Our Wedding: The Venue
In the six/seven years that I have photographed weddings, I have always thought to myself what kind of venue I'd want to be married in. The answer changed several times, of course. Would it be a church? That is something mom would've wanted for sure. There was actually a church that I thought would've been so beautiful to be married in (see here), however there wasn't a reception area near that I loved quite as much as Dairyland. Aaron and I spent some time looking through venues for a couple of weeks. There were several factors we had to compute for:
Cost
Location- we would be having family fly in, as well as drive up from Olympia and Seattle.
Size- we needed to house 200-250 people
Amenities- what's included? how many hours of rental for cost?
Look/Light- a very large factor for me as a photographer... the light. would it photograph well? on bright weather and/or rainy weather?
We looked at many and I'm sure we missed a good amount too because I am still hearing of new venues to this day. Regardless, when I found Dairyland, I knew that was it. The thing that sold me was the all-white reception barn. The second thing that sold me is the fact that all their farm tables and chairs were included. We knew for a fact that we wanted long tables versus round tables for the reception space. I've been to too many weddings with round tables and to me, there is a feeling of high school cliques to them. We wanted our wedding to feel like family, dining together.
When I showed my parents initially, it was a definite no. It was too far away, it was on the pricier end and my mom just didn't understand the aesthetic we were going for. It took awhile of convincing before they finally caved. To be honest though, the cost to rent this venue isn't as bad as some of the ones we found that were closer to the city. Of course, the price has increased a bit since last year.
A complete bridal suite- I loved the upstairs of this room- it was so beautiful!
We were lucky that the other barn was open to our use; we had the boys get ready in this area!
My favorite part of the whole venue was of course the reception barn. It also provided a Plan B, in case it rained on us. I actually did expect it to rain to be honest, but I'm so glad it didn't!
Another thing I thought about was weird lighting/flashes causing different color casts if and when a flash would need to be used, so having white walls would prevent that from happening.
A great spot for family and bridal portraits. We also did our First Look here.
Our outdoor ceremony space. The weather was perfect on our wedding day! Thanks Jesus :)
Cocktail area
A small area for lawn games
One thing that Dairyland in and of itself didn't offer was a variety of areas for portraits. We really wanted pictures in nature as well. Good thing we were out in Snohomish! Dairyland is super close to Lord Hill Park, which is where we headed to for our photos after our First Look.
The venue itself is also really close to a lot of cornstalks and farms and provided lots of scenery surrounding. We drove down the road and snuck in some sunset portraits during the reception as well!
Other cons: though it says a prep kitchen is provided, it's just really room where you can store food and prep it. I wish there was some sort of refrigeration and more of a sink/wash area. You also have to get insurance for your event through another source that Dairyland uses (I'm not sure if all venues require you to do this?).
All in all, we were very happy with Dairyland. It provided an amazing backdrop for our ceremony and a fun outdoor space for mingling and photos. There is plenty of space to get ready in. One of our favorite memories from the wedding was coming back into the cocktail area and looking around, seeing all of our friends and family mingling. Advice when it comes to venue? Pick one that feels like you as a couple. Dairyland was beautiful, but it wasn't stuffy. We weren't having an upscale wedding, by any means. I mean, we had a taco truck! Consider how the environment will make your guests feel. Pick one, if applicable, that offers variety in case of situations that may come up (such as weather). And if you're like me, consider what you want your photos to look like. For instance, if you want light/airy wedding photos, don't pick a dark venue with random knick-knacks everywhere. Anyway, there you have it! Stay tuned for my post about decorations and flowers, coming up next!
Read our past wedding blog posts:
*all photos posted by Kristen Marie Parker
Our Wedding: Dress Shopping!
photo by @kristenmarieparker
photo by @kristenmarieparker
the DRESS.
Perhaps like many girls, I'd been pinning wedding dresses (see below) for quite some time, long before I met Aaron. When it came to the wedding dress, these things came to mind: unique, a-line, backless, simple, sleeves. lace. I wanted a dress that was different. But you know, wedding dresses can get pretttttty expensive and I went back and forth between the decision on spending a ton of money vs. staying under a grand.
After lots of online browsing, I was convinced I had found the dress of my dreams via Grace Love Lace, an Australian bridal gown brand. (Australian brands just do it right.) This particular brand embodies everything I'd want in a dress. LACE. They are so so beautiful. The only problem was, there wasn't anywhere near me that sold their dresses and to order them, it'd take anywhere from 6-8 months to get to you. So, if I were to buy from them, I would have to order this dress at the latest in February since we were planning on getting married in September-ish.
January 16th, 2016
In enters the reason why I went dress shopping prior to Aaron proposing. I decided to go try on other dresses in actual bridal shops in early January. The first place I wanted to check out was Brides for a Cause. This particular shop gets donated sample dresses from both previous brides and other shops and sells them at a discounted rate. I wanted to check 'em out first to see if I would get lucky. At the time, it was only based in Portland (there's a shop in Tacoma now!) so my mom and I drove down there one weekend. I had also heard of another shop down there I wanted to check out called The English Dept so we did both. One of my best friends lives down there, so she came along as well. I didn't have much luck at Brides for a Cause- there were tons of people there... it was January after all and there are always many fresh engagements. I tried on a handful at the English Dept. and found two pictured below that I really liked, but I was still not convinced. One was totally what I had kinda pictured myself in- the lace top came off so I could have two different looks within the dress. The skirt portion was so soft and flowy and I loved it.
The other one I liked was not what I pictured myself in at all, but I loved the material and I liked that it was different from what I thought I'd like. Also, this second dress was definitely outside of our budget- I think it was around 2800 or so.
cutie mom
me and katy!
January 24, 2016
Back in Seattle, I had to check out The Dress Theory! They carried Sarah Seven, a designer that I had fallen in love back with way back when. Just simple, romantic gowns. At the time they were having a trunk show for Anna Campbell as well so I thought I'd check it out before making a step forward with my Grace Loves Lace choice.
For this trek, my mom and best friend from high school came with! Shoutout to Courtney at the Dress Theory for such a great experience and time at the shop. I had a lot of fun in their beautiful, intimate shop. It was wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone. There wasn't any pressure and it was nice to feel like a princess ;) We tried on a couple and there were two that I liked, but when it came down to it, I picked the one that I felt most like a bride in. All the other ones I loved, but this one- when I put it on, I really felt like a bride. The train was perfect. Of course it was a Sarah Seven gown and we added on Sara Gabriel sleeves that I could wear on the shoulder or off the shoulder. I was getting married! (The last photo is me picking up my dress in June!)
My mom of course thought it was a bit too simple, so she found a sparkly headband from Claire's that we turned into a small sash, which is what you'll notice in some of our wedding photos. I wore my straps up for the ceremony, but down for the rest of everything. I took them off when it came to the dancing!
shalom, me and mom!
thanks for driving shalom down for the afternoon, john :)
the SECOND DRESS.
You may have also noticed that I wore another wedding dress. This was for Saturday's events- the day before our actual wedding. We had a 10-course reception at Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for my parents' friends and family and I wore another gown for that event. We found the dress at a Brides for a Cause trunk show up in Seattle. Aaron went with and another one of my bridesmaids, Desi, came with. My favorite part of this dress was the back. I am selling this dress if anyone reads this and is interested! JUST SAYIN'. Name your price, fo' real.
the VEIL.
Then there's the veil! Okay, one of my favorite movies is A Walk To Remember. I love Jamie's veil in the scenes from the wedding. I wanted a veil like this. My mom had volunteered to make it for me and I was pretty excited because that would be something really special, right? But after a few attempts of finding the right lace, we gave up so we actually ended up purchasing this veil from David's Bridal. I loovveddd it and it was exactly what I was looking for. Again, selling it if anyone is interested!
Because we did a first look, the veil added another element of surprise to Aaron as I walked down the aisle. It was perfect.
photo by @kristenmarieparker
photo by @kristenmarieparker
the SHOES.
Okay, so I wanted shoes I could wear again and shoes that were black (black and white were our main colors after all). I chose to go with SENSO shoes because I had heard they were super comfortable (again, an Australian brand)... and these shoes could go with anything! I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a pair I wouldn't ever wear again. These are my go-to black heels now!
photo by @kristenmarieparker
photo by @kristenmarieparker
Final thoughts in regards to the dress? In the end I decided to not go with the Grace Loves Lace dress. Although it was beautiful, I found out that when I was trying on dresses things looked different when worn. I didn't want to risk ordering a dress only to put it on and be unhappy with it. So first piece of advice, don't order a dress online unless you've tried it on already. I've heard a lot of stories of brides doing this because it was cheap or they got a deal... but in the end you waste money and effort getting it into your hands and then back into the hands of where you ordered it. Second piece of advice? The dress I ended up purchasing, I've seen on multiple brides. Originally I wanted a dress no one else had, but the dress you like will always look different on you. If you love it and if you are comfortable in it and if you feel like a bride, don't let the fear of someone else having already worn it keep you from buying it. Third piece of advice that may not apply to everyone, but worth mentioning: I've heard from previous brides/friends that they regretted not putting a bit more money into their dress or not getting the dress they wanted because of cost. I totally understand the other side of the argument as well (only wearing the dress once ever in your life). But you only get married once and you should feel beautiful and feel like a bride. All in all, buy a dress you feel comfortable and confident in. I actually ended up showing Aaron all the dresses I tried on and he liked the one I picked best! He swears it's not because it's the one I chose. (He's probably slightly bias).
Anyway, there you have it! Man, putting together these blog posts can be quite time consuming and I think I totally underestimated the process... but I also tend to be a bit thorough and in some cases, a perfectionist. This blog series will just continue to be longer than I thought it'd take! Thanks for reading!
photo by @kristenmarieparker
Read our past wedding blog posts:
Our Wedding: The Proposal and the Rings
THE PROPOSAL
A year ago today, Aaron proposed to me. Now if you ask me if I knew it was coming, I did. (We actually already had the venue booked and I had already bought a dress... more on this later though.) Aaron still managed to surprise me, which I give him major kudos for. During this time last year, I was having a lot of heart issues with the fact that I was not engaged yet, even though I had told Aaron I wanted a short engagement (like 4-6 months). We had already talked about possibly getting married in the fall so why was I being so confusing? (In retrospect, I found out that originally Aaron was planning on proposing in March but I was being me: confusing... ha) It's easy to get caught up in all of the engagements and proposals you see scrolling through social media during the holidays and the new year. It is VERY easy. And if I could go back, I would tell myself to chill out. I mean, a lot of my peers did in fact tell me this, but human hearts are wayward and we want what we want. (So, seriously, if you're reading this and you're not engaged yet, it's okay. I promise.) One of the most helpful things someone told me was this: as a wife, you have to learn to trust your husband in his leadership at times and this was the first way I could do that, even though we were not married yet. This was Aaron's thing... planning the proposal. And I wasn't being fair in pressuring him. He had a plan and I didn't trust it.
But because Aaron is kind and good to me, he made it happen. I work weekends often and a few weeks prior, he had asked when I could ask for a Saturday off next. We didn't have Saturdays together often so when I told him, he said, 'Great. Save it for me. I have some things planned for us!' Of course, my suspicions then arose.
Here is the rest of the story from Aaron's point of view:
I was determined to make this proposal a surprise. After talking with some friends, I concluded that my goal was not necessarily to make the focus of the proposal to be its extravagance, but rather its memorability. Dorothy was expecting me to be asking soon; she had all her bases covered... so I had to be extra sneaky. I knew if she thought she could predict it, and I truly did surprise her, she wouldn't forget that day.
Our friend Megan had done some ninja conversation-work and helped me understand what Dorothy was expecting. She helped me come up with a spot and a plan: jogging. Yes... surprise her while she is jogging. The last thing I wanted was to have her wondering the whole day of our time together when I would ask. Getting it out of the way first, then spending the day together was much more optimal. I had her take Saturday off work, which I knew would tip her off to the idea that I would be asking that day. But, I also lied to her (whoops) and told her that I found out last minute I had to work Saturday morning. I was really sorry of course, but would be done in time to pick her up for brunch. 'Oh, that's fine! Carolyn asked if I could go jogging Saturday morning anyways.' Perfect. Now, of course she didn't know that it was I that had asked Carolyn to already have brought this idea up with her. All part of the master plan, and she fell for it way too easily.
That Saturday morning, I dressed up nicely (and warmly), grabbed a blanket, a letter I had written, the ring, and headed off to the location. I was tracking Carolyn from my phone and saw them approaching. A couple deep breaths later and then they were right in front of me. Dorothy saw me... but she didn't stop jogging. Instead, as she jogged past, she looked over her shoulder and yelled, 'What are you doing here??' I asked her to come back, chuckling inside because I knew her surprise was genuine. I was quite pleased with myself that I had accomplished this feat, but still nervous as I put my blanket around her and read aloud the words I had written. Of course I cried, but I wouldn't change a thing. She said yes and I put the ring I had made on her finger. We sat down to pray over the next part of our lives, and then headed off to spend the day together over brunch and a trip to Bainbridge. It really was a perfect day, and one we will surely remember.
Sneaky, sneaky Aaron. He did a good job, even though I was in my running clothes ha. I was really surprised as I approached him on the run. Here are some photos of the rest of the day we had together.
And here are some photos taken by the the ninja Yee Feng of the proposal:
THE RINGS
If you see Dorothy's hands on a normal day, you'll see many rings on her fingers. At a fancier event, you might even see a diamond ring.
I like explaining the reasons why, because I get the opportunity to talk about some things dear to my heart.
Both Dorothy and I try our best to have meaning in the things we do. We still fall short, but we try. Our wedding rings are part of that. Wedding rings are a thought in everyone who gets married, and we weren't an exception to that, but from the beginning, we saw things differently from most people.
our ring tattoos we got during our honeymoon
As soon as marriage was even a conversation for us, so was the permanence of it. Realizing that, tattoos made perfect sense, because they are permanent for all intents and purposes. Knowing that tattoos were the end goal, and still wanting something to propose with and to put on her finger on the wedding day, I decided to make her rings myself. One reason for this is that I enjoy working with my hands; I like making things on my own. I didn’t want to just buy something for her, I wanted to put time in putting it together and figuring out how to do that. Dorothy had mentioned to me that diamonds weren’t really her thing, and looking forward to our tattoos, I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a rock anyways. Yes, I understand that most people see an expensive diamond as just that- the amount of sacrifice and time and work that is behind the question “Will you marry me?” But something in my heart has always rubbed against that idea, conflicting with the convictions I have from my faith. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20 My thinking was, why spend a large amount of money on something that ultimately is not eternal? Not to mention the fact that diamonds being the proper proposal item was created as a marketing gimmick in the early 1900s. Someone just very recently told me that the tradition of giving diamonds before marriage came from the Bible. It’s definitely not.
Dorothy likes gold, and she already wears a lot of simple gold stacking rings. She also likes black. I mean, the majority of her wardrobe is grayscale colors. So I decided on a simple gold ring with an onyx stone. 14k gold to be exact, because I like the color of gold that it is the best. I already had most of the tools I needed to make the ring because I had messed around a little bit in the past making jewelry. Then later, with Dorothy’s styling input, I made 2 other gold bands to surround the engagement ring. These were the bands I put on her finger on our wedding day.
As for Aaron's band, later on we purchased 14K gold from the same source and he showed me how to size his finger and how to make his ring. He helped the entire time and I actually made it too small, but he fixed it because he's a fixer... so I don't know if I can really say I made his ring entirely on my own but it was fun to be a part of the process.
There is a diamond ring now that Dorothy does wear sometimes.
Her mom had a diamond that she had always planned on giving Dorothy, and after seeing that I didn’t intend to give her a diamond, she made this known. Strangely enough, I never had heard about this before, and to be honest it bothered me a little bit at first. It made me feel like the rings I made for her weren’t good enough or something. After talking with Dorothy and trying to understand what her mom was thinking, I realized there were some cultural aspects to this that I needed to have grace and understanding towards. So her mom and I arranged a time to visit a jewelry shop together. She would bring the diamond, I would pick the setting, and the shop would set the stone and we would have a ring that I could give to her for the tea ceremony. It actually ended up being a wonderful time that meant a lot to both of us. Dorothy didn’t come with, so it really was a time of her mom and I bonding- relationally, but also in a real sense as we both had a part in making this ring happen. Dorothy may only wear the ring to special events, but we both like it for the meaning that is behind it, representing two cultures coming together in our marriage.
That pretty much sums it up, and the only other thought I have is that I would love to start making jewelry as a sidehustle someday. - A
Another thought post-engagement, wedding and what not... to be completely frank, there were a few weeks after I was engaged that I was self-conscious about my ring. In fact, I had a co-worker ask me one time, 'So why don't you have a ring if you're engaged?' when at the time, I was wearing the ring Aaron had made. What she had meant to ask was, 'Why don't you have a diamond ring?' Again, I found myself comparing and almost playing defense the moment people reacted in dismay to my ring. Here's the thing I have learned, the relationship I have with Aaron and he with me is ours and ours alone. It is so special to me that my husband made my ring. I've never been the bells and whistles, sparkles and glamour kind-of-girl and I think what he made me really reflects my style and what I want my life to reflect. And, we don't write this post to disregard how special others' rings are and their relationship at all. I mean, I do have a diamond ring after all. Hope you enjoyed reading, if you made it this far!
Here's part 1 in the Our Wedding Series.
Our Wedding : Invitations & Handlettering
Welcome to part one of our blog series titled, Our Wedding. Over the next couple of weeks (or month or two- let's be honest), we'll be writing about each of our vendors and the team that it took to make our day so beautiful and us. In this first post, we're talking invitations and handlettering! Follow along on this process :)
We knew we wanted some type of floral element in our invitation suite and I thought that an envelope liner would be perfect. In enters my friend from college, Eleni. She is an amazing illustrator and I wanted to be able to hire her for something. She's just too good. We emailed her some of our inspiration images and she sent us some drafts. It was a pretty quick turn-around as we loved what she sketched out for us.
Here are some images from this process:
SKETCHES
Eleni sent us two concepts and we chose the one pictured here. She then finalized it with color.
FINAL
Here's what they looked like prior to assembly!
When it came to who would be designing and printing our invitations, there was no question. I interned for Sara back in 2013 and have since stayed connected with the business taking photos and working at their storefront. We always joked that she'd one day do my wedding invitations. I knew I wanted our invitations to be letterpress and on beautiful, thick paper. Sara did an awesome job encapsulating what we wanted for our invites because we wanted it to be able to timeless but modern. We didn't want anything that was 'trendy' per say, which is why we kept all illustrative elements outside of the invitation itself.
While I was finding inspiration for our invitations, I found the font F37 Bella. It's a beautiful font that is sophisticated with geometric elements.
The main palette for our wedding colors were black and white, with touches of dark green, plum and burgundy. I loved the idea of keeping our invites simple in the colors and I wanted to incorporate blind letterpress so you could really feel the invites because of our thick paper.
Our info card was a play on the idea as we had a password for our wedding website. The blind letterpressing made it almost like a password card.
Aaron designed our logo! A triangular shape to represent our relationship with God. The left side is meant to look like an A and the right side is a D. He did a good job, right?!
Once we finalized our design, Aaron and I went into the shop and watched as Sara pressed all of our invites. I took photos of the whole process, but lost them since they had been stored on my stolen laptop. Huge bummer :(
I've been working part-time at Paper Source for over a year now and when the holidays come around, Paper Source comes out with holiday colors for their Paper Bar. I fell in love with Spruce as soon as I saw it. I wish it was a year-long color! Once the holidays are over, these envelopes are on super clearance. The standard size for invitations is A7 (5x7), but I went for A6 (4x6) instead because that's the only size we had left and it didn't make too much of a difference. I managed to buy 90 envelopes for about $9! To fill in the remaining envelopes we needed, I purchased black A6 too.
We also got a custom embosser through Paper Source since we were doing colored envelopes and I didn't want more work for Sara to letterpress our return address. I thought it was a fun idea since we were doing blind letterpress on our invites.
Aaron has a friend who is self-taught in calligraphy and once I saw her work, I was so excited. Ellen is super talented and in her particular field, I know that she'll go far. We hired her to address our envelopes and also our place cards! Aaron found some marble tiles from Lowes and Ellen used a permanent paint pen to write on 'em. They doubled as a party favor andddd they weren't too expensive!
The last element of our invitations were our stamps! Maybe I'm too detailed but I wanted the stamp to really pull everything together. I used some of the illustrations from Eleni and added an ampersand using the same font as our invite and ordered them from Zazzle. They turned out awesome and added just the right amount of color to the outside of our envelopes.
Final thoughts? Invitations set the tone of your wedding since they're most likely the first thing your guests see regarding your wedding. I always thought I'd want to design my own invitations and do this all myself, but I am so glad I had someone else help! Obviously I am a little bias because I have a graphic design background, but the details matter to me. Details like paper type, envelopes, stamps, etc. We wanted a beautiful look to our day, but also not too serious. I mean, if you know me and Aaron, we like to have sophisticated fun. Is that a thing? I mean if having tacoland as the password to our wedding website didn't clue someone in... :) Hope you enjoyed reading!