Kassandra + Joshua
(July 22, 2023 in Forks, WA)
Welcome back to the Ivory Bride Blog, where we share real stories from our real brides' weddings! Today, get ready to be inspired by our real bride Kassandra's wedding which was held at Fern Acres in Forks, Washington. She shares all about this couple's vision, the day-of experiences, and valuable tips for future brides.
By our real bride, Kassandra:
What was the vision for your wedding?
It’s true when they say don’t make all your decisions the moment you get engaged, especially if you’re like me and can’t make a decision to save your life. If you scrolled to the beginning of my Pinterest board you’d see more of a rustic vibe with tones of terracotta. I switched my vision multiple times throughout the process if I’m being honest, and I’m truly grateful I did because everything came together perfectly.
I took inspiration from many different Pinterest photos, Instagram posts, and even some baby showers. I knew I wanted simplicity with my decor as our wedding venue was stunning as is with its enchanting landscaping. Every direction you turned there were stunning flowers, greenery, and trees. I switched to neutral colors so we didn’t compete with the abundance of colors throughout the venue but yet have everything complement each other.
Our venue holds a special place in my heart as it is my grandparents' house where my dad was raised. I lost my dad at a very young age and my grandma created a memorial garden in honor of him, that garden was the beginning of something beautiful. My oldest brother was one of the first couples to get married at her house before she was even a venue. 7 years later she is one of the most popular venues in the northwest and I’m the last of my siblings to get married there. I’m so grateful I had the honor of getting married in the same place my dad grew up, it truly made it feel like he was a part of our day even though he couldn’t be there. Both my husband and I lost our dads at a young age and were heartbroken knowing they wouldn’t be there on the most important day, but we made sure to honor them in the very best ways we could imagine.
Both of our visions from the beginning were to keep our day intimate with our very closest family and friends to celebrate our special day. We wanted an intimate, moody, whimsical wedding and I found the most amazing photographer who captured it perfectly and had the exact vibe I was looking to achieve, Brittany Brenske is truly the best. All of our vendors for the day-of were absolutely amazing. Our day-of coordinator was a family friend who made our day run smoothly decorated our whole reception area and brought our vision to life. I went off of my grandma's recommendation for food, DJ, and floral as she’s had many vendors at her venue and I knew she had the best insight since we lived 6 hours away and we knew no vendors in the PNW.
How did it go the day-of?
Our wedding day was truly magical. The feeling I woke up with that morning and the excitement to marry the love of my life was a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I had a smile on my face all day long and butterflies in my stomach. Walking down the aisle and seeing my best friend at the end with tears in his eyes the moment he laid eyes on me was so special. This is the beginning of the beautiful life we are creating together. The whole day was filled with love and joy from our closest family and friends.
We had a special moment during dinner where my 3 cousins sang Truly, Madly, Deeply which was a song my dad sang in his band and used to sing with us when we were all kids. When we were younger I would always tell my cousins that they would be singing it at my wedding one day and to watch that come to life was truly special.
My husband and mother-in-law shared the most beautiful mother-son dance that had everyone in tears with the emotions being shared in that moment.
Everyone loved the Polaroid station we had so much, there were over 300 on the table at the end of the night. I loved looking at all of those the next day and reliving the night through everyone else’s eyes.
One other fun touch to the night was the best late-night snack I could imagine, pizza! It was honestly one of the best decisions I made, 8 pizzas were devoured in 30 minutes so you could say everyone was definitely happy!
We danced the night away surrounded by our favorite people and I will carry those memories for a lifetime. I’m so grateful I have all of our beautiful pictures to look back on to relive our wedding day!
What is your #1 tip to future brides?
Don’t let anyone make you feel like your vision is wrong. There is a difference between asking someone for advice that you wanted and someone giving their unwanted opinion on what “they would’ve done” cause guess what it’s not their day, it’s yours! Stay true to your and your husband's vision. That was one of the first things we did, we wrote down what we wanted our day to look like and many times through the process I looked back at that page to remind me to not let anyone take away from that.
Have private time on the day of your wedding with just you and your husband! We took 15 minutes alone to really soak everything in and have a quiet moment together and it was one of my favorite moments of the day.
