Today marks our fourth wedding anniversary. We’ll have been together for seven years this August. It’s wild to think that we’ve been together for the better part of a decade. It doesn’t seem like time is passing that quickly until I put it into a numerical perspective.
A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to mentally think through our summer and the various holidays and events we have scheduled. I was listing them out to Andrew and I knew I was missing something before the 4th of July and his birthday on the 10th. Whoops! It was our anniversary.
But let’s go on a quick trip down memory lane. I have many fond and happy memories of that day. It turned out perfectly in my opinion and I think that all the vendors we used were absolutely wonderful. You can see many many more photos from our wedding here and the planning process is here
(The rest of this post was originally shared in 2016 but has been modified for today)
Memory Lane: A Northwest Wedding
THE PLANNING PROCESS
Now aside from the fact that I have a fashion blog, you may not know that I am a super low key and low maintenance person. After Andrew proposed and after all the dust of telling our loved ones had settled, we started actually thinking about how we wanted our wedding to be and you know what I discovered? I had never really thought about my wedding before that moment when it became a reality. No Pinterest boards, no magazines, no dream of how that day would look, nothing. The closest I’d come to thinking about my wedding was critiquing dresses on Say Yes To The Dress.
After asking some of my other engaged friends (I was invited to about six weddings this summer), I made myself an account of theknot.com and started researching until we found just the place for us.
THE LOCATION
We ended up getting married at the Sander’s Estate in Kent, Washington just 25 minutes south of Seattle. This location ended up being a gem for about a hundred reasons. It’s located off a pretty busy road but is set far enough back from the road that you would never know it was there if you weren’t looking for it and aside from the extra loud motorcycle, you couldn’t even hear any road noise.
The Sander’s Estate is owned and run by Blue Ribbon Catering, one of Seattle’s best catering companies. They handle everything for you from the food to the decor to even assigning you a wedding planner to help you through the whole process. As I didn’t want to stress about the planning or day of, this was definitely a draw for me.
GETTING READY
Saturday, June 25th started out a little cloudy and grey, typical for Seattle in June, and let me tell you we were all glued to the weather forecast for the entire week leading up to Saturday. The previous week had included everything from lashing rain to grey skies to sunshine, so we were all hoping and praying for the best.
That morning, I headed into Seattle with my girls to get our hair done (I’ll recreate the look for you next week!) It just so happened that President Obama was in town and staying in a hotel across the street from Swink Style Bar, where we were scheduled to be. Well, let me tell you that the Secret Service and Seattle PD were not moved when we walked up to the street barricade and told them I needed to get down that street because it was my wedding day. With a shrug and a “Sorry ma’am that’s not my problem,” we were told off. After a couple of frantic phone calls and about 15 minutes waiting at Starbucks, they opened up the street for pedestrian traffic and we were able to get all glammed up with no harm done. Even better yet, once we stepped out the door to head over the venue, the clouds parted and the sun shone brightly for the rest of the day.
THE DRESS
As I said before, I’ve never had any grand dreams about what my wedding would look like so when it came to “the dress”, I cared that it be special to me before anything else. I think I am one of the few brides to say this but I only tried on two wedding dresses before picking the one you see here. The first one I tried on was the one my mother wore on her wedding day and the other was the one my oldest cousin wore. Now, my cousin is much like an older sister to me, and getting to wear her wedding dress will always be very special to me. After first slipping the dress on and seeing how it fit perfectly, I knew it was meant to be.
For my bridesmaids, I knew that I wanted them to have their own dresses that best suited them and that hopefully, they can wear again. We also had the challenge that we each live in a different part of the country: Seattle, Houston, New York, and Boston. So they were all tasked to go find a dress in a pastel color that they liked. They ended up with these beautiful chiffon dresses from J.Crew that couldn’t have looked better together if they tried.
I supplemented my look with this gorgeous pair of Badgley Mischka heels and pale blue teardrop earrings my aunt had given me years before. Another little insight, I didn’t pick out shoes for my wedding until the week before! There are seriously not than many great options for brides who want a sturdy heel while walking down the aisle.
THE CEREMONY
Andrew and I did a first look before the ceremony and I think this did a lot to help my nerves and emotions going into the ceremony. I thought that I would be an emotional wreck but instead having my closest friends and family around had me all smiles.
My dad came up to the room where all us girls were getting ready to give us a pep talk on the terrain and how there were some patchy parts in the grass to watch out for in our heels and after that it was all a whirlwind.
Andrew and I planned out our vows ahead of time with the help of the judge that married us. She gave us a really great template to work with that had everything we wanted. All the traditional vows as well as a perfectly worded talk about married life. I couldn’t believe it when it was over but before I knew it we were man and wife, walking back down the aisle as our loved ones rained flower petals down upon us.
THE RECEPTION
Justin from Luna Bella Events had everyone on the dance floor after a wonderful vegetarian dinner that even meat lovers enjoyed. From then on, it was dancing and laughter until the sun set! I don’t think that it could have been any more perfect.
