And sorry Sam, the braces photo is just too cute not to post!

By the way, we met Sam a long time ago when we photographed her parents’ wedding. We have great memories with Amy, Scott, Mieko, and the rest of the clan and we’re honored to call them our friends. Coming soon are some images from that wedding and also some family sessions throughout the years …

Our Fairytale…

If I were given only four words to describe my Wedding Day, they would be, “Out of a Fairytale.” It was truly out of my dreams: …the flower girls sprinkling rose petals down the aisle…the ring bearers holding their white pillows so carefully – with the light blue Tiffany & Co. boxes atop…My Cinderella dress…walking in to my favorite fairytale love song – Sleeping Beauty’s “Once Upon a Dream”…my 15 best friends, standing in their places of honor, each holding a single rose tied with a satin ribbon, just as my mother’s bridesmaids had done before…my mom holding onto my hand, walking down the white light glimmering and rose petal covered aisle, with my Daddy’s presence from Heaven surrounding us as we walked to the front of the Church – the Church my parents were married in 43 years ago to the month – towards the most perfect for me in every way, unconditionally loving and caring Groom my wildest dreams could have ever imagined. My Chris. Our vows were written straight from the heart. We spoke of how we each believed we grew up with the best example of a God given and unconditionally loving marriage that could have ever been – for me, my parents, and for him, his own. I told him that my mom and I truly believed that my Daddy had picked him out for me and sent him from Heaven because he had every quality my dad would have wanted for the man who would marry his darling daughter. We spoke the words and our feelings for the bond and loving commitment we were entering into with full love and excitement! The Wedding Ceremony was pure joy! And we allowed every moment to be true to who WE were. After we were pronounced “Man and Wife,” I was literally swept off my feet by my loving husband, and carried out of the sanctuary in his arms! “The Dance” from “Emma” joyfully played for the processional, and our incredible wedding party (and the minister) danced down the aisle and out of the Church! As our 500 guests made their way out of the Church and onto the sidewalk and street, to send us off to the reception, my new groom and I took a moment of peaceful stillness together. We went into the Chapel and rejoiced and celebrated the blessing of what had just happened. It was the perfect moment of quiet peace and praise to God in our first moments as Husband and Wife.

I’m sorry. Say that again. How many people are invited to your Wedding? Well, having a guest list of over 500 people makes it a bit difficult to find a venue to hold such a wonderful number. We are blessed with amazing friends and every person invited holds a personal connection with one or both of us. I am also blessed with an incredible Mother, who 30 years ago, started an immeasurably successful school for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Northwest School for Hearing-Impaired Children has been a part of my life since the very beginning. My mother, as founder and director, has grown close to countless families over the past 30 years of the School. These students, since the beginning, have also become a deeply rooted part of my life. So, we invited every child currently at the school to attend the wedding…and every family and student, who we have remained close to, from the past 30 years of the School’s existence, to attend as well. Over 1/4 of the guests at our wedding were deaf. (And, no, the wedding was not quiet…it was brilliantly LOUD!

500 people? Like what, are you having it at a football stadium or something? So, when the time came to find a location for our reception, we knew we had to think big. As a born and raised life long Husky, I knew that I wanted to have it at the University of Washington. The question was, what building would be big enough? There is only one: Husky Stadium. The Don James Center at Husky Stadium was the perfect place. However, the act of booking it for the Summer of 2011 was the only stress point in our year of wedding planning and preparation. As we were trying to finalize the date, rumors began that the $250 million renovation of Husky Stadium may be moved up from January 2012…to the Summer of 2011. This causedstress for a month…until, FINALLY, the 2012 renovation date was determined, we were safe and assured, and we booked our BIG day for June 25th, 2011! The reception went just as I had planned, and, yes, even though we had heard the stories that the bride and groom never got to eat on their wedding day, we thoroughly enjoyed a full dinner! We made sure to plan into the time schedule a full hour where we would get to sit, and eat, and friends could stop by our table to say hello. We even managed to get all 500 guests from the Don James Center, down onto the field in an organized fashion for the group photo. Once the guests were situated, Chris and I came running out onto the field, and burst through a “Just Married” banner, with our bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls, ring bearers and our families running behind us. It was perfect! Once everyone was back upstairs, we opened the dessert bar, cut the cake, and the dancing began! We each had a song we wanted for our first dance…so we did them back to back…always the gentleman, Chris offered for us to dance to mine first (“Today was a Fairytale” by Taylor Swift) and next, to his (“Love Song” by The Cure). One friend told me later that she was asked how long the party went. She told them, “I’m not sure – but when I left sometime after midnight, the bride and groom were still rocking the dance floor!” It truly was our dream Wedding. Our real life Fairytale. Perfection. I truly felt like Cinderella. I married my real life prince – and he is more wonderful than my dreams could have ever imagined!

Preparation for our Event of a Lifetime… With the exception of that one month of waiting on the stadium…our year of planning and preparation went pretty much seamlessly. One important lesson I learned from school, during my years in the Undergraduate and Graduate Architecture Programs at the University of Washington, is that “architecture” can have a proper place in any design veichle…for example, Wedding Design. As an architectural designer, I have very specific views and ideals for every design aspect that I would want for my ideal wedding. I am a firm believer that if you want something done right, you do it yourself. I applied this view to aspects I knew I wanted control over…and then passed off other important things to trusted friends that I knew would execute my desires perfectly. I designed, printed and hand made all 500+ invitations. Like in the design of a building, I went though countless sketches, mock-ups and prototypes for the final design of the wedding invitation. As I progressed, I would always check in with Chris to get his input and ideas. (Forensic Toxicologists have great insight!) And, I wanted him to feel his views on our “Dream Wedding” were realized just as much as mine were. From our Save the Date, our final Wedding Invitation design, our wedding colors, flowers, food choices, Wedding program design, songs to walk in to (his from Goonies, mine from Sleeping Beauty), reception dance party music, the 20 cakes, 350 cupcakes, and 18 confectionary jars full of candy (we drove up to Canada to buy candies you can’t get in the states) for the dessert bar, our cake toppers (Strawberry Shortcake and Huckleberry Pie), slide show photos and corresponding music (for the hour long slide show which ran during dinner) to the 50 table names (each table representing something important to us) and paragraph write-ups and photos that went along with the descriptions…We decided and executed EVERYTHING as a team.

Where we saved… My advice to new brides is this – give yourself enough time from when you get engaged…to your wedding day…to be able to enjoy every moment of your dreaming and planning without feeling rushed or stressed. This is supposed to be FUN!!!! And it will be! It is completely possible to have your Dream Wedding…and even apply “Do it Yourself” parts, which can allow you to save money in some areas and splurge in the ones that are most important. We saved by using our own music. We put together all of our favorite dance songs for the reception and hooked my laptop up to the house speaker system for the dance party. We saved by using a friend for Emcee. We had a good friend spend the evening hosting as Emcee and this was his wedding gift to us. He knew us better than any stranger would and made everything fun and comfortable. And with a list of the “Timeline of Events” printout in his hand, he did a great job of keeping everything on schedule. We saved on flowers. Rather than go through a florist, we ordered 120 dozen roses from Costco. I have a good friend, from architecture school, who does beautiful flower arrangements and she did my bouquet, my bridesmaids roses and all of the boutonnieres. This was her Wedding gift. I found that some of the best “gifts” friends gave us for our wedding was their time. We saved on cutlery and dinnerware. You’ll find that renting silverware, plates, glasses and linens can be expensive. We picked what was most important (linens for the tables and glassware) and rented those from our caterer, but saved by using organic bamboo cutlery and compostable plates made from sugar cane. We saved on wedding invitations. I bought all of my envelopes and enclosures at Paper Source and the pre-cut card stock (3 sizes) through Paper Zone/Envelopments. I designed my invitations with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and (primarily) InDesign and printed them on my own printer.

Where we splurged… There are many ways that brides can save. However, the main thing to ask yourself is, “What is the most important thing that I have on this day?” – besides the joy of marrying the man of your dreams! Whatever your answer is on this, is your splurge. For us, the thing that was the most important were the Photos. We did not pick our photographer by comparing costs to try to find the one who could do it for the lowest amount. We found the photographer whose work, for us, was unparalleled to any other we had seen. We found the photographer who we believed would show the story of our Fairytale in the most beautiful and breathtaking way ever. The photographer who would tell the story of our day as captured through photos. The photographer we trusted fully to execute full creative expertise and give us Wedding photos that would simply blow us away. This is exactly what we got. We can’t possibly praise the work of Studio Joe + Jill enough. They showed, through their photographs, exactly the dream we felt we were experiencing on our Wedding Day.

One last thing for the new Bride-to-be… Lastly, my advice is this: make the day yours. Add the aspects that show your personality and creativity. There is no “one way” to have the perfect wedding. Perfection is determined by your unique hopes and dreams for the order of YOUR day. It is different for every bride. And…although things in life are not perfect, and most likely, not EVERY little thing will go COMPLETELY according to plan on your Wedding day (it’s life!), it won’t matter. The high you will feel from experiencing the overflowing and all encompassing love from saying “I Do!” to the man of your dreams will overshadow EVERYTHING else. With your hand in your true love’s, and your loving family and friends surrounding you, you will truly feel like you are literally glowing all day…and you will NEVER forget it!

Venue, catering, cake: The Four Seasons Hotel, Seattle

Church: Seattle Unity Church
Reception Venue: Don James Center/Husky Stadium
Dress: Kirstie Kelly Couture (Disney Fairytale Collection – Cinderella