Claire & Neal’s wedding was a whole lot of never-have-I-ever’s. Never have I ever been with the ladies getting each other ready in the bride’s apartment, coordinated Ubers for a first-look, taken public transportation with an entire wedding party (I sometimes refer to this as my Public Transportation Wedding), been a part of a municipal court marriage ceremony, wandered around Pioneer Square with a dozen people dressed to the 9’s, or seen professional Irish dancing break out on the dance floor. And have you ever seen such a stylish couple? Claire’s jacket and boots for one, and oh yeah, her lace dress, then everyone else in black with pops of red, Neal’s floral high-tops? Always grateful to live in such a stunning city (peep the first look, are we in a sprawling forest or a skinny city park?), and this wedding showed me even more of the magic hidden here. I came away from this wedding feeling that I had made some seriously great friends, because everyone was just bursting with love and excitement - plus I will never forget this moment of climbing into an Uber with Claire after a chaotic final moments of getting ready / first look with Dad / coordinating Neal’s arrival at Interlaken park / texting everyone about when to be at the lightrail, shutting the door, sudden silence, her gown everywhere and me holding her jacket amongst my cameras and being like….“so, how you’re doing?” This was FUN.
“One of my oldest friends, Jade, is a florist based in New York City, and agreed to do our flowers. She shipped the most beautiful flowers out from The Netherlands (apparently this is common for florists??). When they arrived, I rented a car, drove in Seattle rush hour for possibly the first time ever, and picked up the flowers from the cargo wing of SeaTac Airport. When we got them safely home after only one near-accident, Jade and her lovely assistant/roommate/friend used my sister’s teeny-tiny studio apartment to create some true magic. The flowers were an absolute fever dream of love, color, and beauty.”
“After Neal and I exchanged our vows, my dad and my sister sang If I Should Fall Behind by Bruce Springsteen. I’ve grown up listening to their beautiful voices, and I knew a wedding day wouldn’t be complete without a song. It was perfect.”
“For Neal and me, the most important aspect of a wedding celebration was bringing our families together—and watching them break it down on the dance floor. Everything else was secondary. We succeeded in making this happen, and I will never forget watching multiple generations come together to the tunes of Prince, the Spice Girls, and Lizzo.”
“One of the most gleeful moments of the evening for me was performing with the Seattle Irish Dance Company. For months, I went back and forth about whether to have any Irish dancing at my wedding. One day, when booking a performance for someone else’s wedding, it dawned on me that other people were paying to have us perform at their weddings and here I was thinking it would be somehow uncool or self-indulgent to perform at my own. Well, maybe it was a little self-indulgent, but–guess what–that’s actually what weddings are all about...Everyone nailed it–including three of my childhood friends who each took a solo. Watching my friends and my sister perform made me indescribably happy. We even dragged Neal out for a moment in the spotlight.”
“On the dance floor, on my wedding day, I felt the happiest I’ve been in a very long time. I looked at Neal, my “lover for life,” and felt certain. I looked at my family–my godmother who flew in from Ireland, my aunts and uncles from Colorado, New York, and Florida, and all of Neal’s incredible SoCal family and honorary family–and I thought, “Damn. I am the luckiest person in the world.”
Photography - Kendall Rock
Florals - Jade Gehringer
Venue - Fred Wildlife Refuge
Cake - Nuflours Gluten Free Bakery
Music - DJ Vodka Twist