Montana Destination Weddings
By Kris King
Photos by Audrey Hall
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Keith Wedding, Montana
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Katalin Green has vision and drive. The vision to market Montana’s natural beauty as a backdrop for destination weddings and the drive to make it happen. Green’s nuptial empire includes Katalin Green and Associates Event Design, Montana Bride Magazine, Avant Bridal Shop, and Avant Floral. While she also oversees special events, weddings are her bread and butter.
When casting and scripting the “Happiest Day of Your Life,” as weddings are often called, it makes sense to hire an experienced director to work with the crew, cast, and starring couple to assure rave reviews. Yes, putting on a wedding is not unlike making a movie; it requires a litany of behind the scenes details, costume design, a soundtrack, and a visual feast in which the viewers watch a meticulously choreographed story unfold to a happy ending. In this scenario, couples actually can ride off into the sunset at the end. Green says of her work with clients, “Every little detail is thought of. We listen. We work with their style, personality, and budget to pair the right vendors and execute their vision. We exceed their expectations. We create incredible visual environments for the photographers to document.”
Green’s Fine Arts education focus was installation, and she says, “I look at all weddings visually; the flow, colors, and texture – we’re creating installations. I like coming into a room and transforming it with light, and the way all the different elements play off each other to make an impact. It doesn’t have to be lavish, but needs to be well-balanced. The fun part is working with the client to create that — extrapolating from what they want, and then creating it.” She lists a winter wedding as a favorite example of pulling everything together thematically and visually: “They came in on a horse drawn sleigh with the sleigh bells ringing. The 320 Ranch was transformed with snowberries draped on the wagon wheels hanging from the ceiling, flower arrangements of red dogwood and hydrangea, and white pinecone candles on the tables with magnificent snowflake cookies and a pinecone wedding cake.”
Green has a degree in Fine Arts, worked in television for years, and combines these skills to envision and orchestrate uniquely Montana-flavored events. She moved to Montana in 1991 to manage an ABC affiliate in Bozeman. When asked about the region where she has made her home, Green says, “I love the area and love what it has to offer. I love fishing and hunting here but sadly, as an event planner, I don’t have time for that now.”
Green’s television production experience and proclivity for visual creativity position her to be a successful event planner, but she has gone much further in developing an entirely new industry in the region. Green had a vision of launching her own business marketing the area as a destination vacation resort. She explains the genesis, “I attended a wedding in Kauai and saw how the Islanders worked, and saw how it was a template I could use as a form of tourism; hence Montana Bride was created.” She began by trademarking “Montana Bride,” and producing Montana Bride Magazine which segued into the current Katalin Green and Associates Event Design. “It was a transition; I started the magazine and then the event planning evolved.” Green adds, “I’ve seen tons of growth in local venues, caterers, and vendors. There’s a trickle-down effect from people coming here for the Rocky Mountain experience.”
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Table setting Montana Wedding
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There’s a different dynamic in weddings where the bride, groom, and guests come from outside the area, rather than locally. People aren’t just taking a few hours off from their busy lives to celebrate the nuptials. “Guests are truly relaxed and have a great time. They are far removed from home and make the most of the little window to see Montana and enjoy their journey,” Green observes, “People often buy land here afterwards.” The element that makes marketing Montana to far-flung “destination brides” feasible is web-based outreach and interface. Green says of her oft-updated web site, “We have a web designer who specializes in search engine placement. That’s what I credit our international client success to. The Internet has been incredible for this service because we reach a global market.” She adds, “Clients call us from all over the world.”
Many people are unfamiliar with what wedding planners do for a living. In the past, the bride often pulled things together with help from family and friends, but today’s weddings are more often envisioned and financed by a busy working couple. Green says, “There are so many hours involved in the execution of an event. Hiring a wedding planner is not a luxury, as much as a necessity. It allows the bride to enjoy the wedding and not worry about the details because all those details will be addressed and attended to.” From location scouting, to menu planning, to booking a band, to table decorations; a wedding planner does it all. Green says, “I can look at the mother of the bride and she is really enjoying herself as the hostess, rather than running around worrying about details.” One of Green’s primary jobs after ascertaining what the bride and groom want, is selecting the best matches from a proven pool of vendors and venues she knows. “We work with vendors all over the state,” explains Green. “Event planning is so much about which vendors to select. We work with amazing vendors that are so talented: chefs, wedding invitation designers, floral and cake designers, and people leave having had the best service possible.” She takes advantage of Montana’s quirky rustic elements and quips, “In Montana it is easier to find a team of draft horses than limousines.”
Another critical wedding planner skill is to bring the production to fruition within a budget — a complicated and forsightful process that many a couple have seen spin out of control when they are at the helm and ruled by impulse. Wedding planners have wholesale accounts for renting or purchasing decorations and venue set-up such as chairs, tables and awnings. Wedding planners work for the client, not the vendors, and can advocate on behalf of the client with professional leverage. Katalin Green Design’s menu of services ranges from consultation on booking local venues and vendors, to day-of-event coordination, to floral design, to the full service package, encompassing initial concept through setup and management on the day of the event. Green works with three full-time associate event designers, and says, “At every event I am ultimately the person who is responsible, but my support staff is invaluable.”
While Green’s services are in demand from local clients, such as the Museum of the Rockies and wedding couples with ties to the area, the bulk of her work is with “destination brides.” She explains, “Event clients for weddings find us on the Internet and the majority are “destination inbound” rather than residential brides. Some have a connection to Montana, some do not. The common element is that they want their guests to enjoy a relaxed, fun-filled event. They often pair the wedding with rafting, fly-fishing, tours to Yellowstone, etc., which we also assist them with.” While planning a wedding can be inherently overwhelming, doing so from afar is an almost insurmountable challenge without a local contact or wedding planner. Green says, “Lots of our clients are professional women who are busy in their own lives and too busy to plan a wedding.” To further ease the process for out of town clients and guests, Green says, “We build web sites for our clients where people can RSVP online, and see gift registrations and access nontraditional gifts like local art, or links to charities if the couple prefers that to gifts.”
Every wedding is unique and tailored to the couple’s history, tastes, and desires. Green has coordinated a six-foot-long Rainbow Trout cake (the shape, not the flavor) with the spots sprayed on with chocolate ganache. One bride wanted to wear her beloved grandmother’s Tiffany Bumblebee so that became the theme: the cake had roses with tiny gold bees and they gave honey as the guest gift. Green lists custom cowboy boots from Bowman’s in Livingston embellished with the bride and groom’s initials on them, and miniature brands made by her own ferrier, as examples of personalized wedding details. Sometimes clients are more proactive, such as the bride and groom who went to a local glass blower and blew their own wedding vases.
Clients choose either a church or outdoor wedding, but the photographs are usually done outside to take advantage of Montana’s great scenic backdrops. “We work with vendors that all offer unique locations; mountain backdrops, ranches transformed for the wedding, al fresco with a campfire, or by a river or creek.” Green has wrangled getaway vehicles as varied and picturesque as a horse drawn sleigh to an old green pickup truck. She explains, “I’m always thinking of the ‘end shot,’ like in a television production. It takes a lot of choreography; in your mind you are building the photo album but you want it to be real moments and candid, not staged.”
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Montana Wedding
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A cornerstone of Green’s Montana wedding marketing is her Montana Bride Magazine, which is distributed through the Internet by request, and free at local vendors. Of course, the wedding gown is pivotal for most brides, and Green’s Avant bridal shop in Bozeman carries designer wedding and bridesmaid gowns. “Every bride wants to be graceful on her wedding day,” declares Green, “and we carry designs you can’t get anywhere else.” The shop carries lingerie, perfume, jewelry, tiaras, shoes, veils and related wedding paraphernalia. Green says of Avant, “The store is on the second floor, so it is a destination, not a foot traffic store. Most of the work is done via the Internet and phone conference; for instance I had a client from Jakarta who I met just once for a fitting before her wedding.” Nonetheless, locals frequent Avant and their sample sales are quite popular. Green explains how the Avant demographic differs from her wedding planning clientele. “They are typically local Montana women, average age 28, with a post-grad degree.” Avant is currently open 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday with appointments highly recommended. Green also runs Avant Floral which does flower design for events of all kinds and sizes. Green sums up her work, “The real beauty is that we make it magical.”
Katalin Green and Associates Event Design maybe be contacted at 406/587-4549, toll free 800/757-4549; email events@katalingreen.com, or Avant on the second floor of The Avant Courier Building, 1 East Main, Suite 205, Bozeman, MT 59715.
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