Mary & Michael
One sentence sum-up of the wedding vibe: A community-made, laid-back Seattle block party wedding full of love, songs, poems, and laughter
Soundtrack for reading: “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin
Other Cool Stuff We Should Know About
This was truly a community-made wedding. We have been living in Michael’s parents’ home for the past year as we build our own small home in the backyard of their property, so holding the wedding in what has been Michael’s neighborhood since birth, and is once again becoming our neighborhood, meant a lot to us. Everyone pitched in: a neighbor and friend across the street married us; another neighbor made hundreds of shortbread cookies as favors; our next-door neighbor did the flowers; close family friends brewed us tons of delicious beer; friends brought desserts; an artist friend created our “guestbook” balloon poster; Mary’s mother and sister sewed the banner; a friend played the music at the reception; and another friend DJed. We knew all of this was happening, but were overwhelmed with the love and support that poured out for us on the day.
We had our ceremony in our favorite Seattle park, which is just a few blocks away from our house and where the reception was held. After the ceremony, all the wedding guests paraded down the street to our block, where we had set up our wedding reception. It was a wonderful and quirky celebration to bridge the ceremony and reception together, complete with feather boas, guitars and tambourines, and funny hats.
At dusk we released about twenty fire lanterns into the sky. It was a spectacular thing to watch, and even though we nearly set a neighbor’s tree on fire, the beauty brought our whole community together in a really special way.
Even though the day was about our love and decision to pursue our future together in marriage, it was also a day about our community: our family, friends, and neighbors. It was an incredible reaffirmation that we have built a village of the most amazing people in the world around us, and their support and love was beyond moving.
Favorite Thing About the Wedding
Saying the vows we wrote together to each other in front of our loved ones, watching our fire lanterns ascend into the bluest-black sky, and dancing under Michael’s artfully mastered strings of bistro lights in our street with all our favorite people.
