5 years: our wedding memories

We recently celebrated our 5 years of marriage.  Time has just flown by - Looking back at ourr wedding photos (the cool ones above were done by Thom Milkovic, an amazing creative), it brings back so many memories.  One of the most happy memories I have to this day - LOVE our wedding.  Everything about it.

We planned our wedding in 2 weeks (we had the benefit of me having done event planning for over a decade).  Dae proposed and we told everyone about our engagement officially on December 1, 2011, and about 5 weeks later, we had our wedding day. Crazy fast.  And still to this day, I say I LOVE our wedding day.  We did it differently - like the way we are living our lives, from what's expected normally in society - and it was just perfect for us.

How we did it differently (memorably, and efficiently):

• First 50 people that came to our heads, that we had seen in the past 6 months were invited (well, mostly because timing was tight, we had to move fast).  We handmade all of the paper products used to invite people and during teh wedding using some nice shiny paper, Elmer's glue, ribbon and pearlescent plum pearls.
• We picked a location that needed minimal decor, just a few extra flowers (by Miki's Flowers) to bring it together.  We chose the Smith Tower in Seattle for that reason.  Plus the wedding was in January, so a wintery night looking down from many floors up high was guaranteed to make for some beautiful photos, no matter what the weather turned out to be.
• Catering had to be good quality - organic, local, sustainably grown.  We were committed to this being the top expense for our wedding.  We used Tuxedo and Tennis Shoes catering, a father and son business out of West Seattle.  Our guests to this day, still say it was the best wedding food they've ever had at a wedding.  Oysters, meat skewers, salads, chocolate truffles, salads, cakes, ...  For events, people only remember really awful or really amazing food.  
• Music - we went with a wholesome self-selected with love music by Dae, an iPod, rented speakers and a friend who managed the various lists.  
• We had a videographer too.  If you're debating on whether to get one or not, get one.  We watch our wedding video every year and "oooh" and "ahhh" at all the great memories of that day and days since.
• Photography was by Jonathan and Lindsey King.  We love them so much they've back back to do family photos, and they will be capturing our baby Lentil's first birthday soon, too.  
• Our friend, Chris, a lawyer and licensed to wed from the internet, married us.  During the ceremony, we had everyone stand up and hold hands around us as a symbolic gesture of our community coming together to support and guide us on our marital journey.  Having done events for over a decade, I know that other than really bad or good food, what people remember is a feeling they experienced during the wedding.  I wanted our guests to feel communal warmth from our wedding event (the people, food, ceremony), so that was the focus.  
• For my dress, I bought the shape (A Line) and material (organza) I liked, then had a lot of the dress gutted to take out all the stuffy heavy wedding dress stuff underneath and rebuilt it with all of the details I wanted to be exactly what I liked by a wedding dress maker and seamstress.  I recommend this as the best way to get exactly what you want and save tons of time (and cash) in finding your "perfect dress".  
• Cake was of course, by Simply Desserts (Fremont in Seattle, WA) and their amazing White Chocolate Strawberry cake.  This has literally been my favorite cake for more than a decade.  We had a round cake and a big rectangular cake (aka the Groom's cake).  This was also the most cost effective and fun way to have the most amazing tasting cake with plenty to share with all of our guests.  
• We also ended the ceremony with a modern twist to a traditional Korean wedding, by taking the time to bow to our parents in respectful thanks.  

Ah love.  It's a journey.  This year, for our anniversary, we went out to a steak dinner (we rarely ever eat steak, like ever~)....  and then both of us ended up with food poisoning for 3 days.  It's been a fun week.  Benefit to that is that we'll forever remember our 5h wedding anniversary.  :)

--Arry