Portland Wedding at The Ace: Alison + Trevor

Alison + Trevor had a mini destination wedding as they and most of their guests live in Vancouver, Canada. They love Portland though and wanted their guests to have a unique weekend and to stay in the same hotel (The Ace), go to a dreamy forest, have a family style dinner of fresh local ingredients, drink great drinks and dance the night away! Most of the wedding was handmade by the couple and family + friends as they really wanted to be hands on with their wedding. They did hire a few vendors and choose people they really admired and aspired to be like The Ace and Blue Window Creative as their awesome photographers. Congrats to Alison + Trevor!

ace hotel portland

stamp wedding invitations

bridesmaids

bridesmaids

portland wedding

bride with bouquet

portland wedding

I walked down the aisle on my Dad’s arm while he played “Sweet Thing” by Van Morrison on his guitar that he learned just for our wedding day.

ceremony in the woods

ceremony in the woods

Most memorable moment of your wedding day? Saying our vows in front of everyone that we wrote together one night over a bottle of Rioja. They were heartfelt and a bit silly… they may have included a high five and ended with a line we repeated to each other that means a lot to us, “to forever think that I am the lucky one”.

ceremony in the woods

ceremony in the woods

bride and groom in woods

soda bottle straws

pink ruffle heels

bride and groom

love notes

ace hotel portland

bridesmaids

I let my bridesmaids pick out their dresses in a shade of grey (Modcloth, BCBG, H+M, Lushuz, Barefoot Contessa).

flower favors

Pretty hand sewn flowers by Alison that guests wore all night long and then took home. :)

ace hotel portland

ace hotel portland

wedding cupcakes

wedding pasta

ace hotel portland wedding

bride and groom first dance

wedding to-do list

Any advice for those planning now? Some of the most valuable advice I listened to while planning was to only do the diy projects that you are good at and will enjoy doing. Our wedding was a labor of love built on hours of little projects. I sewed 140 fabric flowers as decorations/favours and assembled countless projects like clipboard menus, painting wooden letters, constructing banners and welcome packages and I loved every moment of making and planning our wedding. But when I tried to assemble my own bouquet the day before the wedding… flower arranging is not something I’d ever done before and didn’t feel very confident. I really wasn’t happy with how it turned out.  I should have listened to that advice and left the bouquets to the professionals! Luckily an amazing friend ran to the florist the morning of the wedding and had them fix it.

Oh and to other brides… it really will all work out and the day will be perfect, promise.  Even if you don’t think you can let go of all the details, you will be able to.

vendors:

photography: Mary and Joel of Blue Window Creative // venue name: The Cleaners, @ the Ace Hotel // wedding dress: Jcrew // bride's shoes: Badgley Mishka // groom attire: Collier Clothiers // groom's shoes: custom Converse // catering: Clyde Common // cake: cookies by Bakerbots // floral design: Bridal Bouquet by Sammy's Flowers

Explore: