Today I get to share with you this awesome wedding of Casey and DL who were wed at Watershed PDX from Stephanie Kaloi Photography. They both involved their family and friends in the process and managed to have a truly “local” wedding. Even better, Casey had her blue dress made!
I met DL at Cricket Cafe for breakfast in Portland. Admittedly, it was an OKCupid date. I was early, he was late. This is only significant because I was already sitting when he arrived. We had a great time! After we finished eating, we stood up and I realized that he was an inch shorter than me. His profile said he was 5’9″ (he’s actually 5’8″). He used the excuse that with his mohawk, he was indeed 5’9″ and that guys who are 5’8″ do not get dates. I forgave him of his embellishment and went out with him the next day (and the next and the next and the next). After breakfast, we rode bikes to a cool Portland cemetery and I met one of DL’s girl friends, who convinced me that he wasn’t an axe murderer.
Neither one of us was looking for anything serious when we met, which is part of why it worked. I was recently back in the dating scene and he was busy raising his son, working on a phD, and running a business. We casually dated until we realized we were spending a lot of time together and making longer term plans.
I’m introverted, reliable, and stable, and DL feeds off meeting new people everyday and going with whatever his day brings. We really are exact opposites in terms of personality, which can be challenging and amazing at the same time.
We planned on paying for everything ourselves so that gave us license to do whatever we wanted. I couldn’t decide between a suit and dress so I had a blue dress made for the ceremony and changed into a suit and tie for the afterparty. We had a non-religious ceremony put on by two friends of ours who are a couple themselves. I had a bachelorette party, and DL and his friend drove the limo and he had a bachelor party that his girlfriend and I attended.
It was important to us to involve our friends and family in the process and we were able to have a truly “local” wedding. Almost everything was produced in Portland. Our wedding was held in the crafter’s warehouse that DL runs. The invites, thank you cards, programs, etc. were done by a good friend of mine who is a graphic designer. The flowers, sound, printing, DJs, band, projection, and bartending were done by friends. DL’s mom made amazing cupcakes for dessert. My parents flew out before the wedding to help the prep the building for a wedding. And everything else was produced locally in Portland.
DL and I wanted to make something big together for the wedding so we spent a few months prior to the wedding designing, plasma cutting, grinding, and joining an 8 foot tall metal tree. We weren’t sure it would stand on independently until a few days before the wedding, but it did! It weighs a few hundred pounds and was a cool addition to the décor. We also made giant sized games for the afterparty including cornhole and Qorridor.
My dress had to be sleeveless to show off my ink! My mom had suggested that I look for a dress with sleeves to cover them (“I mean, your tattoos are well done, but do you really want them showing at your wedding?”), and I told her that this was not actually going to be a 1950s Amish wedding and that everyone who knows me knows I have tattoos. I also had purple highlights and a fashionable rattail (I realize that’s kind of an oxymoron). Plus, I live in Portland…everyone has tattoos.
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