Romantic Woodland Wedding
The title says it all. This devastatingly gorgeous wedding was romantic woodlands at it's finest, captured beautifully by Aura May Photography. It's like they sneaked off into the forest with their nearest and dearest to celebrate a love that was so pure it could only have been surrounded by such natural beauty.
From the stunning bride... Tyrell and I have the same love for celebrating life's special moments, our friends and the great outdoors. There wasn't a hesitation in our minds that we would have our wedding at Tierra Learning Center in Leavenworth, Washington, where we could spend three days celebrating our new life adventure together with our community, all hidden away in a beautiful and inspiring location. Tierra Learning Center has a presence that invites the celebration of the good and simple things in life and offers a truly magical space.
Being a Project Manager by career, I was a natural at organizing a wedding and by being thrifty my whole life, I knew how to do a wedding on a very, very small budget. I was never one to dream of a wedding growing up, and Tyrell isn't one to be concerned with colors or fashion, so I really had no preconceived ideas of what we wanted. I lucked out and found my dress on sale at a wedding show. It was the first and only dress I tried on and it couldn't have been more perfect. We skipped a lot of the details and utilized a lot of great contacts. Wholesale prices on the very little flowers we used (you don't need many with an outdoor summer wedding in the woods), wholesale prices on beer and wine, Betty Crocker Confetti wedding cake, 400 homemade cakeballs (made by the wonderful bridal party), father of the grooms' band playing as a wedding gift both for the ceremony and reception and A LOT of help from the best of friends and families. We splurged on the important things, food, booze and pictures. Carrot Top Catering provided an amazing rehearsal dinner and wedding reception dinner with a ton of very affordable, healthy, fresh and locally grown food. We found Aura May Photography through a friend and the instant I met Aura, with her love of photography and approach on capturing life through naturally lit images, I knew she was the one that would make our wedding memorable for our lifetimes to come. That would be my one piece of advice, make sure you have a good photographer and have a connection with them because after all, they are the ones responsible for capturing such an important day and as the bride, it's difficult to remember it all.
The best part of the whole planning process and wedding weekend, I kept reminding myself, don't sweat the small stuff and work your way through the big stuff. In the end, its not about what didn't happen or what should have happened, its about being present in every moment and reminding yourself, if you're doing it right the first time, its the only time you get to live in this moment.
Being a Project Manager by career, I was a natural at organizing a wedding and by being thrifty my whole life, I knew how to do a wedding on a very, very small budget. I was never one to dream of a wedding growing up, and Tyrell isn't one to be concerned with colors or fashion, so I really had no preconceived ideas of what we wanted. I lucked out and found my dress on sale at a wedding show. It was the first and only dress I tried on and it couldn't have been more perfect. We skipped a lot of the details and utilized a lot of great contacts. Wholesale prices on the very little flowers we used (you don't need many with an outdoor summer wedding in the woods), wholesale prices on beer and wine, Betty Crocker Confetti wedding cake, 400 homemade cakeballs (made by the wonderful bridal party), father of the grooms' band playing as a wedding gift both for the ceremony and reception and A LOT of help from the best of friends and families. We splurged on the important things, food, booze and pictures. Carrot Top Catering provided an amazing rehearsal dinner and wedding reception dinner with a ton of very affordable, healthy, fresh and locally grown food. We found Aura May Photography through a friend and the instant I met Aura, with her love of photography and approach on capturing life through naturally lit images, I knew she was the one that would make our wedding memorable for our lifetimes to come. That would be my one piece of advice, make sure you have a good photographer and have a connection with them because after all, they are the ones responsible for capturing such an important day and as the bride, it's difficult to remember it all.
The best part of the whole planning process and wedding weekend, I kept reminding myself, don't sweat the small stuff and work your way through the big stuff. In the end, its not about what didn't happen or what should have happened, its about being present in every moment and reminding yourself, if you're doing it right the first time, its the only time you get to live in this moment.