Glacier National Park Elopement: Jenci + Cody

This Glacier elopement was a dream come true for Jenci and Cody, who traveled all the way to Montana to tie the knot in Glacier National Park! They found Marianne Wiest online, who not only held their hand through the process to make it smooth and enjoyable but beautifully captured the whole thing, too!

THEIR STORY

"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 the summer of 2015, I'm going into my sophomore year of college, and he'd recently moved back to our hometown. Our paths crossed thanks to mutual friends, and I find that the 'crush' feeling never faded. 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 traditional 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. We were intrigued by the west and found ourselves planning every vacation to Montana. When we began talking about our wedding (years before 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 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 understood why we were 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 and Application" You just never know when the National Park Service will crash your wedding! Yes, this happened to us, and yes, I was a nervous wreck, but thank goodness I had Marianne by my side." – Jenci