Jenci & Cody

It’s 2011 I’m a freshman and he’s a senior. I have the biggest crush on him but don’t dare mention it. Fast forward to summer of 2015, I’m going into my sophomore year of college and he’d recently moved back to our hometown. Thanks to mutual friends our paths cross and I find that crush feeling never went away. It was that first love, couldn’t get enough of it, staying up all night on the phone kind of feeling. It’s like our souls already knew each other. So, after graduation I moved in with him and a year later, he proposed in a cabin on the Des Moines river. Of course, I said “yes,” even though all I could think was, “finally!”

Growing up in Iowa the standard wedding is hosted in a barn style venue. I never imagined my wedding being any different until I met Cody. He wasn’t interested in a barn wedding or a long invite list. Both of us being intrigued by the west found ourselves planning every vacation to Montana. When we began talking about our wedding (years prior to a proposal), a Montana wedding was all we ever discussed. He found a link, “How to Elope in Glacier National Park,” that took us directly to Marianne’s website. I was instantly sold!

We made it our own special day by taking a few of our closest family and friends for a short intimate wedding where we threw back shots, ate cake on the tailgate of a truck and watched the sunset on top of Logan’s Pass. Now, our family and friends understand why we are in love with the great state of Montana.

If you’re planning to elope in a National Park be sure to get and submit your “Special use Permit Application.” You just never know when the National Park Service is going to crash your wedding! Yes, this happened to us and yes, I was a nervous wreck but thank goodness I had Marianne by my side.