Boho Mountain Elopement Near Bozeman | Jane + Bryant

Ahh, sweet Jane. You may remember her from our 2021 magazine cover contest. The heel kick that won so many, many hearts. Well, here's the rest of Jane and Bryant's darling story and their drop-dead gorgeous elopement in Bozeman's Bridger Mountains – as featured in Montana Bride magazine, Volume 18. Photography by the talented Danielle Lopez.

“Bryant and I met ten years ago in high school French class. After high school, he went off to college in Bozeman, and I started college in Chico, California. We long-distance dated for a year and a half until I moved to Bozeman in 2015. From there, we got our first dog, and we spent our free time camping, hiking, backpacking, snowmobiling, and skiing.

Bryant proposed to me under a frozen waterfall in 17-degree weather in 2018. He chose Palisade Falls because that is the first hike we went on together when I moved to Bozeman six years ago.

For two years, we planned a dream wedding that was to take place at Foster Creek Farm on our nine year dating anniversary with about 200 friends and family. When Covid hit, it was hard to decide how to move forward. A month before the wedding, we postponed everything and asked the wedding party and our immediate family to hike up the mountain and join us in our elopement.

We were supposed to hike down from the ridge to a teal blue lake, but when we reached the top, the lake had dried up sometime in the seven days since we had last seen it. This was just one last change of plans during our already crazy wedding! We stood at the top of the ridge, in the roaring wind, and got married! Our wedding became the biggest blessing and best memory we will ever share.”

OVERNIGHT VISITORS

“Our elopement was not what we had been planning for the previous two years. I work for Tailored and Tied and have a background in interior design. So letting go of a very detailed, large wedding was incredibly hard. We missed having all of our friends and family there, but our day was simply just us. I could not have dreamed of a more perfect way to celebrate than standing at the top of a mountain ridge marrying my best friend.

The best moment of the day was after our first kiss everyone started cheering and our German shepherd, Loki, started howling with excitement so everyone joined in with a big howl.

That night, my now husband and I backpacked down to the dried up lake. I had a friend string nine years worth of photos in the trees and that’s where we set up our tent. During the night we had at least seven big mountain goats in our campsite, and we just watched them quietly pass through in the moonlight. I could not have asked for a more perfect wedding.”

What advice would you give to other brides planning a Montana elopement?

“Think of your favorite moments with your significant other and let that guide your special day. Don’t stress yourself over all of the planning and know that in the moment you are saying ‘I do,’ nothing else matters.”

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT

“I am the biggest over-planner, and in the middle of the ceremony our officiant asked me to place the ring on Bryant’s finger, and I instantly looked up at him with big eyes and said ‘oh my God!’ His ring was in my backpack off in the trees. So, we had a small pause in the ceremony as I ran down the hill in my heels to get his ring while everyone was chuckling. It made the day that much more memorable!”