With day jobs that have them dressed uber casual, this couple decided to up the ante on their wedding style. But formality didn’t mean stuffiness with all the special touches showing off their love of books and music. With stunning photos by O’Malley Photographers and a film by First And Foremost Productions, this fun-loving couple had me smiling as I soaked up every moment in the full gallery here.
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From The Bride…When my husband I and started planning our wedding we had a very specific idea of what we wanted; a simple and elegant affair that highlighted our two loves, reading and music. We knew immediately that we wanted it to be formal as we both spend five days a week dressed down and dirty (he works at a brewery, and myself at an animal shelter) so we jump at any excuse to put on nice clothing!
Brooks and I are huge music lovers, it’s an obsession really. We spent months on the wedding playlist and our poor DJ received a color coded, multi-page spreadsheet with every song we wanted played throughout the event. Not everything would be considered wedding music, but it was without a doubt very “us” and I loved having that “I LOVE THIS SONG!” moment every few minutes! The bridal party walked down the aisle to Ben Howard-Old Pine and myself to Bon Iver-Holocene. One of my favorite moments of the night was when the last song played, Fleetwood Mac-The Chain, and everyone gathered into a circle screaming the words at the top of their lungs while Brooks played air base. It was the most perfect moment of pure joy being surrounded by our closest friends singing one of our favorite songs. We also translated our love of music through our “guestbook” which was actually one of Brooks’ guitars that I sanded down and spray-painted with chalk paint. It now sits in our living room and is one of my favorite possessions.
Reading is our favorite hobby so I knew that we had to incorporate lots of books into the decor. I spent countless hours scouring every thrift store and bookshop looking for antique blue books to use throughout the wedding. I designed all the paper materials to look like book pages, from the dinner menu to the cocktail lists. Brooks and I spent weeks cutting out paper hearts from copies of Pride and Prejudice to be used as confetti for the invitations and as table scatter. The table numbers where my favorite DIY project; I printed the numbers onto old book pages and then used spray adhesive to attach them to the book covers. I also created a 6 foot long “LOVE” sign for the church alter using pages from a book of love poetry as the background.
A few other DIY projects that I loved making were the wreaths that hung on the church doors, the cake topper on the Groom’s cake which is our spirit animals (golden retriever puppy for Brooks and a meerkat for myself), and the cornhole game that I painted in our signature slate blue with our initials My mother also spent weeks creating the floral pomanders that hung from the arbor in front of the reception. Instead of doing a slideshow I created a collage board with childhood photos and put it behind our guestbook. I also turned a vintage suitcase into our “Honeymoon Fund” card holder by Dremel-ing a slot at the top of it and painting/decorating the front.
I was really lucky when it came to my flowers as my family has been in the floral business for over 50 years. They flew in from Chicago a week before the wedding and turned my mother’s garage into floral central. It was really an amazing sight to see 2,000 flowers in one little space! White roses are my favorite flower so I knew I wanted them everywhere for my wedding, and boy did they deliver! We actually ended up with far more flowers than we had space for we just ended up sticking arrangements wherever we could find a table to hold them. A happy accident as it made the church and reception look like a white garden and smelled amazing!
Photography: O'Malley Photographers | Videography: First And Foremost Productions | Event Design: Whimsy Event Design | Floral Design: Church Of Evangelical Faith | Wedding Dress: Allure Bridal | Cake: Central Market | Invitations: Minted | Ceremony Venue: Hood Canal Vista Pavilion | Reception Venue: Hood Canal Vista Pavilion | Shoes: Dessy Collection By Vivian Diamond | Jewelry: Family Pieces | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Alfred Sung | Catering: Snuffins | Makeup: Annaliza Tolosa | Hair: Seattle Bridal Hair | DJ: Headsmile Productions | Groom's Attire: Men's Wearhouse | Flower Girl's Dress: Macy's | Groom's Ring: Macy's | Mother Of Bride Attire: Nordstrom | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Mike's Four Star BBQ | Rentals: AA Party Rentals