Love of a Lifetime | A Golden Gardens & Hotel Ballard Seattle Winter Wedding
One of our favorite parts of this Seattle Winter Wedding was the ceremony.
The officiant (who is the cousin of the groom) crafted a fantastic ceremony filled with personal details about Alex & Kyle. He broke the parts of their relationship down into “moves” – so there was move #1, move #2, the move that never was, and more. We were all filled with laughter and it had just the right mix of tearful moments, too.
This awesome couple has shared a lot of adventures during their journey to the wedding day, and you could tell that being in that moment, right there, was exactly where they wanted to be more than anything else in their lives. It was beautiful and perfect. I’d love to let Alex, the bride, fill you in on some of the fun stuff that started their story and then their journey to their Seattle winter wedding.
From Alex:
It was my birthday and we had planned on spending the day/night in Leavenworth. We made a pit stop in Lake Wenatchee just to splash around a little bit. After a few minutes of being there, he asked me if I wanted my birthday present and told me to close my eyes. When I opened them, he was down on one knee and asked me to marry him! (I still get butterflies thinking about that moment – even as I type this!!) Little did I know, our friend was hiding in the woods, and took pictures of the whole thing! It was amazing and so much better than I could have ever imagined 🙂
We have actually known each other since middle school and high school. We think we had a couple classes together, but don’t really remember – and we never really hung out during that time. In 2012, Alex got a ‘persons you may know’ notification on Facebook, and it was Kyle. I friend requested him, not really thinking much of it – mainly because I’m a little nosy and thought he was cute in high school. He messaged me later that day and we never stopped talking. It was long distance for the first three years and then he moved back home in 2015.
I heard about the while doing one of the local wedding tours and as soon as we went down and saw it, I was just so in awe of the mix of elegance and simplicity that it had to it. I immediately saw us getting married there and what it would look like. It was a piece of the planning that just made our entire vision ‘click’ into place.
We did DIY coasters for favors – and I love them so much!! (they seriously are SO cute and perfect for a Seattle wedding!)
Both of Kyle’s parents will walk him down the aisle. My brother will walk down the aisle with my mom. And we will be thanking our parents at the beginning. I think it should be pretty straight forward after that – however, it’s all pretty special and I cry every time I go through the ceremony with our officiant
What is your most anticipated moment of your wedding day?
I’m really excited for our first look and for the moment immediately following the ceremony when we can walk back and have a minute just the two of us – finally married 🙂
Watching football, hanging out with family, drinking wine or beer, kayaking, camping
Awesome Vendor Team for this Seattle Winter Wedding
Kate of GSquared WeddingsWedding Photographer & Certified Wedding Coordinator
Kate Gansneder has documented 640+ weddings since 1997 and has a reputation for making camera-shy couples forget the camera exists. Couples consistently describe her as someone who knew what they needed before they did, felt like a trusted friend rather than a vendor, and made them feel genuinely calm on a day that could have been overwhelming. 380+ five-star reviews and 11x WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards later, she is still the person who arrives 30 minutes early with everything you forgot you needed.
Kate Gansneder has been photographing weddings since 1997 and has documented over 640 of them across Seattle and Snohomish County. That is not a number for its own sake. It means she has been in the room for enough first dances, enough ceremony tears, enough getting-ready chaos and family dynamics and moments that almost did not happen - that she reads a wedding day the way most people read a room they have been in a thousand times. Automatically. Without thinking about it. Already knowing what comes next. That depth of experience shows up in ways couples do not always expect. She notices you need water before you know you need it. She clocks who in the getting-ready room is spiraling and who is holding it together for everyone else, and she adjusts without announcing it. She handles the thing that almost went wrong before it becomes visible. She walks in and the energy shifts - calmer, warmer, more settled - and most couples cannot tell you exactly why, only that it happened. Couples who were convinced they were camera shy come home with photos of themselves laughing so hard they bent backwards. Couples with complicated family dynamics come home with portraits where everyone looks genuinely happy. Couples who were dreading the formal photo portion of their day come home saying it was actually fun. This is not luck. It is 640 weddings of learning exactly what people need in front of a camera and delivering it before they have to ask. Her 20+ years of experience as a wedding coordinator also helps. The reviews say it better than any bio could. Couples describe Kate as someone who made them feel calm when everything felt overwhelming. Who knew what they needed before they did. Who felt like a trusted friend rather than a vendor they hired. Who shielded them from problems until there was a solution. Who gave them unreasonable hospitality on a day when they deserved exactly that. She is a passionate advocate for Color Integrity editing - your photos should look like your actual wedding day, not a trend that peaks and ages. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Style Me Pretty, and PNW Weddings. GSquared Weddings has 380+ five-star reviews and 11x WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards. She runs on caramel mochas, arrives 30 minutes early to everything, and will absolutely compliment you during portraits without realizing she is doing it until you giggle. Fair warning.
