I have known Brandi for years and I can genuinely say in that time, I have never known her to be as happy as I have seen her in these last few weeks. One look through the photos of her and Ryan’s big day and it is plain to see why.
Brandi found her soulmate in Ryan.
In the planning ceremony, the couple wanted to incorporate both a small intimate ceremony of friends and family with a bigger post-vows celebration. The trick with that was finding where to hold both marital vignettes.
They decided to keep to their roots. Tucked high into the hills between Bozeman and Ennis (a halfway point between where Brandi grew up and where she lives now) is the Dykstra Family Homestead. From that sweeping vantage point, Brandi and Ryan said their vows surrounded only by immediate family, closest friends, and absolutely breath-taking vistas.
For those who were on that knoll, wedding was a merging of two lives to the fullest extent. No bride-side, groom-side division. Everyone blended and became one witness for the day. Ryan, with his daughter Katie, and Brandi, with her daughter Rylee, came together for the first time as one singular family as indivisible as grains of sand once they are poured together.
After the ceremony, we all l loaded up into the buses and set off to meet up with the reception that was awaiting the newly weds on their newly sodded, bare foot approved dance floor and reception area in their very own backyard. The evening, complete with a bounce house, a dozen herons flying overhead and a whole lot of music and dancing, progressed under a perfect Montana sky. The following day, Mr. and Mrs. Dykstra disappeared for an entire week embarking on their first of many adventures as man and wife.
