Jade & Jonathan’s down-to-earth backyard wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Jade, Cake Decorator (and Tribesmaid)

Her offbeat partner: Jonathan, Corrections Officer

Date and location of wedding: Friend's backyard in Satsop, WA — July 26, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Luckily for us, Jonathan's best man's parents offered their property as a venue site for our wedding. The backyard venue gave our wedding more of a rustic feel, with which we centered a lot of our planning. We wanted our wedding to be laid-back since the two of us are down-to-earth. We didn't want a big to-do, we just wanted everyone to have fun. Jonathan's two main concerns were the booze and the dancing. He wanted to make sure the alcohol didn't run out and the dance floor was never empty. The things that I focused most of my energy on were releasing butterflies at the end of the ceremony, the dessert table (which consisted of naked cakes, mini cupcakes, brownie bites, and a fabulous doughnut bar), and many DIY projects.

Tell us about the ceremony:
We wanted a simple ceremony: short, sweet, and to the point. Neither of us are religious so we didn't include any religious traditions. We wrote our own vows and didn't read them to each other until that moment. My favorite part of his vows was the fact that he started them with “Gonads… yes, gonads.” We worked in the same grocery store and one of the first interactions I had with him was him walking by, saying “gonads,” then walking away. He is certainly more sentimental and emotional than I am, but he did get a tear out of me.

Our biggest challenge:
Since my mother was helping us plan and fund the wedding, we butted heads on a lot of the smaller and some bigger details, one of them being my hair. I told Jonathan at the time that I was growing my hair out for the wedding; when in fact I planned on cutting it short because he actually likes it better shorter. Since I couldn't discuss my hair plans with my significant other, I turned to my mother for support in my hair decisions. Did I mention that I wanted to dye my hair purple? So we had a disagreement about that, but taking the “no more talking about it” approach with that and everything else we disagreed on seemed to help. I didn't end up going purple anyway, but I did do bright red.

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My favorite moment:
One of the most meaningful moments of my wedding was our first look. I wanted to do a first look because I have been to several weddings in the past year where the couple spent hours taking photos. I did not want that to happen at our wedding, so I decided to do a first look beforehand and take most of our photos then. When he turned around and saw me for the first time, he had a huge grin on his face and told me how beautiful I looked.

Another very special moment happened right before I walked down the aisle. My grandpa was the one walking me down. He's really not a sentimental person by any means, but at that moment he turned to me and said, “I am so proud of you and so grateful that you chose me to walk you down the aisle.” He even teared up. Then on the way down the aisle, he asked if we could talk while we walked and then proceeded to try and come up with topics to talk about: “… so… this turned out nice… a lot of people here today.” This cracked me up and had me laughing by the time we got to the end.

My funniest moment:
The morning of the wedding, we were setting everything up and waiting for my grandma to bring my great aunt to help with the flowers, decorations, and general set-up. They were also bringing the tablecloths and meatballs. About 45 minutes after they were supposed to be there, they finally show up. Apparently there was another wedding happening two miles down the road. My grandma and her brother and sister went there, asked a couple guys if it was Jade's wedding, they said yes. So, my grandma pulls in, brings the meatballs to the fridge and gets the tablecloths out. My great aunt notices that all the tables have tablecloths and are already decorated; she is pissed because that was the whole reason for her coming out early. As she's wondering why all this stuff is already done, my grandma goes up to someone and asks where Stephanie is. They say, “who's Stephanie?” My grandma says, “the mother of the bride.” They look at her a little confused and say, “the mother of the bride is dead!” They quickly learned they were at the wrong wedding and got out of there quickly.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
Enjoy it! Even when small things go wrong, people who RSVP don't show up, you run out of something –just don't worry about it. Enjoy who is there and what did go right. Also, don't take on too many DIY projects. It can get stressful after painting a mailbox, an arbor, cornhole boards, road signs, cake toppers, a dessert table chest, a thank-you sign, and LEGO figures. Don't overwhelm yourself with tons of projects, and if you do, finish one before moving on to another.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Brian Kasnyik, OlyKaz Photography
• Petticoat: Atomic Laundry
• Makeup/Hair: Abigail Aikins
• Flowers: Safeway and Lynch Creek Farm
• Mini Cupcakes: Bonjour Cupcakes
• Earrings: Traditions

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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