Black Cowboy

It seems like more weddings happen in the month of June. If you have a wedding coming up in the near future, you may be dealing with the planning of the details right now. You’re searching for the right caterer and the reception hall and possibly browsing through invitation books looking for the perfect way to announce to your friends and family of your upcoming wedding celebration. Sometimes the meaning of it all can get lost in the planning. It all can be so overwhelming as it is for many of us these days.

My grandmother often told me that weddings in the olden days were more about the actual ceremony than spending absurd amounts of money. There was very little expense because there was very little to spend.

Outdoor weddings were common and used the beauty of Mother Nature to enhance the ceremony using flowers that were handpicked from the meadows. The wedding dresses were made by hand or handed down through generations. The groom would wear his best Sunday attire. Pot-luck picnics were held following the wedding. The type of gifts people would bring for the happy couple were handmade quilts, homemade jams and jellies or smoked meat. The gifts were more about survival than pleasure.

Some weddings these days seem to focus more on the expense, the latest styles, the hottest fashions and less on the actual marriage vows of two souls. The cost of these types of weddings can become astronomical.

My budget would not allow for an extravagant wedding, but I still wanted a beautiful one. I chose to go back to the simplistic style of years past. I have always been enthralled with the old cowboy life-style and way of living that my grandmother spoke about when I was a child and that was my inspiration in planning my wedding.

My grandmother talked about how they picked a beautiful place by the Snake river where the water flowed peacefully. The white pines soared into the beautiful blue sky and sheltered the area from the bright warm sun. There was a variety of wild flowers spread through out the tall green grass.

My grandfather patiently waited by the rivers edge as my grandmother rode toward him in a black buggy. As she began to walk in his direction, her beautiful white homemade wedding dress glistened in the sun. My grandfather said she looked like an angel walking toward him. When they joined hands in marriage they felt they became as one.

I set out to create much of the same natural inexpensive environment as my grandparents. I found a location near a small stream with lots of beautiful pine trees. Because my wedding was in July, the mountain meadows were filled with a variety of beautiful wildflowers that I included in my bouquet, table centerpieces and cake decoration. We decided to ride in on separate horses rather than using a buggy like my grandmother.

Our invitations were computer generated with a western theme and our included photograph was taken by a family member with a digital camera and printed on an inkjet printer. They looked just as good as a professional design and we received many compliments on them. The best part was we saved oodles of money.

I found a beautiful inexpensive wedding dress for only ninety-nine dollars and I wore a white cowboy hat that I had adorned with a veil. My husband wore a white silk western shirt with a black leather vest and black wranglers. We both wore our cowboy boots.

All other members of the wedding line wore black Wrangler pants with the girls wearing blue western blouses and the men wearing white western shirts. Some wore black cowboy hats and boots. The guests were told they could dress casually and gifts were optional.

We built a hitching post which we placed his and hers saddles upon. We dressed up the posts and saddles with bows. We stood at the hitching post for the ceremony. It may sound a little corny, but it was really beautiful.

The ceremony went well and without a hitch. Many were concerned I might fall off my horse and become an entry on Funniest Home Videos, but little did they know I’m an excellent horse rider and my horse is very gentle. Some commented that it was like watching a fairy tale wedding; which only proves that you can have an inexpensive wedding and it can still be breathtaking.

The reception dinner was held at the same location following the ceremony in a sheltered area. We provided the Dutch oven meat and the guests brought salads and other fixings.

We were fortunate enough to have a relative that makes wedding cakes for a good price. She incorporated the wild flowers into the decorating of the cake and the cake top was a cute cowboy couple. We had live entertainment provided by a family member who played guitar and sang. All in all, our wedding cost under $1000.

My inexpensive western wedding proves that you can have a wedding that is just as meaningful, if not more so, without the overshadowing of glitz and glamour to take away from the original reason, which is, the joining of two souls.