Weddingbee Blog

Part One 

Venue: Holocene, Portland OR
Wedding Date: May 31, 2008
Bridal Gown Designer: Maggie Sottero
Groom’s Suit: Duchess
Florist: Franciose Weeks
Photographer: Robert McNary
Cake: Bakery Bar
Wedding Coordinator: Amy Vairetta, Blush Bridal
Honeymoon: Hawaii. 4 relaxing amazing days. “Real” honeymoon to follow.

The Event

This fell into Nicole territory — I did the print, she did the space. But I thought she did a really stunning job designing the venue — the colors, the flowers, the details, everything kept the original idea flowing through to something physical, gussying up an industrial warehouse-style bar/venue with beautiful elegance. It was, as they say, like a dream.

I’ll let these photos speak for themselves!

Nicole: The rose petal curtain came from the brilliant mind of our floral designer, Francoise Weeks. We suggested that it would be cool to do something with the blank white wall that stood behind the stage for our ceremony, and she was familiar with the soft vibe we were going for, so she put a lot of thought into what would have the best visual impact. Despite the time intensive task of threading the silk petals and hanging them, she was truly determined, and we couldn’t have imagined a more stunning backdrop. We got tons of comments on it. Yay, Francoise!

Yes. It’s true. That is a pixel flower cake. Making that happen? High point of my life so far.

The Photobooth

A quick wedding recommendation: for some really fantastic, non-cheesy photographic memories of your guests, look for a local distributor of good old fashioned photo booths. None of this fancy-pants digital stuff — we’re talking a green, incandescent bulb that says “smile”, little strips of paper sent by an ancient motor into various vats of chemicals, dropped into your hands still wet, a cool little honeycomb texture running through the paper and an ever-so-slight sepia tone. These are the real memories, four classic frames at a time.

The Gifts

As a “thank you” gift to the wedding party, we decided to get some laser-etched Moleskines made. (Can you tell I enjoyed this project?) I sent the art to Joe at Engrave Your Tech, who happened to be here in PDX, and the books were made super-quick. He also let me individualize each book with the person’s name on the spine. They turned out amazing. (Sadly, it looks like Joe’s not engraving them anymore (yipes!), but I bet he’ll come up with something even better.)

The Ring

The very, very last step in the process: my wedding ring. A gift from Nicole, it holds a secret inside: a tiny pixel flower. You’ll never see it, but I’ll always know it’s there.

Finally, Something Cool From Noby

A little bit before the wedding, a special gift arrived from Japan: custom-made chocolates with our little pixel selves printed on the package. These DECOチョコ (deco-choco) treats came from Noby, one half of Panic Japan. Talk about hitting your target audience — I was amazed.

Phew

The rest was a blur.

My great friends Alex and Steve gave killer best-man speeches: embarrassing (there’s no shortage of Cabel stories) but also very heartwarming. (Also, Steve delivered this great line: “If you asked me to describe the business relationship between Cabel and I, in Star Wars terms, I would say he is like the R2-D2 to my C3PO. He rolls around, interfacing with computers, solving problems, and making strange beeping noises, while I flap my arms helplessly, and shout ‘We’re doomed!’”)

People ate many foods, drank many things, hugged a lot, saw goofy old pictures of both of us in an amazing slideshow my folks put together, danced like crazy to an amazing mix from the Juice Team on a tiny stage with the people I love, and talked to friends both old and new. And there was delicious cake. So much cake.

This was a great day. And in the end, before we knew it, it was time to close the place out and hop in the car, slightly melancholy that possibly the greatest party of our lives was over but more than slightly excited that the rest of everything was starting right then and there, in the middle of the automatic car-wash at the 76 station, in the early hours of the next day, as a shaving-cream “cabel + nicole” was washed off the hood but, really, will always be there.

Totally married. Totally awesome.

~~~

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful wedding with us Cabel!  You can follow Cabel’s adventures on his regular blog here.