Djimon and Jasmine's Wedding in Duvall, Washington

The story of our wedding

I'm definitely that girl who has been planning her wedding since she was a little girl. I used to play dress-up with my friends and get married to imaginary boys and look at wedding dresses on Davids Bridal all the time. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. Then I actually started planning my wedding for real and my vision for my wedding did a full 180-degree turn. I went from strictly boho to a romantic ball gown garden wedding. It could not have been more beautiful though. I was on a pretty low budget but my family helped out so much financially. I was determined not to let low funds dim my wedding day so I got creative. My friends and family were so so helpful and amazing during the wedding planning process. We got so many amazingly creative people to help us out. We were graciously gifted our wedding venue by a family friend. They have a pretty large estate with plenty of grassy ground to work with. It is up high on a hill that overlooks Mount Rainier and has beautiful sunsets at night. It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined my wedding location to be and I know a lot of people don't know someone willing to just let them use their property for their wedding, so I was super grateful. So that was the first thing someone helped us out with. Next, my mom said she thought she should make our wedding cake. She has made wedding cakes in the past and she is really great at it. Her cakes are always the talk of every party so she decided to make the cake. There were some complications in the moving of the cake but overall the cake was still beautiful - and it tasted amazing, which is the important part. We talked to one of our more assertive friends and she agreed to be our wedding day coordinator. She kept everything going smoothly and we owe her a lot for that. My dad went to work on the most amazing wedding arch I've ever seen and my mother-in-law took my insane amount of bulk florals from Costco and turned the arch into a magical floral arrangement. She also did all of the bouquets and other florals two days before the wedding. My family helped me hand 200 glass orbs from the inside of our tent along with DIY floral mobiles above each table. I did a lot of thrifting and put my gold odds and ends on the tables. It took two long days for everything to go up and people were so kind as to take off work on Thursday and Friday to help us. It made me super, super emotional seeing all the love and happiness of my friends and family while they were setting up my wedding venue. We also were lucky enough to know people who were DJ's and they did all our wedding music for free. Pretty much everything was done by my beautiful family and friends. We did outsource a few things because I didn't want my close friends and family to have to do anything on the actual wedding day. I hired a waitstaff team to serve all the food family-style and we also hired someone to do all the girls' hair and makeup. I think the waitstaff made my wedding go above and beyond. I think I would have regretted that decision if I wouldn't have hired them. People were coming up to me left and right saying how beautiful the tent was and, to be honest, I am super proud of that tent. People danced and drank Italian sodas. My dad and I did our father-daughter dance. We started out dancing to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and then the record scratched and we started dancing the Git Up. It was interesting, but super fun and everyone loved it. People danced the night away with their foam light-up rave sticks and glow sticks. Then Djimon and I went through the sparkler exit and into our getaway car; my red ford focus. I just want to say that my wedding really made me realize how many people I had rooting for Djimon and I's success, and on my wedding day my friends became my family.