Katie & Oliver: A Big Yellow Barn Wedding in Belgrade, Montana
Katie and Oliver told their guests to wear the fanciest thing they owned. Not “cocktail attire.” Not a dress code with three tiers of explanation. Just wear the best thing in your closet, and if that happens to be the outfit you got married in, even better.
People listened. There were tuxes, there were period pieces, and there was one of Katie’s closest friends in a full wedding dress. By the time the reception got going on June 7, the Big Yellow Barn was full of gowns and suits that had already had a wedding day of their own. Best dressed crowd I’ve photographed, and it set the tone for everything that came after.
Why they picked the Big Yellow Barn
Two reasons, and only one of them is about the view.
A lot of Katie’s friends work service jobs. The barn sits seven miles north of Bozeman on Springhill Road, close enough to town that nobody had to burn a tank of gas or book a room to show up, and everyone could sleep in their own bed at the end of the night. When you’re asking people to give up a Sunday in June, that matters more than most couples think it does.
The other reason is the Bridgers. The barn faces them. Katie and Oliver met training Aikido, and their first hike together, before they were even dating, was North Cottonwood toward Sacagawea Peak. They turned around short of the top when a snowfield and a setting sun got in the way. Eight years later they got married looking straight at that ridgeline.
Almost everything was made by hand
Katie loves color, specifically color arranged in rainbow order, and she was not going to compromise on it. She and Oliver dyed every tablecloth and napkin themselves until they had the run of color she wanted. Her hairpieces were made by friends. Her flowers were done by her friend Bonnie. She wore a pearl pendant that belonged to Oliver’s grandmother. The dress, from Plume Bridal and designed by Justin Alexander, was intentionally enormous, and she wanted it photographed that way.
Katie had originally pictured a potluck wedding. The guest count made that impossible, so they got as close as they could. Friends cooked the hors d’oeuvres, the meat and cheese trays came from Chalet Market where both of them used to work seasonally, and the two of them made bar syrups out of rhubarb and lavender from their garden and huckleberries they picked themselves.
Two first looks
Katie did one with her dad first, against the yellow siding on the end of the barn. He turned around, opened his arms, and did not entirely keep it together.
Then Oliver. He was standing out on the grass with his back to her, waiting for a tap on the shoulder. Katie walked up and slapped him on the butt instead. He turned around already laughing. Whatever nerves were left in the day went out of it right there.
The ceremony
It was supposed to be outside. It wasn’t, because June in Montana does what June in Montana does. They moved it into the barn, and nobody spent any energy on it. Not the couple, not the guests, and not Killian, who handled the change without making it anyone’s problem.
Katie came down the aisle with her dad. Instead of walking back out at the end, Oliver picked her up and carried her, a nod to the Finnish tradition of wife carrying.
The part they were actually looking forward to
Neither Katie nor Oliver likes being the center of attention. When I asked what they were most looking forward to, the answer was everything after the vows. Food, friends, music.
Gather 406 did dinner buffet style on purpose, so nobody had to commit to one entree months in advance and everyone could try everything. Katie had been thinking about the chicken since the day of the tasting. Kaitlyn at Sweet and Tarte made cakes in several flavors on the same logic. Emily at 406 Mobile Bar built a list with real staples, a couple of specialty cocktails, and mocktails that weren’t an afterthought. Their first dance was “Over the Moon” by Future Folk, and Missy O’Malley kept the floor busy the rest of the night.
The dress did not make it
Back to Katie’s friend in the wedding gown. It did not fit him, and it fit him less as the night went on. Every few songs it slipped a little further down, and nobody involved made any attempt to stop it. By the end he was out on the floor dancing with Katie, both of them in white, his gown having given up somewhere around the waist. Nobody at that reception was trying to look dignified. That was the whole point.
And then the sky cleared
The weather was bad all morning and stayed bad through most of the afternoon. Around dinner it started to break, and by the time the light dropped the sky put on a show: pink and blue over the barn roof, the Bridgers going dark behind it. We stole Katie and Oliver for a few minutes when it got good, and then they went back inside to their people.
When I asked them to describe the feel they wanted, the answer was jovial, fun, loving, silly, cake. They got all five. They called the whole day a thank you to the people who helped them get where they are, and that’s what it felt like to photograph.
The vendor team
- Venue: Big Yellow Barn | bigyellowbarn.com
- Planning & Design: Events by Killian
- Catering: Gather 406
- Bar: 406 Mobile Bar
- Hors d’oeuvres, meat & cheese: Chalet Market
- Cake & Dessert: Sweet and Tarte
- Hair & Makeup: Christian Zamora Studio
- Dress: Plume Bridal, designed by Justin Alexander
- Florals: Bonnie Barnhart
- DJ: Missy O’Malley
- Photography: Charles Moll Photography
Planning something similar?
If you’re getting married around Bozeman and you want coverage that stays out of the way and lets the day be what it is, I’d love to hear about it. If you are still deciding on the venue, I wrote a full guide to Big Yellow Barn weddings covering capacity, what the rental includes, and the rain plan. You can also browse more Bozeman wedding venues while you’re planning.
