Sascha and Andrew decided on a longer 18 month engagement so they could spend plenty of time enjoying their new status as an engaged couple before they dove head first into planning. Their wedding backdrop at The Corson Building in Seattle, Washington, turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous venue for friends and family to join them for a vintage glam inspired affair. Very special thanks to Alante Photography for letting us share such lovely images! (And don’t you just die every time you see a bride in a Jenny Packham gown? Or is it just us?)
What made the wedding special and unique?
We had a year and a half between our engagement and the wedding, which seemed interminable at first but turned out to be a good amount of time. We spent the first few months reveling in our newly engaged status and then had over a year to plan the wedding. I had a very specific vision in my head and no family members nearby, so I planned the wedding on my own. We had been to a
few, well, what I like to call ‘insert groom here’ weddings that were all about the bride, and I wanted to avoid that. I made sure to really listen to what Andrew wanted and then run everything by him, although he did little of the actual planning. He does like to point out that he picked The Corson Building as our reception venue. It was a great choice both for the amazing food and for the relaxed, Italian villa-like atmosphere. Since we knew our 80-90 person wedding would be too large to fit in their small side garden, I scoured the Seattle Parks & Rec website for pretty, local parks to keep that dreamy garden feel for the ceremony. We scouted out Parsons Gardens in Queen Anne and immediately loved the small, intimate space with lovely blue hydrangeas.
Tell us about the gown and where/how you found it!
I found a beautiful Art Deco-inspired Jenny Packham gown at The Dress Theory, and debated for a moment about going with a Gatsby garden party theme. We both decided that the idea had been done, and that the real theme should be ‘us getting married,’ so while there are touches of vintage glamour throughout, we didn’t hit you over the head with it.
What was the most memorable part of the day?
My favorite part of the day itself was the ceremony, which came as a surprise to me because I was expecting to prefer the end of night dance party! My uncle played the theme song from Forrest Gump (a childhood favorite of mine) on his flute as we all walked down the aisle. Andrew’s parents’ dog Oso was our ringbearer, and he along with my 5 year old sister and flower girl Ellie
completely stole the show. Both my parents walked me down the aisle, and my dad especially was beaming all day. Andrew looked so handsome in a bespoke navy suit from Butch Blum and a tie he had asked a friend to tie for him a few days before so that he wouldn’t mess it up. We had four friends officiate, and they gave a funny yet heartwarming take on the seven blessings as a nod to our shared Jewish heritage. We wrote our own vows, and the best part of the whole day was seeing the look in Andrew’s eyes as he read his to me. I loved putting our rings on, too – something I had been itching to do since I co-created mine with Nicole Teut from Green Lake Jewelry Works, who was absolutely wonderful to work with. Andrew’s grandmother recently passed away in December, and
I incorporated five of her diamonds from a brooch into my ring. I also borrowed a necklace that had belonged to her for the wedding day. Andrew’s ring was melted down from a giant, tacky pinky ring that his father Jeff had received from Andrew’s great-grandfather 50 years ago at his Bar Mitzvah – both father and son agree that it looks much better now, and no longer needs to be shoved in a drawer out of sight.
What were some touches added to make it personal?
DIY elements were important to me, and not just as a cost-cutting measure. I felt it would be more meaningful to create than to buy some of the things for our wedding. In that mindset, I designed our invitation suite. Since the ceremony was to be in a garden, I based the invitations on botanical prints from the late 1800s – something which I have always loved. I made ink sketches of snapdragons in different states of growth, and scanned them to my friend Emma Mueller, a graphic designer. Emma converted the PDFs into Adobe Illustrator files, and luckily they needed very little clean up (one of the perks of working at an art museum is that we have a high quality scanner!). She carefully separated the images into layers and worked with me on the wording as well as the positioning of the images in relation to the text. We then sent the files to Studio On Fire, a Minneapolis-based letterpress company that had received rave reviews. Letterpress uses solid pantone colors, but I wanted to mimic the watercolors of late 19th Century botanical illustrations, so we used a technique called ‘split-fountain’ to give the flowers an ombré effect from peach to raspberry. To carry the design aesthetic through the envelopes despite my terrible handwriting, I created an excel sheet with all the addresses and mail merged the envelopes using the fonts from the invitations, Vermandois & Futura. This spreadsheet was very useful later on to mark down RSVPs, food allergies, song requests, and wedding gifts. Lastly, I purchased some vintage stamps from Etsy seller VerdeStudio. To provide more information for our guests that didn’t fit on the invitations, I made a wedding website using Squarespace, which was a really intuitive template site with gorgeous layouts.
Vendors: Photography: Alante Photography // Venue: The Corson Building in Seattle, Washington // Invitation Printing: Studio on Fire // Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka // Beauty: Erin Skipley // Groom’s Attire: Butch Blum // Ice Cream Truck: Parfait // Floral Design: McKenzie Powell Designs // Rolls Royce: British Motor Coach // Guest Transporation Shuttle: SP Plus NW // Cafe Lights: Amazon.com // Chair/Tableware Rental: ABC Special Events Rental // Farm Table Rental: Seattle Farm Tables // Wedding Rings: Green Lake Jewelry Works // Welcome Baskets: Lucky Clover Trading Co // Travel Stamps: RookDesignCo // Toss Me Bags: PressedCotton // Ceremony Arch Structure: Rented Elegance // iPhone Gramophone: Restoration Hardware // Flower Girl Dress: Ilovegorgeous // Custom Flask: Wickensnuffers // Bunting: Baloolah Bunting // Wedding Dress Boutique: The Dress Theory // Wedding Dress Designer: Jenny Packham