I’m at the age where you go to a lot of weddings (Lady CFS and I are planning one ourselves) but I didn’t think the annual Montana trip would include one. But was I ever wrong! Two members of the club got wedded, while wader-ed, on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake river down in Idaho. It was pretty unique.

In that spirit, here’s a “Top 10 things to remember when planning or attending a fly-fishing wedding” list. Because, one day, you too might wind up at one.

• Wear your formal waders

• Rods line up in descending order for the arch: bamboo, Winston, all others

• Nippers can be used to clip errant nose hairs that have grown long after a few weeks on the river. Do not use forceps.

• Choose a river no one has fished well (in our case, the Henry’s Fork of the Snake) and you might just infuse a bit of luck.

• Pepper the ceremony with quotable bits. In our case Darius Larsen of All Saints in Big Sky did his homework.

• It’s impossible to avoid cliches, so embrace them wholeheartedly, because, hey, weddings are _about_ cliches: “tie the knot”, “perfection loop”, “catching the big one”, “catch and not release” (Go ahead and add your favorites in the comments.)

• While bear spray is a nice decor choice, the potential for disaster looms large.

• You can never account for the strange German kayaker in a very small bathing suit who lurks in the bushes by the boat launch for the whole ceremony, looking on with a mixture of shock and keen interest.

• Throwing flies at the bride and groom wil be considered chumming.

• Consider joining the rings with a length of tippet to avoid any slip-ups on the hand-off.

Been to a shindig like this? What did we miss? Answers on a postcard, or in the comments below.