Zach and I first met in passing in 1999 just before I moved from Portland, OR to Austin, TX. In 2008, we were re-united by a mutual friend when Zach’s band came to Austin to play during the South By Southwest music festival and the band stayed with me during their visit.
After over a year of outrageous phone bills and many visits between Portland (where Zach still lived) and Austin, I packed up shop, bid Austin farewell, and Zach and I began building our life and garden together in Portland.
One of Zach’s uncles is a grain farmer, and Zach goes back to Idaho every year to help with harvest. I made the bouquets and boutonnieres from shafts of wheat that Zach had brought back from his uncle’s last harvest.
I didn’t start looking for a dress until about 2-3 weeks before the wedding, as I was focusing on what I felt were more important details, such as arranging for the food and making sure everyone would have a place to sit. Despite the consternation this caused amongst many of my family and friends (mainly the females), I just had a feeling that the dress wouldn’t be an issue.
And sure enough, I went out shopping one day with two good friends and found a dress I loved at the fourth shop we went to.
For the main course, we arranged for a couple of the dishes (three varieties of tamales and a veg southwestern-style casserole) from two local restaurants and had one of them deliver its dishes while friends went and picked up the dishes from the other place. Another friend of ours pit-roasted a pig in banana leaves with Hawaiian spices, and other friends helped to deliver it to the wedding.
All of this food was already close to perfection, but what made it surpass perfection was the addition of Secret Aardvark Habanero hot sauce (www.secretaardvark.com) – from a company founded by our good friends Stacy and Scotland. More friends (with Stacy leading the crew and graciously smiling at all of those who assumed she was the non-existent caterer) helped to set it all out to be served. Truly a group effort!
After sampling all of the cupcake offerings from a local bakery (not a difficult task), we settled on four flavors.
The bakery delivered the cupcakes to our house the morning of the wedding, and our friend Kate did an amazing job of arranging them and decorating their display.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was that it was truly a community event. While we did all of the planning and organizing ourselves, it wouldn’t have been possible without all of the help our family and friends gave us.
In the end, the day itself was both created by and shared in by everyone.
Today’s submission was submitted by Diana M. Lott Photography. You can check out more of her work by visiting her website and blog.
This wedding looked like it was great fun to shoot. The photos of the groom holding the chicken are really funny