An intimate Seattle micro-wedding centered around food and family

Offbeat partners: Kristin & Kip

Date and location: Groom's childhood home in Seattle, WA — 04/29/2022

Our intimate Seattle micro-wedding at a glance:

Covid had delayed and changed our wedding plans. We wanted to be extra careful, so we decided on two weddings. One with just the immediate families and a second when things are hopefully safer for large groups.

I wanted everything to be sourced locally and to be sustainable. My vendors were either hyper-local to West Seattle or local to Seattle and majority small businesses. I used rentals, items I or others already had, or items I knew my husband and I would use in the future.

We also had the entire family help out with putting things together. My mom was a big part of the planning with me. All the parents helped organized and coordinate the day. My husband's dad, a skilled woodworker, built a ceremony backdrop out of an old fence. My husband's mom hosted everything at her home and curated a lovely garden for everything to take place. She even painstakingly managed her lawn.

My husband's brother and family helped set up. Their kids created cute signs and participated in the ceremony. It was a truly team effort. It was also very important to me to not use any rules or traditions that didn't fit. Because we did this wedding ourselves and it was so small, we were able to create something unique to us. We had our favorite foods, lots of locally sourced flowers, and I wore a beautiful purple dress, all on our own timeline. Our favorite foods were one of the most important items on our list. Moto Pizza was the most important as was the nine layer chocolate cake.

Tell us about the intimate Seattle micro-wedding ceremony:

We both really procrastinated on this part. Each of us had super busy schedules prior to the wedding and did not write vows until the morning of. It was very important to both of us to write our own vows. I wrote mine out completely, he wrote bullet points. It was very…us. My husband's mom's garden was a part of the ceremony. His mom planted a lovely garden next to the ceremony location on her lawn and my husband placed stepping stones for us to walk–two paths that connected to one.

At first, I walked down a pathway in front of the house with my dad at my side until I reached the stones. I walked down my path, he his, then we joined together. My husband had one of our cats, Bandit, in his arms. We dressed our cat in a harness with bowtie that matched our colors.

We had my husband's best friend as our officiant and his best friend's wife as our cat wrangler. Poor Bandit got stage fright and needed to sit out the ceremony. We used my mom and dad's ring pillow for our rings in the ceremony and one of my husband's brother's kids as the ring bearer. Since our entrance was unique, we had my husband's brother's other kid as our flower girl lead us out and toss flowers in front of us. She turned down the wrong path at a fork and it was super cute.

Tell us about the intimate Seattle micro-wedding reception:

The reception was super low-key. As a foodie, the food was very important for me. For dinner, a few people picked up pizza from our favorite pizza place that we go to weekly. The pizza chef even made an edible flower salad for us. He loaned us a 16th century bowl he owns to display the salad. I have only ever really tried the pepperoni pizza, but we ordered half the menu and I was able to try all the pizzas I had not yet tried. My mom also made her famous caesar salad for me.

All of our wines were Italian and personally picked out by me. My life philosophy is that we are Italians and should drink Italian wines. My favorite prosecco went out of stock a while back, so we've been saving the stock we've had at home for a special occasion. We happily (and sadly) drank the last of my favorite prosecco. For cake, we ordered my favorite chocolate cake ever from another local restaurant. We had tons of leftovers to split and enjoy for days. We had my husband's favorite ice cream from the local shop called Kona Koka Rum.

The kids enjoyed running around the lawn with bubble guns shooting bubbles everywhere. We had some music playing in the background, but no dancing. We spent most of the time at the dinner table telling stories and enjoying the pizza and cake.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?

My biggest challenges were work and grief. I had recently started a new job and then a new position at that job when wedding planning was ramping up. It was quite stressful. I was fortunate to have my mom willing to help me plan. I delegated the tasks that I could not complete myself. My mom's help was key to everything getting done. While planning, I was also dealing with grief. My last grandparent, my grandfather, had died a year prior and that loss was at the forefront of my mind. I had plans for him in my wedding and made certain wedding decisions with him in mind. It was hard to go through the process and not have him there, as he would have been if Covid hadn't happened.

Delegate. Ask for help. Don't do it all by yourself. Planning even this tiny wedding was difficult. Getting help from my mom and the entire family was crucial to having everything work out as planned. Everyone pitched in in different ways at different times, contributing where they could. Have a wedding that makes you and your partner happy. Make it one you both will enjoy. Do what you want, there are no rules. It's your wedding.

Intimate Seattle micro-wedding vendors:

• Photographer: Jenny GG
• Dress & Headband: Chrissy Wai Ching
• Rings: Menashe & Sons Jewelers
• Rentals: Pedersen's Event Rentals
• Pizza & Salad: Moto
• Cake: Metropolitan Grill
• Ice Cream: Husky Deli
• Suit & Shoes: Nordstrom
• HMUA: Offwhite Makeup & Beauty
• Ceremony Backdrop: Groom's Dad
• Planning & Setup: Entire Family

Intimate Seattle micro-wedding gallery