Wedding Week: Day One - Culture Clash

Back in January I had the amazing experience of working on an episode of the show Dinner Impossible from the Food Network. I was working with Kelley Moore Creative Media at the time, and Kelley was approached and asked to take on the design on the wedding with Chef Robert Irvine handling the food. Of course she took on the challenge. And it definitely was a challenge! We only had five weeks to plan the wedding! Oh my!

The bride and groom, Kim and Shawn, were so much fun to work with. They had been planning on getting married sometime this summer, but when Kim found out her Dad had terminal lung cancer they decided to move up the wedding to January. Kim's aunt is a producer here in Seattle, and she told her connections at the Food Network about her niece's story and the producers were almost immediately on the phone with Kim. The premise of the show is that the chef takes on a near "impossible" situation and creates a gourmet meal in hours. Not only did chef Robert Irvine fly into Seattle the morning of the wedding and had no time to prepare, but he also was thrown the twist of trying to bring a fusion of Kim's Japanese background and Shawn's Scottish background into the cuisine!

This story only gets better because when we started contacting various vendors and told them about the situation, almost everyone donated the majority if not all of their time and services! It became such an amazing story of the the community really coming together to support this couple and their families. Here are the vendors we had the pleasure of working with:

Location: The Woodmark Hotel. They set up the outdoor tent specially for this event, worked with us on hotel logistics and opened up their kitchen to the overpowering Robert Irvine.

Hair and Make-up: Coupe Rokei. All of the bridesmaids took over a boardroom at the hotel and were beautified by this talented team.

Tent Decor: Aria Style. They draped the entire tent, did all of the beautiful linens and chair covers, and created the gorgeous design at the front of the tent. All I can say is thank goodness for Susan! She handled all of the linens and was always more than willing to help in anyway needed.

Collateral: All About Weddings. Gayle came on board and created the table number cards, story cards, place cards, favor blessings. Her work brought so much of the couple's personality to the wedding.

Candles: Glassybaby and Odessa's Herbals. Glassybaby donated various shades of white candle holders for all of the tables, and Odessa's supplied the soy tea lights.

Lighting: PNTA. They lit the entire tent, and we were even able to change the lighting from an amber color for the ceremony to a blue for the reception. They also supplied the light boxes for the tables to up light the glass hurricanes with sunken orchids.

Flowers: Athena Flora. She did beautiful work for the arrangements in the ceremony and for the bridal party. She was also the hands behind the chandeliers. It was a team effort to get those put together when at the last minute we realized that we didn't have enough crystals to cover them!

Favors: Theo's Chocolate. They provided boxes with one ginger infused truffle and one scotch infused truffle inspired by the couple's backgrounds.

Music: Neil Hubbard. Neil played the bagpipes to set the tone for the ceremony. DJ Dan Kretz of Emerald City Productions kept the party rockin' until all hours. With a nod to Kim's heritage, Tsunami Taiko drummers kicked off the reception with a performance.

Dessert: Trophy Cupcakes, who was also recently featured on the Martha Stewart Show, donated a cupcake tower. It was a pretty good day when she came to the office for the tasting so the couple could pick their favorite flavor (mint chocolate chip). I think I ate about 5 cupcakes! Yum!

Photography: Amore Studios. Brian and Melody were their to capture every moment. You can view many pictures from the wedding on their blog as well.

Videography: Endlesslove Productions. Jeremy caught every moment of the couples special day. You can view the video of the wedding on this website. Yeah that's me talking on my phone at the beginning of the video and then walking Kim to the elevator after she gets ready. I'm famous! :)

Assistance: I also have to thank all of the ladies that volunteered their time and sanity to bring this event together. They were always willing to do anything. Untangle thousands of crystals an hour before the wedding, search frantically for the misplaced marriage license, cut up the hotel lobby plants when the chef wanted color for his plates...you name it and they were willing to do it. Can I also just point out that Robert Irvine questioned whether we would be able to transform the tent from cermony to reception in an hour. Well, we did it in 20 minutes thank you very much!

The issue on shelves now of Seattle Bride Magazine has an article featuring details about the wedding. You can also check out part of the article online.

It was the most crazy month of my life, and the day after the wedding I don't think I ever left the couch. However, I wouldn't have missed the opportunity to support such a well deserving couple. It was an experience that I know I will never forget. You can catch a re-run episode on Dinner Impossible every year during wedding week.