Washington Wedding on the Puget Sound from Ryan Lash Photography

I live for long weekends and weddings, and this sweet combo makes me want to jump up and down. Yes I am jumping right now.  A summer loving wedding weekend on the cliffs overlooking the Puget Sound.  Sounds nice right? Its better than nice, its amazing! I love this wedding because it screams non-traditional in every detail.  I just adore this couple and their wedding! Photographer Ryan Lash  captures every  moment in documentary style.  Again, non-traditional, yet amazing! Are you ready to jump with me and check out these fabulous photos?

 

 

 

What our fabulous bride told us…

Our wedding was really a celebration for 3 days. We invited our closest friends and family to come 3 days before the wedding. There have been so many times, Baktash and I go to weddings and don’t even get to spend any time with the bride and groom; we traveled so far, and only get to say hello to them. We figured that when else will we have all our favorite people together, I mean, let’s be honest, maybe our funerals?? So we really took advantage of the opportunity, rented a big house on a cliff overlooking the Puget Sound and Mt. Rainer and everyone hung out. The house we rented held 14 people, which was perfect for all our immediate family to stay under one beautiful roof. We had our own private beach so we swam and had bonfires every night and barbeques and photoshoots during the day. It was so amazing & unforgettable.

The night before the wedding, I did a photo-shoot with my best girlfriends with Ryan shooting. I wanted the theme to be “big hair and fake eyelash party”. It was a blast to get all vamped up and goofy with my ladies, and it was a light, really fun way for us to bond.

We had around 120 guests at our wedding, with about 65 of them coming on July 1st to hang out with us beforehand. We had swimming, bonfires, jaunts into olympia for coffee and food, and barbeques leading up to our wedding – which was on July 4th at 4:30pm at the same location.

I designed my own wedding dress. Baktash’s cousin who is a fashion designer made it haute couture with French taffeta silk. Baktash’s suit was a JCrew suit.

We decorated minimally, as we are huge nature lovers and knew the natural beauty would speak for itself. We did put Japanese paper lanterns above the spot we got married at, but that was about it! All the flowers were locally sourced, from the Seattle Pike Place Market. My dear friend and fellow artist, Leili Towfigh was in charge of flowers; I gave her the cash and entrusted her in the design – which, by the way, was STUNNING. My only request was that we have sweet pea blossoms on every table in mason jars; I didn’t even have a wedding bouquet design in mind. It looked so delicate and amazing, with beautiful pops of color all around our evergreen tree wedding.  All around she did an amazing job, as we knew she would.

Baktash’s brother made a film about our wedding. We also had another  short film – which was rowdy clips of my friends and I in college horsing around (this was also an amazing opportunity for a reunion of all our friends, right). A lot of my closest friends and I went to college in the same city that Baktash and I got married in (Olympia, Washington at the Evergreen State College).

Baktash’s mother and my mother cooked up an amazing Persian feast of kabob, Persian rice and salads, though I really, truly believe that everyone helped out with grilling, setting tables, cutting veggies, etc. Dinner was followed by cupcakes, not cake. One of my buddies as our wedding gift bought us about $100 worth of fireworks for us to light off on the beach after our wedding ceremony & reception. It was amazing! During our reception, there were fireworks going off all around the Puget Sound and full moon. After the firework party following the ceremony/reception, we held a ritual/ceremony: my friends each found a rock that they loved, held it in their hands, and put their best intentions in to it – a blessing for Baktash and I. Then all at the same time, we threw the rocks in to the ocean.

By the end of the 3 days, all of our friends had hung out and bonded, and so it truly was an absolute feeling of unity, community and love,  of our dearly loved ones really blessing us and sending us off. There was a large component of service as well, meaning that everyone that was there early, helped out in some way, it was so touching and beautiful; everyone contributed in some way to making our wedding as perfect as it was. I think that having our closest family and friends helping out with things here and there (placing flowers, helping with the food, decorating, etc.) really made the energy of the wedding all that much more loved, everyone had put their “touch” in to it. That was so much more important to us, then say, where exactly the vases went, or what candles we used, or if we had matching napkins with the flowers kind of thing…It was so, so very beautiful and amazing!

 

Wedding Photography by Ryan Lash Photography

 

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