Island Park Wedding by Jodi Miller Photography
This sweet West Yellowstone wedding has captured my heart with its bright primary pops of color and homespun goodness. This small, intimate wedding is filled to the brim with the cutest DIY bits including origami paper crane escort cards and colorful potted table markers. But my absolute favorite part of this fete is the fact that the bride and groom personally served all forty-five guests dinner because as they said, They were our guests after all, why wouldn’t we take the time to serve each and every one of them their dinner? Jodi Miller Photography was there to capture all the special moments and details and as always, there’s so much more to see in the gallery!
Click here to see the entire gallery of images!
From the Bride…My husband and I both wanted a simple, affordable wedding, something “no fuss and no muss” that represented our personalities. When we sat down to talk about our wedding, three priorities were set: stay within our $10,000 budget, a small enough wedding that would focus on family and community rather than on ourselves, and a wedding full of pretty handmade details that not only represented our personalities but told a story as well. We managed to keep those goals, except for maybe the “no fuss,” bit.
Choosing our location was easy enough. I had always wanted to get married on a desert island with very few people around. Since the desert island was most certainly out of our $10,000 wedding budget, I compromised when Ben suggested the Greater Yellowstone Area. Both Ben and I grew up out West. His parents live in West Yellowstone for the summer and most of Ben’s fondest childhood memories are from his summers up there. The decision was really a no brainer. West Yellowstone was far enough away to feel reclusive like a desert island and it was most certainly beautiful, but I still had the added benefit of a wedding near a small-town home. We lucked into our location at Harriman State Park with its absolutely stunning views and shockingly affordable prices. With Harriman, we were able to not only invite our nearest and dearest to come spend the day celebrating with us, but we were able to invite them to come spend a whole holiday weekend with us. We got to see all of our 45 guests the day of our wedding, and we got to spend the two days leading up to the wedding sitting down and catching up with those family and friends. We tried out best to make the weekend an unforgettable and fun vacation for our guests. We even did away with having the caterer or a buffet serve our guests dinner and took on the job ourselves. They were our guests after all, why wouldn’t we take the time to serve each and every one of them their dinner?
The rest of our other major planning components, the caterer, the flowers, the minister, the chairs, all came from my mother-in-law’s friends and acquaintances in town. The small town of West Yellowstone—population of about 1,511—really came through for us. It seemed like every time I turned around someone asked about our wedding or was offering to help in some fashion. People loaned us towels, sheets, and pillows (one of the houses at the ranch didn’t have any). A few friends offered up their houses for any guests who planned on coming early or staying after the wedding weekend. One friend even offered to take care of anyone who got sick during the weekend (thankfully no one did). Our caterer gave us an excellent deal and cooked some of the best food I’ve ever had. And our small town florist created arrangements that rivaled those of big time city florists for probably half the price. Without the help of the community of West Yellowstone, we more than likely would have blown our budget. Their support gave us yet another reason to appreciate the importance of community.
There were so many small and large details that went into our wedding weekend. Each small part of our wedding has a special memory or story attached to it. The strings of cranes and water bombs would never have been completed if our girlfriends hadn’t come together to help us string them at the last-minute. The escort cards would never have been finished if our maid of honor’s sister didn’t sit up into the wee hours of the morning with me learning how to fold cranes, and they would have never been displayed or handed out if our groomsman’s family didn’t pitch in to help put everything together the day of the wedding. As I look back now, what I remember most is not the breathtaking scenery of the countryside that surrounded us or the flowers or decorations or any of the other components that went in to the actual wedding. What I remember most is the loving community that surrounded us that weekend. We ended up getting exactly the kind of wedding we wanted. We came in within our wedding budget. We had a small intimate wedding with 45 guests. And our guests were involved in pretty much every small detail and memory that made our wedding the special event that it was.
Wedding Photography: Jodi and Kurt of Jodi Miller Photography / Venue: Harriman Ranch State Park / Florist: Sagebrush Floral / Caterer: High Altitude Catering / Wedding Cake: Bonnnie Hansen (Family Friend) / Reception Dress: Bygones Vintage Clothing / Hairpiece: Fiber & Stone / Groom’s Attire: Brooks Brothers / Groomsmen Attire: J.Crew / Bow Ties: Divine Domestication / Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew / Bridesmaid Necklaces: Margiezbeadz (Stephanie’s Grandma) / Officiant: Rev. Benn McCracken / Invitations, Origami + Flower Pots: The Bride + Groom / Centerpiece Dish Towels: Anthropologie
8 Comments about “Island Park Wedding by Jodi Miller Photography”
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This is gorgeous!!!
Your invitations are absolutely darling -- I have been looking for something like this everywhere but have not found anything I liked this much! Did you do it completely yourself?? Any advice or tips on how you did it? Thank you :)
Fantastic images but how do you stay within a 10k budget when your photographer alone charges almost 5k?
The color palette is amazing!!! Gorgeous!!
Kelly: We got our invitations (the main invitation and the general rsvp card) from Minted. And since we were on a a really tight budget, I made up the other information cards myself (with a free trial of adobe illustrator), using the minted invites as inspiration. The colors were a little off and the borders didn't quite match, but you can't really tell in the pictures.
Julie: Our photographers were certainly the most expensive part of our wedding, but we knew that when we started planning. So we kept to our budget by planning very very carefully. We've always loved Jodi and Kurt's work, so we knew that we wanted them to be with us. We had to cut some corners, but in the long run, it was definitely worth it. Not only were our pictures stunning, but we also had the wonderful opportunity of working with the two of them and getting to spend the weekend with them (they were included in our 45 guest count). It also probably didn't hurt that my mother-in-law has some experience with planning special events on a tight budget. We borrowed most of our stuff (like the chairs, cake plate, candles and all the other little stuff that adds up) from her or from her friends. I think the only decorations that we actually paid for were the pots and the paper for the origami (both of which were on clearance).
Gorgeous photos for a beautiful wedding that had a truly touching and inspiring story. Thank you so much for sharing this!
WOW! even though this wedding was on a budget the photography is of such high quality you can't notice! and anyway, I like the DIY feel you get from budget weddings.
I love your flowers!! Can you tell me what is in the bouquets? They are gorgeous!