In addition to the popularity of reusing old ranch and farm items in creative new ways, another trend in recent years has been country weddings venues which also use everyday farm and ranch material in creative ways for wedding decorations and backdrops. When Riley Mengarelli asked his now-wife Jennifer out, they were standing in front of her family’s 100-year-old dairy barn. That was also the memorable location of where he asked her to marry him. “I had always dreamed of getting married at my parent’s place, in front of the barn that I grew up playing in and where we got engaged. I didn’t even think twice about any other venue when I knew that themes meaningful place to be married was in my parent’s backyard,” Jennifer explained. So along with her mother Karri and sister, Jessica, Jennifer worked hard to find both farm and ranch items to decorate the wedding held on her family’s farm. “I grew up on a dairy farm and Riley on a hop ranch so we wanted to blend the two different lifestyles in our decorating,” she said. There were old wine barrels, the arbor and cross her dad built with their old barn wood. They wrapped hop vines around old wine barrel rings to make chandeliers and they branded Riley’s brand on an old piece of barn wood to represent them as a couple coming together. There were even his and her skulls — a buffalo and a sparkly cow skull. “Our littlest ring bearer even came down the aisle driving his little John Deer Tractor pulling the littlest flower girl in the trailer. Galvanized buckets lined the aisle adorned with flowers. I made the groom’s and groomsmen’s boutonnieres with hops and burlap. The dinner place cards were written on old cow ear tags. Riley’s old wagon he uses to pull with ponies — like his dad and grandpa do — served as a backdrop to the guest book signing area. A refurbished bright pink 1954 Farmall tractor was included in wedding photos,” Jennifer said. The weather-beaten but sturdy barn itself served as the backdrop to the wedding ceremony. The nuptials were said under a wooden arbor with hops
wrapping up the sides coming out of wine barrels. Since the wedding in the fall of 2015, they have also had baby photos of their daughter Kirra in front of the dairy barn. “Our special day was made that much more special by having it on my family’s farm,” Jennifer said. “It reflects both of our background steeped in agriculture as well as our future as we currently live on a ranch and plan to begin in buffalo business soon.” She said, “I know a lot of people spend a lot of money on little impersonal knick-knacks for weddings. I was so proud to share what means the most to Riley and I with our families and friends and we saved a lot of money in the process.”
Western Cowman - July/August 2017
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