid out for them. The funny thing is, these are the same types of people you find in true love.
On September 12, I joined the ranks of all the adventurers, dreamers and fearless rebels who’ve gone before me who lost themselves in love and pledged their life and all that they are in vows of marriage. On that day I married my best friend, the one who completes me and the one whom my soul loves.
I think most anyone would agree that a Montana wedding is something truly unique. It’s not because there’s magnificent landscapes as the backdrop to a couple’s day. It’s because a love harvested under the Big Sky is one that is blessed with both grace and grit. And there were dozens of tiny details of mine and Andy’s day that demonstrated just that.
I wore a gorgeous pair of Corral bone leather boots that had delicately embroidered white flowers on one side. They were my piece of grit and recalled the tomboy I’ll always be at heart. My wedding dress, on the other hand, was without a doubt my piece of grace. Designed by Augusta Jones, it had a gorgeous lace and beaded top with a lavish silk skirt that floated and billowed like a cloud. The way it moved reminded me of all my years of ballet lessons growing up and always trying to achieve that ethereal grace when I moved. Both my engagement ring and wedding band were my “something blue” with their alternating diamond and Montana Yogo sapphires in the band. Montana will always be my first love and the place Andy and I first met and fell in love so it was entirely meant to be for my ring to have a piece of Montana in it too. Around my neck I wore a tiny white gold and diamond cross given to me by my in-laws two years ago on Easter when I was baptized into the Catholic Church. I wore it as a reminder of the commitment I’d made to my faith and to always keep God at the heart of my marriage.
And the details continued far beyond what I wore.
In both my bouquet and the bridesmaids were scattered sunflowers. To me, sunflowers are the perfect representation of love. They grow wildly and in the places you least expect a flower to survive. Their bright color can’t help but make you smile whenever you look at them. And most importantly, sunflowers always turn their faces to stay focused on the light. And in love…..staying focused on the good, on God, on what is still to come, and the passion inside is what will always allow love to endure.
Instead of a guest book, we had our friends and family sign two motocross jerseys upon arriving at our reception. They were the same jerseys with “Save the Date 9/12” split between the backs that we wore for a special photo shoot on our dirt bikes to put on our Save the Date cards. Our love for all motorized sports was carried over to the tables as well with metal table numbers that looked like tiny sprockets. Andy and I never have been the traditional couple after all And like I said, real love is found between the adventurers and the rebels.
Our wedding cake had a huckleberry filling in memory of all the hot August days we spent hunched over bushes picking huckleberries in the woods outside Lincoln, Montana. We carried our huckleberry love a step further by giving tiny jars of jam as favors to all of our guests. No matter where they heralded from, everyone took a piece of Montana home with them that day.
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think that their wedding day was the most beautiful one of all. And truthfully…each one is. Within each couple’s day lies an element that is entirely and magnificently unique to them. It isn’t the dress the bride wears or the way the groom drifts his new wife across the dance floor. It is their love. Like a snowflake, no two loves are ever the same. Mine and Andy’s love is one filled with both grace and grit. But if you’ve ever been to Montana you’d probably understand why that is. Like dreamers, we both hoped for a love someday to carry us through our days. Like adventurers, we have confronted all of the challenges of a relationship and chose to push forth through each one. And like rebels, we embarked on the greatest story ever told on September 12 without a fear or doubt in our hearts.