Lavender Farm Wedding in Washington : Kyna + Sean

A: In October 2017, Kyna first got hired at Microsoft Retail. On her second day of training, the training manager introduced her to Sean while he was in the breakroom. Sean looked at Kyna and her training manager and said, “oh yeah, Kyna and I go way back, we are siblings and actually grew up together”. Shockingly, even though the two had never met, Kyna rolled with the story and their first introduction to each other became their first prank together. The strangers successfully convinced their co-workers that they were siblings!Kyna and Sean then discovered a mutual love for hiking. On the day of their first hike, it was a typical rainy Fall day in the PNW. When Kyna arrived at Sean’s house to head to the hike, Sean thought Kyna would bail because it was raining. Kyna was committed to getting to know some of her new co-workers and surprised Sean with her adventurous spirit that day by following through with the hike. They were both soaked by the end of the hike but in good spirits as their friendship began.They continued to get to know each other through hiking and participating in volunteer events through work. The pair became an “official” couple after spending the day together volunteering for the Special Olympics. Sean had setup a party with Kyna’s best friend and her family for New Years Eve. When the two arrived they began playing a VERY long round of Kings Crown (the card game). The game is only supposed to last about 45 minutes, but it ended up taking 3 hours because the group was talking so much and having a good time. When the game finally ended, one of Kyna’s other friends that was at the party asked her to leave to quickly go back to her house to go get a bottle of wine she had forgotten (the friend lived close to the house where the party was being held). So Kyna left with her friend to head to the house. When they got back, the lights were off except dim candle light coming from the living room. Kyna walked around the corner into the living room and one of Sean and Kyna’s favorite songs was playing. The room was completely candle lit with an aisle of candles leading to Sean. Kyna is an avid book reader and Sean had a custom ring box made that looks like a book. It says “Our Love Story” on the front and the inside has a couple real pages with the story of the tradition of the ring on them. Sean proposed with Kyna’s closest friends present on New Years Eve. The couple got to RING in the New Year along with each other as fiancé and fiancée.

A: We were originally planning for a medium size wedding in September (September 19th). We had invitations printed but had not sent them out yet when COVID hit.  We, along with a lot of other couples got stuck with the dilemma of what to do. We waited until May when Washington State was supposed to get to stage 3 of a 5 stage reopening plan and our Governor ended up extending our stage 1 time. We had a really hard week of discussions about whether we wanted to continue to play the wait and see game, or if we wanted to make the decision to postpone.That week we decided to postpone, mostly due to (Kyna) having out of state family that would not have been able to travel even if Washington State had been in a better phase by September. When we made the decision to postpone though, we knew we still wanted to be legally married this year.I (Kyna) have severe arthritis in one hip and need to have a hip replacement done. We are both very outdoorsy and love to hike and my arthritis is starting to hinder my ability to participate in the activity that brought us together (more about that later).  We already had a timeframe for surgery in mind and I also need surgery before we can start having kids. While we know that COVID is a big deal and is breaking some families apart, we felt it was important for us to bring our families together through us still getting married this year!I have been friends with the Woodinville Lavender owners son and daughter in law since high school. So I’ve attended over a dozen weddings, baby showers and church events at the Lavender Farm over the years. I had always dreamed of getting married there. Purple is my favorite color and I LOVE the smell of lavender, it’s so calming and comforting. The Lavender Farm normally books out weddings several years in advance for the summer season. It’s not a venue that you can normally get in to if you want to host a wedding with only a couple months advance notice. BUT, because we were just looking to have our immediate families in attendance, we knew we could pull off a mid-week ceremony. I contacted Tom and we were able to find a date that would work for our family’s, photographer and the Lavender Farm. I would get the Lavender wedding of my dreams after all! Because Lavender only blooms in the summer, and with the option to host our mini ceremony at the Lavender Farm, we actually pulled up our wedding date from September to July 28th. After we settled on the Lavender Farm for our minimony ceremony, lavender definitely became the theme/style and color palette. For our brunch reception our theme and color palette was white and gold. We did a reverse wedding day and decided because COVID is making the world unpredictable, we should eat the cake first! Kidding (Kind-of)! Due to logistics of the Lavender Farm and the timeline for golden hour photos, we actually decided to host a brunch reception at Sean’s parents’ house that morning (complete with cake cutting) and then we had an evening ceremony at the lavender farm.

A: We only had the Lavender Farm for 2.5 hours, which included 30 minutes for setup and then the ceremony was scheduled to start. Because of the quick turnaround from when we got on-site to when the ceremony was starting, we decided not to do a first look. Kyna had not told Sean anything about her dress, or hair & makeup style for the day. So the first time we got to see each other was when I was walking down the aisle. It was such a special moment for both of us to see each other for the first time! Kyna definitely shed some tears when she saw Sean at the end of the aisle. Even though we had seen each other during brunch, we were so wrapped up in hosting everyone and trying to talk with our guests, we didn’t really spend much time together. So when I (Kyna) came down the aisle it was really our first intimate moment of the day where everything slowed down and we could just focus on each other. It was that moment that COVID didn’t matter, family drama didn’t matter, perfection and expectations didn’t matter. All that mattered were that we were together and still able to celebrate the start of our new lives together!

A: We used baby’s breath for the reception centerpieces. We also hung a 6 ft. garland with some carnations and roses across the arch. The bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquet was lavender and baby’s breath.  Obviously lavender played a huge role in our theme given we got married at a lavender farm. I didn’t want to overdue anything with additional flowers, my goal with the flowers was just to add a bit of a contrast color that wouldn’t distract.

A: For our brunch reception, we still had a photo guestbook, we put together a mimosa bar, and a dessert bar. My best friend (Matron of Honor) helped me create white and gold signage and I had a former co-worker bake us a gorgeous white and gold naked cake. We kept decor pretty simple; small white buckets of baby’s breath with a gold “W” monogram for the centerpieces and large Gold “W” monogram for the dessert table.For the ceremony, we only had 30 minutes for any decor setup that I wanted to add to the Lavender Farm. The Farm provided a metal arch and wooden benches, along with wine barrel tables. I added sets of rustic lanterns lifted onto wooden crates, along with repurposing the buckets of baby’s breath from the brunch reception to create the aisle. We also hung a live floral arrangement on the arch and added some single pink roses to the lantern sets to add a pop of color. The arch and ceremony location was setup directly in front of a lavender field that was in full bloom.

A: When I went wedding dress shopping originally, I had fallen in love with two dresses. One was tea length and one was full length. My MOH and Mom had told me that the tea length dress was super cute, but didn’t feel as mature as the full length dress. I ended up getting the full length dress. When we started planning our minimony, I was originally planning to just wear a simple knee length white dress I had found at a department store. Then I was randomly looking at David’s Bridal on their sale site one day and saw the tea length dress I had fallen in love with originally, in my size as a sample sale dress.  I knew the tea length would look fantastic with the lavender field and  it was 70% off full retail.  Because my dress had an illusion neckline and had beading all the way down, I didn’t go overboard with accessories. I chose some silver flat sandals with silver beading and pearls on the top also from David’s Bridal. I found some simple pearl earrings and a simple pearl bracelet for accessories. I had a blusher veil with me, but ended up LOVING my hairstyle so much on it’s own that I didn’t wear the veil.Sean LOVES prints and pattern, I didn’t want him to feel too traditional or basic. I was also concerned that he was going to get super hot. We went to Men’s Wearhouse and found a light gray suit and paired it with lavender checked dress shirt. He then had fun with his patterns by finding a gorgeous purple paisley tie and a purple print pocket square. He finished off his look with some light brown leather shoes.