Jennifer and Brandon’s backyard wedding was just as romantic, soft, and pretty as can be! From Jennifer’s Luly Yang dress that appeared to be a vintage treasure, to the lush gardens of her parents home, the sweet peas and peonies in antique silver vases, and the bridal party photos in the raspberry patch, the whole day was dreamy! Appearances aren’t everything though, so the amazing ceremony, conducted by Jennifer’s mother and incorporating traditions from around the world that spoke to the universal force of love, was the highlight of the day. One Love Photo graciously shared their ethereal images to accompany the couple’s story of their wedding day.
Jennifer and Brandon say that one of the very best decisions they made was hiring a videographer to capture even more of their day (at the wise prompting of their talented planner, Travis McBurney of True Colors Events). Cabfare Productions did an incredible job producing the sweet video montage that Jennifer says she still watches at least once a week! We’re so lucky to share it with you here. Enjoy the beautiful production that Mitch and his team put together, and One Love Photo’s goregeous images!
The Goals: From Bride Jennifer – When Brandon and I first started thinking about our priorities we agreed on the most important factor: we were making a huge commitment and we didn’t want to rush the ceremony. We really wanted to have our guests experience a profound moment and feel the love that we have for each other. To help us achieve this, we realized that my parent’s home, Sunnyside Farm, would be the perfect place for a backyard wedding. Sunnyside Farm has significant meaning to Brandon and me. Eight years ago, Brandon was dropping me off and asked me to be his girlfriend in our driveway; we shared our first kiss under the tree where we held our ceremony, and he said “I love you” for the first time at Christmas while we were sitting in the living room.
My family has a tradition of Sunday dinners where we cook a ton of food and people just show up. We wanted our wedding to be an extension of the famous Sunday Dinners. This means that good food was key! For us FOOD = LOVE. Of course we wanted the day to be special for everyone so other important factors were good music (I wanted the dance floor to be packed) and great photographers to capture the vibe and feel of our wedding.
The Design: We chose a non-traditional ceremony and asked my mom to marry us. She created a beautiful ceremony (which made Brandon and I both weep!) that incorporated a pagan hand-fasting tradition, an Adobe marriage prayer, and spoke of Islamic and Buddhist beliefs about love. My husband and I are not religious, and thought it would be nice to focus on the universal force of love.
The feel of our wedding day was rustic, sweet, and romantic. My dress was a nontraditional champagne color, so we decided that our colors would be natural and we’d let the flowers in the garden and the arrangements add a splash of color. I loved antique shopping for all the random little decorations that we used throughout the wedding. They added fun and personal touches – which always make the biggest impressions on the guests.
We included personal touches wherever we could. For example, I don’t care for cake, and Molly Moon’s is one of our favorite spots in Seattle. Once we realized we could rent the Molly Moon truck and serve ice cream it was a done decision! The salted caramel ice cream was better than ever. For our favors, Real Card Co. made custom burlap sacks with our bird icon that we’d used on the invitation/save the dates. Inside, we tucked in seed tape (wild flower seeds on newspaper) that we had handmade, added a note of thanks, a sweet quote about love, and instructions on how to plant.
The Look: I didn’t really get the dress that I imagined I would have, but you know what they say…the dress found me! I thought it looked vintage with hand-sewn lace, but it was also very elaborate so I wanted to keep the accessories, hair and make-up simple. For “something old” I tied my great grandmother’s pearls, which happened to match the unique color of my dress perfectly, throughout my bouquet of summer flowers that were a mix of soft shades. My “something new” was a beautiful bracelet that Brandon gave me as a wedding gift, and I “borrowed” my mom’s big pearl earrings. My “something blue” was underneath…hanky pankys that were a gift from my bridesmaids.
The Moments: The morning of our wedding it was pouring down rain and thunder storms were predicted at 5pm, the starting time of our ceremony. I had already cried my tears the days leading up, so I had come to terms with plan B which would be to have a wet wedding under the tent. But an hour before, the skies parted and the sun came out! We were able to hold the ceremony under the tree that held so much meaning for us. I remember when Brandon was saying his vows that he had written, the sun was extra bright and birds were singing and a few leaves were gently falling from the tree above. It was so magical.
Also, when we first saw each other and started taking pictures, we were standing in our garden and I was helping Brandon with his tie and cuff links. I must have seen this in a movie when I was a little girl because I have always associated this to be an intimate interaction that happens between a happy husband and wife. So in the moment, I remember being very happy and eager to have similar moments for years to come.
And finally, we left the wedding on a high note. We walked away from the party, stood on our patio, looked out on everyone and savored the moment before heading off for the night. Looking at our tent full of our friends and family dancing from an outside perspective was pretty amazing.
The Pros: Please visit Jennifer and Brandon’s page in our Real Wedding Library for all the details on the talented professionals that helped bring the couple’s vision to life!
Thank you Jennifer, Brandon, One Love Photo, and Cabfare for sharing this romantic day with us!
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