WEDDING BLOG

This 200-Person Castaway Portland Wedding Felt Intimate as Could Be

June 26, 2018 | juliette

It’s no easy feat to create an intimate wedding with a guest list larger than 50 people, but Hannah and Mitchell pulled it off in their Castaway Portland wedding that included 200 of their closest friends and family! With the help of Kelsey and her team at Vanity Affair Event, the couple created a timeless elegance with a rustic twist in the warehouse venue. Vanessa Schmidt Co. created stunning floral arrangements and displays, including an asymmetrical floating floral installation for the ceremony, that added a touch of whimsy and a lot of dimension to their decor. Their reception featured a mix of elegant, linen-covered tables and rustic, farmhouse tables and included Spanish-style comfort foods from Crown Paella. Hannah, Mitchell, and their dream team of vendors did a remarkable job keeping this large wedding feeling cozy and intimate, and Karra Leigh Photography nailed it in capturing every moment.

The Couple:

Hannah and Mitchell

The Wedding:

Castaway Portland, Oregon

One of the most important parts of our wedding to us was our guests. We opted for a larger wedding of about 200 guests. We feel we are a direct reflection of the amazing community we surround ourselves with, and we wanted our people an intimate part of our wedding. Ensuring our guests were welcomed, comfortable, and had a unique, fun wedding experience was so important to us. We would not be us without them and throwing a party was a way to thank our support system for their unwavering love throughout our lives and kick off this new chapter.

Our first look was in a greenhouse onsite — just us and our photographer. Time stood still during our first look. We embraced knowing this moment was the beginning of forever and, in a few short hours, we’d be married. He cried. I cried. It was pretty freakin’ awesome! Neither of us can remember the words we exchanged; we held each other, and on the craziest day of our lives, the world felt still for a moment. It was so emotional and powerful, and a beautiful precursor for our ceremony to come.

Wedding planning will be the exact experience you think it’s going to be. If you think it’s going to be stressful, it will likely be an exhausting process; if you think it could be fun, I promise it will be an absolute blast. Set time aside in your schedule to work on wedding planning so it doesn’t consume all your time. Find a team of extraordinary creatives to help you bring your vision to life. But most importantly, stay true to you and your partner. Make sure your details are reflective of what embodies you as a couple.

Our ceremony was a dream, and a water show. There were lots and lots of happy tears! We were married by my godfather who had also married previously my sister. We exchanged personal, honest, funny vows that laid the foundation to the marriage we aspire to have. We concluded our ceremony with a unique Celtic knot tying ceremony and a super epic first kiss. One of our guests told us it was the kiss of a lifetime, and it definitely was.

Working with our photographer was like hanging with a friend all afternoon. Karra is hands-down one of the sweetest people we met through our wedding planning process. She created such a fun, professional environment for us to relax and be ourselves. She captured us so perfectly in our photos — they are a perfect reflection of how truly moving that day was. We feel blessed to have had Karra a part of our wedding team and now we call her a forever-friend.

We tasked my parents with selecting our favors for our wedding. They had over 200 oversized ceramic camping mugs with our custom wedding monogram made for our guests to take home. We had no idea what my parents had planned until the day of. It was so sweet and our guests absolutely loved them! We get pictures all the time of guests using them and remembering our day.