story by Tia Troy
photos by Dax Photography
Every weekend, more than 88,000 brides and grooms exchange the words “I love you” at over 44,000 weddings, with 15 percent of those words taking place at 
a destination wedding, according to the 2011 BRIDES Magazine American Wedding Study. In addition, 23 percent of weddings are held in either the bride or groom’s hometown.
On a beautiful weekend in August of this year, Katherine (Katie) Larkin and Jonathan (Jono) Wong returned to Katie’s hometown of Missoula, Montana to be married.
“When I was younger, I always thought I would get married in Missoula or somewhere in Montana,” said Katie.
While Missoula is where they exchanged vows, this is not where their love story began. Katie and Jono—a native of New Zealand—met on Labor Day weekend of 2006 in Long Island, New York. After being friends for nearly a year, they started dating in June of 2007. Over the past four years, they’ve dated long distance, moved cities, earned advanced university degrees and now make their home in San Francisco. And while their life has led them from the east coast to west coast and a few places in between, it was Missoula where they became engaged and chose to be married.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for Missoula,” said Jono. “I had visited several times prior to the wedding…and for me it’s like a second home, the one I go to when I need to unplug and get some rest and relaxation.”
Missoula also reminded Jono of his hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand.
“Both the natural surroundings and the people seem similar, so there was definitely a feeling of familiarity,” he added.
With the bride from Missoula and the groom from New Zealand, it was important to both Katie and Jono that their wedding exemplify them as a couple, while incorporating Missoula touches into nearly every facet of their destination wedding. From the ceremony to the rehearsal dinner, the wedding had a strong Missoula feel.
“We wanted to make sure guests got a taste of Missoula,” said Katie.
With the majority of the wedding guests coming from out-of-town, it was a true destination wedding that gave the bride and her groom an opportunity to showcase where she was from.
“I wanted to show off my hometown,” said Katie.
Since they were living in San Francisco, Katie and Jono worked with Thea Rae D Events to help plan the wedding, an element of support that Katie considered to be very important.
“When I interviewed Thea for the first time over the phone, I felt like she really got me,” said Katie. “Plus, it was easier for me to plan a wedding in Missoula because there were so many things that were just natural choices and so many more things that had special meaning to me.”
And while Jono and his family are from New Zealand, he was happy to be married in the Garden City. One of the key factors in choosing the location: his future wife’s happiness.
“Missoula is Katie’s hometown,” he said. “I wanted her to be happy and for her family to be happy.”
The rehearsal dinner was held at the Missoula Children’s Theater and was themed, “Best of Missoula.” Adding to the fun of the rehearsal dinner was dinner served from Biga Pizza, his/her/you posters (sharing reasons Katie and Jono loved each other, as well as their family and friends) and a visit from the Big Dipper Ice Cream Truck.
“It was beautiful, but also fun and informal, which was exactly what we wanted for the rehearsal dinner,” said Katie. “To me, what makes Missoula special is our community and the little touches were just part of sharing it with our guests.”
And in a nod to her future husband, the rehearsal dinner also featured wines from New Zealand.
The icing on the cake was the couple being married at The Keep, the location where Jono proposed to Katie over Christmas break and one of the first places he went on his inaugural visit to Missoula.
“The restaurant really did a great job in helping me set up the proposal,” said Jono. “It was a real treat to get married in the same location and show it off to our family and friends.”
In addition to location, many weddings are remembered for small, personal details that help denote the feelings, love and personalities of the bride and groom. At Katie and Jono’s wedding for 60, they used table names—instead of numbers—to share with their attendees things they loved, with names that included “cupcakes” to “hiking/snowboarding” and “San Francisco.”
“It was really important to share ‘us’ with our guests,” said Katie. “That included showing people a part of our heritage, as well as who we had become and all the places along the way.”
And with a wedding so centered on Missoula, it was important to Katie to use local businesses, from Bernice’s Bakery to Beautiful Weddings and Boomswagger to Eastgate Rentals and Bitterroot Floral.
“I was pretty obsessive about supporting local Missoula businesses,” said Katie. “To me, that’s just part of being a Missoulian. We support our community.”
The couple also worked with local photographer, Dax Kuehn, from Dax Photography to capture memories from their wedding.
“Having been born and raised in Missoula, I noticed all the cute details they incorporated that were all Missoula-themed,” said Kuehn.
The wedding photos played a large role in their Missoula-themed wedding, with photos being taken at various locations that included Dairy Queen on Higgins and the local Farmers Market. For Jono, the photo sessions were one of the highlights, as Kuehn captured moments with the groom and his boys, as well as beautiful photos of the newly married couple and their families.
And for this bride, coming home and sharing Missoula with the people she loved most was more than sweet.
“In the end, Missoula was absolutely my dream location,” said Katie. “I should have known it all along.”