BIG SKY, Mont. — Matt Dodd and Ashley Hegseth had a particularly moving experience when they got married at Big Sky Resort. The couple exchanged vows while he skied and she snowboarded on Lone Mountain, with a clergyman officiating and about 30 guests on the slope to watch.
Because the bride is a snowboard instructor, her guests rode snowboards in the Sunday ceremony. The bridegroom is a ski instructor, and his guests were on skis. The Rev. Mike Boucher skied backward to face the crowd, wore a helmet camera during the ceremony and had a ski-mounted lectern that housed a public-address system.
Dodd and Hegseth had struggled with planning a wedding. The decision to tie the knot on a ski slope emerged after an exasperating debate about two weeks ago.
A veil, but not Vail
"I sort of went back and forth on the idea," Hegseth said. "I don't want it to be a joke necessarily, but at the same time neither of us have been the kind of people to take things too seriously."
Dodd wore a black ski jacket and pants, and Hegseth a white ski suit plus a skirt. She also wore a veil.
"Matt has some farfetched ideas that always sound a bit foolish at first to me, but the way he brings these together ... they always seem to work out in the end," said Boucher, a ski instructor who has known the couple for about four years.
A resort reception followed the wedding. Hegseth said a ceremony along traditional lines is planned for July in California.