living
High in Idaho
By Sabina Dana Plasse
Photos by Dev Khalsa & Kirsten Shultz
Hiking boots, down jackets and backpacks are not usual paraphernalia for a wedding. But then, brides don’t usually wear cowboy boots, grooms don’t usually fire up the chainsaw for their big day and officiators don’t usually hike four miles to the top of a mountain. But then, who said Idaho weddings were usual?
It is hard to spend more than a few moments in this great state and not be eternally committed to Mother Nature and her beauty. For brides Jamie Truppi and Paulette Phlipot, when the words “I do” suddenly figured in their immediate futures, they both knew they had to be uttered al fresco, with mountains featured dominantly.
Truppi and her fiancé, Kevin Ware, are avid hikers, so it was a natural progression that they marry at the summit of their favorite hike up to Pioneer Cabin, northeast of Sun Valley via Trail Creek and Corral Creek. However, the strenuous approach to the cabin, 9,400 feet up in the Pioneer Mountains, was not such an easy progression for their guests.
Ware’s bachelor party was held at the cabin the night before the wedding. Starting out on the trail, loaded down with gear for the next day’s festivities, reality set in. The groom-to-be realized the challenge that the three-hour hike was likely to pose for many attendees (in particular Jamie’s several-months-pregnant sister). Plans changed immediately. The Pioneer Cabin hike became a small group of 30 for a cleansing ceremony. The wedding took place in a meadow below the cabin, near Trail Creek Summit. The new location added a view of the picturesque Boulder Mountains.
For Paulette Phlipot and Rudy Karkowski, celebrating their 10-year relationship by the light of the harvest moon fitted the creative couple’s sensibilities perfectly. Guests donned down jackets, fur coats, gloves, boots and hats to watch the photographer and carpenter tie the knot in Stanley’s Sawtooth Valley Meditation Chapel, 60 miles north of Ketchum. Following the ceremony, guests braved the elements and partied in Pioneer Park, under the watchful eye of the harvest moon and the majestic, snow-capped Sawtooth Mountains.
A tent provided shelter from the snow and wind, and the adverse elements didn’t dampen the guests’ enthusiasm for this unique event. Enjoying champagne and spiced margaritas by candlelight, the groom was smiling for more than one reason—he had particularly requested the white stuff on his special day.
Phlipot’s personal wish was for the wedding to be environmentally friendly. Among the many nods to Mother Nature, she chose to use only local vendors (where possible) and eliminated cut flowers from the decor by creating handmade paper bouquets and using collard greens for the centerpieces. Wedding favors were hand-cranked, rechargeable flashlights and to honor the park’s no-glass rule, guests sipped from reusable stemless plastic wine cups adorned with individual jewels marking them for their owner.
Jamie and Kevin and Paulette and Rudy created unique, unforgettable and ultimately adaptable weddings in the robust climate and rugged locations of Idaho.
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“Everything was very thoughtfully chosen and handmade with love,” said Paulette Phlipot of her nuptials to Rudy Karkowski. Personal connections and a care for the environment were key to this Stanley, Idaho wedding. Instead of traditional cut flowers for centerpieces, hearty, long-lasting collard greens rested in wooden planters made by the groom. Tissue-paper flowers made by the bride and her friends decorated the tent, complemented by colorful paper lanterns, and each guest was guided home by a hand-cranked, rechargeable flashlight. Photos by Kirsten Shultz
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Jamie Truppi and Kevin Ware were forced to abandon plans to wed at Pioneer Cabin (above), a ski hut built in 1938. Instead, a handful of close friends tackled the steep, 4-mile hike for a cleansing ceremony. The bride carried a bouquet of wildflowers, and her wedding dress, which she changed into in the historic, rustic hut. The party then descended to a meadow near Trail Creek Summit where the couple married in front of their assembled friends and family.
Photos by Dev Khalsa
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