Casey wanted to keep the wedding ‘classy with the occasional dash of fun and silly’ – and full of their passions.
Casey discovered a website for Irish wedding traditions
(greenweddingshoes.com/a-mythical-tune-irish-weddingtraditions). “We fell in love with a number of the traditions there,” Casey said. “It seemed appropriate to have
some Irish traditions given our ancestry and the place
where Lonnie proposed.” The site helped word the ceremony and vows, which fit in well with their lifestyle and
choice to use a close friend to perform their ceremony. The
couple chose to add a Handfasting: joining the right and
left hands, wrists crossed, ribbon is wound over and under
the hands to create the infinity symbol.
Before the wedding, Casey’s father threw a little element
of tradition into the mix – “the sweetest thing,” as Casey
explained:
“While planning, I came across this version [of the old
poem]: ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a nickel in her shoe.’ I happened to ask my parents one night while we were visiting
them if they had heard that, and it was new to them as
well. A few weeks before the wedding, my dad asked me
for a moment, He gave me an Irish sixpence, or nickel. He
had done some research, and found that it was tradition to
give the bride a sixpence for luck on her wedding day. He
also gave Lonnie a money clip with a sixpence on it.”
The reception had a true Wyoming flavor – a formal event
held at the Museum of the American West’s livery stable in
Lander. “We had decided we wanted to have a reason for
everyone to get dressed up (not all that many [reasons] in
small-town, Wyoming!), so we designated it formal.” The
unique combination gave the event a real flair – but what
about those guests who arrived under-dressed? “For about
a year, I gathered bad ties from the thrift shop, which we
started calling ‘shame ties’ to have at the reception for
those guests who would inevitably show up in jeans and a
tee,” Casey explained. “Not many did, actually, but the ties
were a hit!”
More unique decisions were made based on the couple’s
interests and Irish passion. “I knew I wanted blue in the
wedding because Lonnie looks amazing in a blue tie,”
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Casey said. “He loves yellow tulips, so that decided the
color scheme for me!” Instead of rice or bird seed, the
couple had ‘make-up bells’ distributed for use at the
ceremony and arrival at the reception. An Irish tradition,
a wedding bell kept in the home would be rung when a
couple was arguing – the bell was designed to call an end
to the conflict. Bells were also believed to ward off evil
spirits, and make-up bells were a reminder of a couple’s
wedding vows. The couple chose a unique design for their
rings that featured wood on the inside. “We both felt [they
are] a lot warmer than a big, shiny rock – which I was also
terrified I’d lose,” Casey explained.
The addition of special wedding vendors made the day extra memorable – friends Jared Rogerson and Tara Bolgiano
of Blushing Crow Studio, both from Casey’s hometown
of Pinedale. “Jared and Tara were the two things we knew
were going to be at our wedding from the start,” Casey
said. (See inset for Casey’s recommendation of Tara!)