Finally! Noa's photos and all the sweet details from the long-anticipated (by me, anyway) feather love wedding.
Here's what Emily had to say:
Where to begin? Our wedding planning was a journey… and it was well worth all the time and effort! We wanted every detail of our wedding to reflect who we are and what we love. We chose Friday evening because we wanted our guests to be able to relax and have a good time with the weekend still ahead of them. The location was at Michael and Laura’s beautiful creek side property. The property was really the perfect palate for all the sweet details. We wanted the ceremony to be very intimate, and that’s how it turned out! I’ve always loved the wedding in “Fiddler on the Roof” and it inspired us to have our guests stand around us during the ceremony. My mom walked me down the flower petal path to our friend on the piano playing Yann Tiersen “Comptine D’un Autre Ete” (from the movie Amelie). We stood under a Chuppah draped with lace tablecloths that belonged to my great grandmother.
The Chuppah was made from wood found on the property the night before the wedding- not procrastinating at all… Our family spoke for the ceremony and my brother officiated the ceremony, so this made it all the more emotional and personal to us.
For the reception we rented picnic tables and Royal hung wire from the trees surrounding the area to hang the old fashioned lights over the tables. The lights looked like they were suspended in mid air, and the area had such a romantic feel about it. The feast turned out amazing! Royal and I have always had a soft spot for Mediterranean food because that was the meal of our first date, and the night we got engaged. Our friends Zach & Amy made the whole meal from scratch (they are now getting many suggestions to start a catering business)! The meal was family style so all the food was ready to go on the picnic tables when the guests sat down. We wanted the meal to have a communal feast feel, so everyone was able to sit and immediately serve themselves up some good food, without waiting in a line. Zach grilled the lamb on site the day of the wedding, and on the tables we had humus, tabouleh salad, and pita bread. My sister made the best sangria ever, and Royal and Michael brewed three kinds of beer on the property.
My mom and aunt made the three cakes, and we had my grandparents’ wedding cake topper. There is a French patisserie in Portland that Royal and I absolutely love, with our two favorite desserts, the Royale, and the Amelie (our French names!), so we had them make us large versions of the desserts. Somehow the two desserts imploded on the car ride over and could not be saved, so we had the small versions instead… I didn’t notice until we were cutting the cake that they looked unusually “mini,” but I was too happy to be bothered.
Almost all the decorations were hand made. It seemed like for days we were making tissue paper puffs… We made doily garlands, and ribbons with flowers hung from the trees. Royal’s mom sewed the runners on the tables. My friend Natalie is becoming quite the florist and helped me choose the flowers that she arranged in glasses, bowls, and jars that we had thrifted. The property felt magical and we really wanted our friends and family to explore all the areas, so my sister sketched and printed maps for all our guests that illustrated the different areas to walk to and hang out.
We hung paper lanterns down a tunnel of a path that led to the creek where we had a secluded spot for a couple to sit at a bistro table and chairs. Instead of doing a picture slideshow we hung photos of us from a wire line with clothespins. There was a vintage tent on a wood platform beside the creek with chairs for people to relax at. We had a bonfire area where kids could make s’mores that went late into the night.
I caught myself many times throughout the night standing and looking at the beautiful scene of our friends and family all having a good time together in such a magical place, and many times it would take my breath away. Overall the celebration turned out perfect. Royal and I both felt like it was our “coming out” as a couple. We are so happy with our wedding!
PS- many people wonder if Royal is Jewish, and although I always wanted to marry a Jewish boy, he is not- we just like their wedding traditions. (Editor's note: Jewish or not, please observe how well Royal wears his suit. Whether it is two-button or three-button, the bottom button of a suit jacket should always be left undone.)
p.p.s. There are a kajillion more photos on the feather love blog.
