Photo: Vicky Choy
I can’t even begin to tell you how PERFECT everything was last night. Thank you so much for your expertise, patience, voice of reason and kindness. Mother of the bride
Keep reading this blog to find out more about this wedding — Vicky
Last part of Bill and Jessica’s wedding – Vendor Recap. Go back to Part 1 for the intro, Part 2 for Style Overview, and Part 3 (ceremony).
Catering: Fusions Cuisine. Chef Jim Thompson is so creative with coming up with a menu that embraced Bill and Jessica’s lives, the places they’ve been and the foods that remind them of those place.
Photo: Kate Hauschka
Tent, Generators, Fans: L&A Tent Rentals. I’ve done several backyard weddings with the Drivers. L&A is a family owned business and they take good care of their customers. They were kind enough to hang all the paper lanterns for us!
Photo: Kate Hauschka
Trailer Restrooms: Blue Ribbon Restroom Trailers. Good experience here. The bathrooms are easy to operate and are in great condition. They even pipe music inside the bathrooms. It just requires access to water source and power. I recommend that you get the toilet its own generator.
Photographer: Katharine Hauschka. Chance would have it that this was the 2nd time I worked with Kate within a few months. Kate is really easy going. Her portraits of the couple are fun but have an intimate feel, focused close in on the couple, a little artsy. She gets a good balance of detailed shots and unscripted moments.
Musicians: St. Charles String Quartet. Great to work with and I love that they have a wide repertoire of music, ranging from classical to pop/rock tunes.
Photo: Vicky Choy
DJ: Michael Perry
— Hope you enjoyed reading about this wedding as much as we did putting it together! Vicky
Yes, we’ve been MIA. This wedding season has been crazy but we wanted to finish the story of Jessica and Bill’s wedding. Go back to Part 1 for the intro and Part 2 for Style Overview.
I have to admit theirs was one of my favorite ceremonies. Working with officiant, they put together a ceremony that was very inclusive of both families, having them participate in many parts of the ceremony. To me, this represented more of the Asian cultures where a wedding is more about the joining of two families than of two people.
Chinese Tea Ceremony: Prior to beginning the ceremony, Bill and Jessica performed the Chinese tea ceremony, offering tea to the elders in their families as a sign of respect, in exchange for some words of wisdom.
Photo: Kate Hauschka
Ringing of the Bells: Just prior to the processional, Bill and Jessica’s nephews and cousins rang bells to signal the beginning of the ceremony. It is a tradition in many cultures to make some noise at weddings. The old traditions of noise at weddings are because it was said that the noise scared away any evil spirits that might do harm to the couple or to their marriage.
Photo: Kate Hauschka
Water & Fire: As part of the processional, 2 of Bill and Jessica’s nieces and cousins, carried 2 small jugs of water. Then the two mothers poured from each of the small jugs into a larger vessel. Then the two fathers along with Jessica and Bill performed the Unity Candle ceremony. Both of these rituals symbolizing the joining of two families
Photo: Kate Hauschka
Bread, Salt & Wine: In Ukrainian tradition, the presentation of bread and salt is a traditional way of offering greetings on special occasions. Their parents presented Bill and Jessica with bread, salt, and wine. The bread represents the parents’ hope that their children will never experience hunger or need, and the salt reminds the couple that their life may be difficult at times and they must learn together to cope with life’s
struggles. With the wine, the parents hope that they will never thirst and that they will have a life of good health and cheer and share the company of many good friends.
Family Blessing: At the end of the ceremony, the officiant again invited both sets of parents and siblings to place their hands on the bride and groom to offer their blessings.
Go back to Part 1 for the intro.
Colors: Orange and Green. While these are not typical colors in an Asian wedding, Jessica loves orange and the green was inspired by the bamboo branches throughout the property.
Overarching Goal: The driving idea behind the whole wedding was combining families, as well as the couple’s preferences and personalities. Therefore, we were deliberate in the choices made for the ceremony and reception to make sure that the idea of unity was reflected in every part of the wedding.
Bill is of Italian and Germany descent and Jessica is Taiwanese. Both have traveled extensively for their jobs and personal interest. Bill wanted a backyard BBQ with lots of mingling and activities, while Jessica loves to dance. This is how we incorporated everything.
Decor: Jessica loved lanterns so we incorporated them inside the main tent, inside the lounge area, and used ones her father brought back from Taiwan to greet guests as they entered. In the invitations, escort cards and programs, Jessica’s friend who is a graphic designer, designed an abstract of lanterns as part of the motif.
Lanterns from Taiwan. Photo by Kate Hauschka
Photo by Kate Hauschka
Photo by Kate Hauschka
Activities: Bill wanted many options for their guests in terms of activities. So we set out bocce ball, croquet, badminton, hoola hoops, as well as a photo booth and pop corn machine. It was a lot of fun to watch guests hold a drink in one hand while playing bocce with the other!
Tip: Take care of the children and the parents will have a great time. We hired two babysitters to entertain and to watch over the kids so that their parents can enjoy themselves, and they surely did! For a casual wedding like this, we set out some blankets for the children to sit on for the ceremony so that it’s not so formal, and children are fidgety anyway. The children also ate earlier than the parents and we had the babysitters order pizza for them. By the time they finished, they were able to join in the dancing.
Jessica had a lot of younger cousins, most of whom were home during the summer so we decided to put them to work. They made a bunch of really adorable signs and table numbers. Very creative!
Photo by Vicky Choy
Reception: To incorporate Bill’s idea of a mingling party, we had 2 cocktail hours. The first cocktail hour was held before the ceremony. As guests arrived, they were free to mingle, grab a bite to eat and have a nice cold drink, which gave Bill a chance to talk to the guests. After about 30 minutes, we invited the guests to sit for the ceremony. After the ceremony, we had another cocktail period for another 45 minutes.
Tip: if you open the bar before the ceremony, be sure to serve some food along with it so guests don’t get too drunk too soon, especially on a hot day!
Food: In their choices for hors d’oeuvres, you can see both of them reflected. The food included ginger-lemongrass meatballs, summer rolls, antipasto, goat cheese fundido, Mediterranean dips. Dinner was served family style to encourage interaction and included Asian inspired flavors like miso glazed salmon with baby bok choy, quinoa and black bean salad with roasted corn and sweet peppers, ginger lemongrass angus beef sirloin with pickled carrot and daikon slaw. We also served Prosecco.
For more photos from this wedding, please visit Kate’s blog.
Stay tuned for the continuation of this wedding and a recap of one my favorite ceremonies of all time — Vicky
Photo by Katharine Hauschka
Jessica sent us this lovely note after her wedding. Even if we think we did a good job, you just never know how your clients will react. When we receive a compliment like this, it just makes my day!
Thank you so much for everything. You’ve been incredible with us (and our crazy last minute-ness)– our wedding far exceeded our expectations because of you. If you ever need someone to vouch for your skill and magic at making an at-home wedding happen on short notice, just let me know. Jessica
Stay tuned for more photos and recap of this wedding – Vicky
event accomplished 