Our Wedding Story

Since I work in the wedding industry, and we are coming up on one year of marriage, I thought it would be fun to share the story of our wedding. Tyler and I met in summer of 2018 at a Mariner's game in Seattle, WA. At the end of 2019, we were engaged.

We began wedding planning in January of 2020. With all of the excitement of our engagement and the new year, we got to work right away. We knew we wanted it to be small and intimate, low key, and in the fall. So we settled on an October wedding at a boathouse on the Seattle waterfront. We were putting details into place, invites had been sent out when suddenly, a global pandemic hit in the middle of it all.

Yes, we had a COVID wedding.

A couple of months before the wedding, the pandemic was begining to make our planning difficult. We had a very simple and small plan from the get-go so when restrictions started tightening as we approached our October 2020 wedding date, it was adding stress that neither of us anticipated. We wanted our guests to be able to gather safely, but there was no way to predict or guess what would be ahead.

In mid-July, we were realizing that our October plan would likely be altered. Tyler woke up on Friday, July 24th, and asked if I wanted to move our wedding up to the following weekend and just make it happen safely under the current guidelines. I couldn’t believe he was suggesting it!

But he was not joking.

He started emailing venues all around town to see if they could accommodate us. While our original venue couldn’t, the Columbia Tower was prepared to host us. Graciously, our family and close friends rallied around our idea. And because of this support, we decided to move our wedding ahead of schedule and finalized the plan. We had 1 week to prep for our August 1st wedding.

That week we sent out the new details of our event to our guests via phone, picked up my half-tailored wedding dress, notified our vendors, finalized meal options, hired violinists for the day of, picked up our flowers from Pike Place Market, made a wedding playlist, and probably 800 more things that I have blocked out from my mind at this point. It was a whirlwhind.

On the day of our wedding, I woke up with a calm mind. I was so happy to be marrying Tyler, my heart was at peace. I got ready that morning with my sister, and my two best pals. We laughed and drank mimosas in the apartment that I share with Tyler. I did my own make-up. It was romantic and perfect.

Waiting to walk down the aisle with my dad was a moment I will never forget. I felt excitement and a bundle of nerves. When I saw Tyler waiting at the end for me, I couldn't wait to hug him. Relief. We pulled it off. I get goosebumps typing this out- all of our favorite and most important people were SO kind and generous for making this happen safely for us.

Even though we did not have every detail planned out, the night could not have unfolded more perfectly and truly fell into place. We had everyone we wanted there, and the little imperfections and unplanned moments throughout the day were the highlights of it. If you look at our photos, you can see how relieved I am immediately after our ceremony. I was so grateful to finally be married to Tyler.

On Sunday, Tyler and I will celebrate our first year of marriage. It has flown by. Working on this calligraphy business, and helping brides and grooms plan their weddings every day always reminds me of how special planning our wedding was. I love helping other people through it. I understand how important it is to have support behind you to get the job done. I believe that because I can roll with the punches, it makes me the best stationer around.

Want to see more specific details and photos of our day? Click this LINK to read our Made With Love Bridal feature article or scroll down to see more.

Thanks for following along and for visiting my website!

XO,

Molly

Some of the COVID guidelines that were in place on the day of our wedding were:

- Guests were instructed to stay home if they had any symptoms.

- Seating at both our ceremony and reception had to be by household.

- We did not get to choose the seating chart or organization of the room.

- No dance floor, but we were able to have our first dance.

- Masks were required unless seated at your table.

- There was an assigned COVID moderator at our event who reinforced the state's guidelines throughout the evening.

Because of this and the timeline of it all, it made for some funny and creative moments throughout the day including:

- Making our own bridal bouquets and boutonnières for the boys from the Pike Place Market

- Since we did not have a rehearsal, my sis forgot to take my bouquet during the ring exchange so I ended up tossing it on the ground.

- The street was empty in downtown Seattle. Normally, it would be bustling, but because of COVID there were no people and no cars. It was so cool (especially as the backdrop for our photos).

- I forgot to bustle my dress so Tyler had to kick it out of his way during our first dance.

- No wedding cake plan so we ended up buying one from the grocery store the morning of. It was lemon and everyone loved it.

- We did not have a DJ so my friend Christine ended up being our emcee. She was hilarious and did an amazing job keeping the night organized.

- Our music was just background music from a playlist that my sister made. It was such a good vibe!

- I utilized some of our framed photos from our apartment for day-of decor pieces. I used some of them as centerpieces for our tables.

- Speaking of centerpieces, my bridesmaids and I put our bouquets in vases to be doubled as centerpieces after our ceremony ended.

- I was worried people would be bored, so we put disposable cameras on each table. Would highly recommend doing this for your wedding- getting them developed was the best, and made us laugh. It gave us a whole new angle of the night from the eyes of our guests.

PSST, no one was bored.