The wedding colors were camouflage and peach, the flowers -- lilies and cattails. One bride wore camo -- even on her manicured fingernails, another wore a traditional wedding dress with cowboy hat and fringe. Another had a strapless white dress -- showcasing her butterfly tattoo, which stretched from shoulder to shoulder.

Twelve couples lined up at Cabela's Conservation Mountain on Tuesday, Valentine's Day. The brides came down the staircase on one side of the mountain and the grooms down the other side. They stood four wide and three deep in front of a judge wearing hunting garb, in front of their families, friends and taxidermied animals displayed on the mountain above them to make their wedding vows.

"Dearly beloved, friends, relatives, stuffed animals, we are gathered here today to marry," began Judge Paul Thompson after the brides and grooms were arranged in front of him. He offered a few words of wisdom and then declared the brides and grooms legally and lawfully married. It was a short ceremony, less than 15 minutes.

As a reward, besides the honor of making their vows in the presence of taxidermied animals, Cabela's gave each couple matching camo jackets and a 12-gauge shotgun. To be part of the shotgun wedding, couples had to apply and volunteer to be married on Valentine's Day.

Betty Hancock attended the celebration to see her granddaughter Susan Puanani Covalt wed Josh Barber. The Pleasant Grove resident said she has been to a lot of weddings but never anything like this.

"I think this is great," she said and waved to Covalt who was waiting on one of two staircases next to Conservation Mountain for the procession to begin. Barber had proposed to Covalt in October 2005 and they had planned a September wedding. They found out Feb. 7 they had won an opportunity to get married at Cabela's in a 15-minute ceremony.

"It was a lot quicker than we expected," Covalt said. "It was rushed."

The brides and grooms arrived with a unique style and approach to their group wedding. Julie Spieker, 50, popped the question to her companion of 10 years, Roy Chamberlain, 52.

"I asked him 'Honey, will you marry me if we get married in camo at Cabela'sfi' " Spieker said. The Tooele couple wore matching camo outfits and Chamberlain made a camo wedding veil for his fiancé. She also wore a camo garter on her leg. She was camo right down to her professionally done camo nails.

"We are hunters and enjoy fishing," she said. "I thought we were the perfect couple for this."

Many couples wore camo but a few wore formal wear -- tuxes and bridal gowns. Kira Broadhead, 23, had the longest train on her white satin dress and came with her own flower girl, her niece Tristyn Broadhead, 5. Her husband-to-be, Justin Loretz, 25, proposed to her on the top of Sand Mountain at Little Sahara, Utah.

Each couple received a complimentary wedding photo of their "catch" in front of a taxidermy display of Rocky Mountain wildlife before the wedding march started. Thompson wore orange hunting gear and a broad-rimmed camo hat.

It wasn't the first unusual wedding for the judge.

"I've done them at McDonald's, on the top of the cliffs at Snowbird, Alta and so forth," Thompson said. "I think it's fun. On Valentine's Day, I think it's a nice activity -- something to remember."

He has never wedded 12 couples at one time, though.

Each couple received free wedding rings, floral bouquets, wedding pictures, a luxury hotel stay, in addition to the gun and camo. One lucky couple won a Las Vegas grand prize honeymoon -- Rachel and Jake Bateman of Salt Lake City.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.