Love Stories

Bella + Jasen

If you told 12 year old Bella that she would be marrying Jasen, she would scoff in shock about the annoying boy in her seventh grade English class. I never would have known that a week after a senior year Halloween party, I had to tell my parents that the same boy I had complained about back then was picking me up for our first date. I had one ace up my sleeve to get him back for all of his nonsense, which was to give the waitress my card as we sat down for dinner.

From that night on we were inseparable, graduating high school together, moving each other into our Montana State dorm rooms, and driving the 150 miles when Nursing school brought me back to Billings and Engineering kept him in Bozeman.

One such trip back to Billings was Christmas break 2023. Jasen picked me up on December 16, 2023 for what was supposed to be his “birthday dinner”. While we were on the way to the restaurant, Jasen’s dad called him and said he got an emergency service call, saying that there was an “orange glow” coming from a building and that it “looked like a fire”. (His dad owns a management company for which Jasen works). I was immediately worried because I thought that we should be calling the fire department and Jasen kept telling me that “it’s probably not that big of a deal, this happens all the time” (typical boy response). Once we pulled up in front of the building, I saw that there was an orange glow inside from candles and lanterns all set up around the room, and then I knew what was going on! When we walked in, there were flower petals, bouquets, lanterns, candles, and the acoustic Tangled soundtrack playing in the background, which really sealed the deal for me! I was of course freaking out and immediately said yes when his knee hit the ground. His only complaint was that I was so caught up in the moment, I forgot to put on the ring right away!

We are so excited to get married at Wildflower since Red Lodge holds such a special place in our hearts. Red Lodge is where Jasen taught me how to ski, where we spent the odd weekend getaway eating at Bogarts, and where we spent our first anniversary together. We both knew that Wildflower was the only option for us, because it encompasses everything that we love about Montana!