HELPING OTHERS SAY 'I DO!'

“The big pieces are a lot of physical work,” Karen says. “I started getting tired sooner than I ever had before working with the heavy pelts.”

It wasn’t just the weight of the blankets causing the fatigue. After undergoing test after test, Karen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It explained the fatigue, balance issues and headaches she’d been experiencing. While she contemplated her next career move, memories took her back a decade when she participated in a mountaintop ceremony that still takes her breath away.

“The couple is uber athletic. They are extreme skiers, hiking mountains everywhere,” Karen says. “So, them choosing to get married on a mountain pass just outside Red Lodge is totally something they would do.”

Karen remembers riding her horse Merlin into the wedding ceremony.

“I carried the champagne in my saddle bag and my horse played the role of father of the bride, escorting my friend to the altar. It was one of the most poetic, beautiful weddings I’ve ever experienced in my life. I just bawled the whole way through it,” Karen says.

When her art career had to be put on hold, she says she decided to pursue her second love, which simply is love. She thought she’d become a licensed officiant and end up doing a wedding on occasion for friends or fun. But last spring, she says, “I went pro,” adding, “I never grasped that this would be my life, but I couldn’t be happier about it.” Today, she officiates, on average, one wedding a week. If you ask her, it never gets old. She loves bringing out the personalities of every single couple she marries. “I find the beauty in their souls, and I want them to feel that beauty in their own vows. And of course, who wouldn’t want to be married by a ‘saint,’” she says with a laugh.

One of her favorite parts of the job is to have each couple reflect on what’s important to them in their soon-to-be marriage.

“I tell them to think of their vows like a blueprint for their life and their marriage,” Karen says. “What’s something that is important that you want said during the ceremony that you can think back on throughout your life and say, ‘We committed to this. We made this promise.’”

While a difficult diagnosis might have made her pivot her career later in life, “This just made me reevaluate the trajectory of my career and my life and refocus things,” she says. “I’m finding a true love for connecting people in this way.” ✻

macarons • gelato • pastries • chocolates • gifts

CYDNEY HOEFLE, writer

A fourth generation Montanan, Cydney was raised on a ranch on the banks of the Yellowstone River where an appreciation of the outdoors was fostered. She and her husband raised three children in Billings and are now the proud grandparents of three.

The best part of any of her days is time spent with

Jesus, family, friends, a good book or capturing someone’s story in words.

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THROUGH JANUARY

To Have to Hold

To hang wallon the

LIVINGSTON ARTIST HONORS SPECIAL DAY WITH BRUSH STROKES

written by LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA photography by KATIE MILLER & WHITNEY SCHUG

KAY POTTER is no wedding crasher, but she’s frequently peeking from the sidelines as couples exchange vows. She thrives on their magic moments and she’s a sap for hearing the fateful twists and turns that brought them together. She’s not an invited “wedding guest” per se, yet she’s a welcome face at more and more ceremonies.

Kay is a live event wedding painter. She travels with easel and paints, ready to recreate the magic of that “special day” wherever it may be. With daubs and strokes of color, she strives to capture the singular spirit of the honored couple in a work of art they’ll treasure forever. Her artist’s eye interprets the moment in a medium that no photo could match.

“Painting allows a looseness, a familiarity with something that can grow and change,” she says. “So that in 40 years, it’ll still look like you.”

Kay is particularly adept at what she does because she offers the ideal combination: she’s a trained artist with an outgoing personality.

“Working in the studio can be a little lonely,” she admits. “I really enjoy talking to people while I’m making art.” couple long before the ceremony. She listens for the details that will give context to what she will paint.

“I want them to be connected with everything around them,” she says. “It’s really important to know who they are before going into it.”

Opportunities to chat continue through the wedding reception, as guests drop by to watch Kay’s work take life. For Kay, the highlight comes when the bride and groom first wander over to check out their painting.

“It can be very emotional,” she says. “It’s their first kind of ‘here we are now’ glimpse of their wedding day.”

Although live wedding painters are only recently becoming a “thing,” Kay points out that painting people and places is a centuries-old tradition.

“I like to say it’s a new trend that’s actually a very old trend,” she says.

And as the new/old trend gains popularity, Kay finds that her clients run the gamut. There was the “New York godfather,” who wanted to impress with the best wedding present. And there was the enemies-to-lovers couple, where the bride-to-be spurned her demanding CrossFit coach – until emotions took a dramatic turn