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By BOB COUPLAND

Tribune Chronicle

GUSTAVUS - Cristin Goldner of Warren said her new husband, Stephen Grant, wanted a rodeo-style wedding, so she made sure that happened. The two exchanged vows Friday at the Double L Rodeo in Gustavus as six very curious bulls walked around the penned-in ceremony.

More than 20 people attended, sitting in the viewing stands as the bridal party stood inside the pen in the center of the square rodeo arena.

Once the bridal party was enclosed, the bulls were released from their nearby pens.

At first the bulls stood in one area, but soon began traveling as a group around the outskirts of the arena. The bulls ambled around the pen, often pausing to study the ceremony as if trying to figure out what was going on.

Debbie McTheny of Warren, Goldner's mother, said everyone wanted to make sure the bulls were part of the wedding since Grant of Tucson, Ariz., is a retired bull rider. He rode as part of the International Professional Rodeo Association.

Grant currently is a horse trainer and rider.

The newlyweds met at Fox Farm in Vienna, where he was working as a manager and she was visiting as a nurse's aide for the farmer's wife.

Goldner said they had discussed holding the wedding at different places, such as a gazebo, but decided to go with the rodeo because of Grant's ties to the sport.

''At first it took me by surprise, but then I've always liked to be different,'' Goldner said. ''When I told people where the wedding was going to be everyone looked at me like I was crazy.''

The Rev. Torrey Durda said he has performed many weddings outside but Friday's was the first wedding he has performed in a rodeo ring. His own wedding was held at Brookfield Center, where he and the groomsmen wore kilts and went barefoot.

Goldner has ridden a mechanical bull but never has ridden a real bull. She didn't as a newlywed, either. Her wedding gift from her husband was an Appaloosa horse.

After the wedding, guests remarked about the unique ceremony and how well-behaved the bulls were.

Dean Adams of Dragoon, Ariz., Grant's brother-in-law, said, ''They were rather calm for all that was going on today.''

Following the ceremony, the couple and bridal party headed to Brookfield Center for photos by the gazebo. The bulls were not invited.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com