A Wedding Tale: Heath & Shelly Port Townsend, WA with photographer One Love Photo
How did you meet?
Heath and I met through a mutual
friend in Port Townsend, WA. We were acquaintances and were both
planning to be on a rafting trip in the Alaskan Arctic one summer. The
trip logistics fell through at the last minute and the trip was
canceled. I however still made the trip up to Alaska where he was
living, and the two of us organized an impromptu backpacking trip.
Long story made short, the trip was pretty fantastic, six days in
Denali is a great place for a "first date." And 2 1/2 years later we
got married in Port Townsend, WA on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Did you do anything to make your wedding "green" or "eco-friendly"?
We did keep a focus on having a "eco-friendly" or at least a
fairly natural wedding. It wasn't our first priority but it tends to
be our approach in life, so many things came out that way. We hired
food vendors who served local, organic, seasonal food. We used local
wines from Washington wineries and microbrews from the Port Townsend
Brewing Company. For decorations we gathered beach rocks and made
sculptures, we
harvested ferns and used them as table decor. We bought an old slab of
cedar from a wood mill and used that to make a seating chart. We did
buy some flowers for additional decor but supplemented with the other
natural found objects and lots of candles. We didn't buy any new
metals for our rings. We used my great-grandmother's ring for the
engagement ring and our family and friends sent us old pieces of
jewelry that we had melted down, purified and recast into out wedding
rings by Dian at Equinox Jewelers in Portland.
I especially enjoyed the opportunity for craftiness that the
wedding provided and so we hand-made whatever we thought we could. My
mom and I made my wedding dress. I hand-knit my lace shawl. We had a
local seamstress make the flower-girl dresses.
Heath and I carved
linoleum block prints and we hand printed our save the dates, our
wedding programs, and our thank you notes. We also bought a Gocco
printer and hand printed our invitations. For these I went to a local
print shop and bought their paper ends for pennies. We then crafted a
color scheme around these. A friend of mine, Hannah Garrison, at AZU
studios in New York, made my earrings and necklace. Our friend Michelle
Turk, at Denali Glass in Alaska, handmade a stained glass cake topper
for our cake. Heath built a wooden arch to hang it by and also a cedar
box to hold our rings in during the ceremony.
What was your favorite wedding detail?
My favorite wedding details….I loved our ceremony. We had a
good friend marry us, friends sang and played music, others read
passages of prose. It was intimate and candlelit. As far as the
outfit goes I was pretty fond of my shawl and my shoes.
Friends and
family pulled together on the day of the wedding to decorate the
reception space, I loved the ambiance of candles and paper lanterns and
chocolate cake that they created. And now that the day is over we both
love our wedding bands too and their pure golden glow.
Any vendor recommendations?
After the food, our two biggest indulgences were our
photographers, Heather Gilson and Jon Alameda at One Love Photo and the
band we hired for our reception, Deadwood Revival out of Port Angeles,
Washington. They were well worth every penny. The band really created
a festive and very danceable reception and Heather and Jon captured so
many moments that we will have artistic and creative photos to remember
the entire celebration.
A special thanks to Shelly & Heath for sharing their big day with us. Also special thanks to their photographer One Love Photo for the amazing images from their wedding.
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