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Our wedding day started on a sunny Friday. My girlfriends and I did a private yoga class on the lawn right along the water to start our day. Weddings can be stressful, and it was great to begin in the right mindset with gratitude and abundance!
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Roche Harbor is a little resort town on a small island within the San Juans. It was unique to have all our guests in the same small radius, so we could see them throughout the weekend outside of the wedding event!
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The groom’s cousin,
Sarah Simon, is a very talented artist. She painted all of the art for our invitation suite (which was then designed into a custom invitation suite) by the lovely
Claire Carstens. It was special to us and many of our guests to have family members intimately involved in our wedding process
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My gown by Ines Di Santo had very delicate applique detailing which added unique style. It had a form fitting silhouette which was also very feminine and not overwhelming on my petite body frame.
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I bought my bridesmaids matching floral PJs for getting ready. I thought it was an unexpected twist from the traditional robes that most bridal parties get, and the girls were excited to wear them again after the wedding— so much so, that I found them in the bar after the wedding had ended wearing the pajamas!
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Here, my sister was helping me get into my dress. The moment I had my dress on was when my emotions about our wedding really set in, like, this is really happening!
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One of my favorite things about the groom is his sense of humor. When he learned it was typical of bridal parties to be gifted with robes, he decided to do this for the groomsmen. He bought custom, initialed robes for each groomsman. The group absolutely loved it.
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I felt like such an adult in this moment, having my mom help me get ready to be “given away” to my future husband. It was emotional for my mom, having her last unmarried daughter get married.
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We took a lot of photos in the gardens near the ceremony area. The formality of the gardens paired nicely with our attire.
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I love the European tradition of bridesmaids wearing white, so this was something I knew that I wanted from early on in my wedding planning process. Fun fact: most of these were not actual bridesmaid gowns, just simple, long white gowns that my friends got to pick out themselves. It was important to me to give my friends the opportunity to choose what they felt most confident in and not force them into a generic bridesmaid gown they didn’t feel beautiful in!
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One of my favorite parts about my friends is while they are all from different aspects of my life, they have all become friends with each other over the years from knowing me. Having an entire bridal party who is all very close made the experience even more intimate and fun.
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The groom’s niece, Natalie (one year old), was our flower girl. It was a sweet moment when the best man (the groom’s brother) got to walk his daughter down the aisle with her flowers.
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We chose a light grey suit for the groomsmen. It matched the vintage vibe of this resort and was great for 80-degree weather. The groom’s suit matched but had a small checker detail, so he could still stand out.
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This is us at the first look. I enjoyed having a private space to enjoy this special moment seeing each other for the first time on our wedding day.
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Roche Harbor is a quaint little resort on San Juan Island that was initially built around 1910. The history and all of the old buildings add to the charm.
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One thing no one tells you is your dress will get very dirty on your wedding day. Just go with it and have fun!
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The sign you see reads, “Your coming gave us pleasure, your going gives us pain. Fond memories our only treasure until you come again.” This beautiful walkway is lined with lush plants and flowers, with the ceremony garden to the right, and another formal garden to the left. It leads down to the harbor, as many people travel to Roche Harbor by boat and leave the resort through this walkway.
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The groom and I met on a blind date. His cousin and I went to school together at the University of Washington, and years later after we graduated, she reached out to me asking if I’d be interested in going out with his cousin. We met for dinner shortly after, and the rest is history!
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I knew Aaron was the one for me because I couldn’t ever picture life without him after we met. He is my romantic partner, but he is also my favorite person in life.
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The formal gardens outside our wedding ceremony was one of my favorite areas to take pictures.
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It felt so great to have everyone who really knows us to be cheering us on for this very important life event.
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Because low back gowns are the best, and my hair stylists at White Lodge Studios (shoutout Richard Drews— balayage, Erich Jenkins— cut, Leonardo— wedding styling) are a magical group of men.
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My cheeks started hurting after a few hours of pictures.
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Kaleb Willis of Kaleb Norman James Design, our florist and wedding planner, went with a low floral arch for the ceremony feature. It was perfect because it did not obstruct the views of the ocean!
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My veil by Toni Federici was a cathedral length which added drama while walking down the aisle. We added a custom front blusher as well to add a traditional feel during the ceremony. The bottom of the veil had small applique that very closely matched my wedding gown.
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This is when we both got really nervous!
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Yep, my friends are a good-looking group.
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View from the top of our ceremony. Ahead, past the garden, is the harbor and a couple of waterfront restaurants. We used parasols to add style and shade during our ceremony.
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I am not usually very emotional, but in the first line of my vows, I started crying, the groom started crying, and the audience started crying.
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My favorite picture from our wedding— we were so happy. Also the rose petals thrown by guests were a really great celebratory element to add to the moment (and the photography!). This pic later became our 2019 Christmas card.
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One suggestion I have for brides is take some shots of immediate family— both on the bride and groom’s side— together. This is one of our favorite photos, and we have it framed in our living room!
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At this point, I definitely noticed I had lipstick over the front of my dress. Kaleb came to the rescue with a Tide To-Go pen! I learned pretty quickly that the day won’t go perfectly, and that’s okay. I tried to soak in all the good moments because it was over in the blink of an eye.
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The groom’s nephew, Jack, was our ring bearer. We asked him to be our ring “bear”-er over Christmas with a cute stuffed bear. He was adorable and took his job very seriously, even requesting to practice before the wedding. He recently learned how to “dab” prior to this picture being taken. It meant a lot to have him part of our wedding as he survived cancer as a one-and-a-half year old.
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A family member gave us this wedding guest book. It not only has a guest book but also other pages to document stages in your relationship, such as meeting for the first time, getting engaged, fun memories, anniversaries, children, etc.
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We intentionally requested a large group photo of every wedding guest. We custom-made this photo into a thank you card, which was mailed to every guest after the big day to thank them for attending.
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The groom and I have an orange tabby cat named Benny. Sarah Simon (who created all of our wedding art), created a custom bar sign featuring our cat to showcase the signature cocktails. The “Hers” drink was an Aperol Spritz, and the “His” drink was an old fashioned.
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After the ceremony, we hosted a cocktail hour. This was a casual outdoor space just up the steps from the ceremony garden. I was very glad we took most of our wedding photos prior to the ceremony, so I could enjoy the cocktail hour visiting with guests instead of having to take more pictures!
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Claire Carstens created our place cards. The multi-colored wax seals provided a fun way to throw in more color into the reception.
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When Kaleb and I first talked about the reception, I requested green and white. It quickly felt tired and overdone, so we pivoted toward colors. We chose a soft color palette with blush, sage, and blue tones. One of my favorite elements to the design was the patterned table cloths. It was unexpected and unique.
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The place settings featured a menu booklet with each guest’s name on the front. I chose long tables because they felt more inclusive and provided the opportunity for more people to converse.
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Felicity of Felicitations Bakery created a three-tier champagne cake, matching the blush tone of our wedding color palette. The smooth cake felt classic, and the florals tied everything in with the design of the rest of the reception.
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Not everyone loves cake, so we included a few bite-sized desserts. We chose blueberry tarts and French macarons, all within our color scheme. I was so busy having fun at our wedding that I forgot to try any of them!
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This is a view of the Roche Harbor dock kayaks. Many of our guests signed up for kayak tours around the San Juan islands. It was unique having access to so many activities just steps from the resort so guests could really make a weekend out of our wedding.
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This is when the resort announced our marriage on the loud speaker for everyone in the harbor to hear!
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As the day came to a close, the best thing we did was look around and appreciate all the important people who showed up for us on our big day.
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The groom and I both went to the University of Washington, so we hired the school mascot, “Harry the Husky.” He really got the party started.
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The speeches provided a lot of happy sentiment, with only a few surprise roasts in the mix.
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Unsurprisingly, the groom shoved cake in my face even after I had repeatedly told him not to!
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One thing I’ll always remember leading up to our wedding is that every once in a while, the groom would turn on our first dance song at home and ask me to dance. It was always unexpected and romantic. He still does it today.
