Elizabeth & Conor
Photos by Logan Smith Photography
Below is an interview with Elizabeth, a laid-back bride from Seattle. We appreciate her vision for a fun filled weekend for her friends and family in the middle of Olympic National Forest.
What elements of your wedding were most important to you and your partner?
We wanted to celebrate with all of our friends and family and make them feel welcome and included and taken care of the whole weekend. We wanted our guests to feel like they were on a super fun vacation. My husband cared a lot about the music, which is why we ended up going with a live band. Last thing, we wanted good food!
Guests take the polar plunge the morning of the wedding. Photo by Logan Smith Photography.
Tell us about your wedding venue...
We got married at the Lake Quinault Lodge in the Olympic National Forest. I grew up in Washington, and I use to visit the lodge with my family as a kid. I took Conor there when we first started dating so it felt like a special place. We also liked that all of our guests could stay at the lodge and we could spend the whole weekend together. I liked that the lodge included tables, chairs, bar, caterer, tent, setup and take down. That took the pressure off to arrange all the moving parts. We also loved that there was a lot of stuff for people to do during the wedding weekend that was right there on the lodge premises like camping, hiking and swimming. There different areas of the venue for each part of the day (ceremony, dinner, dancing). Lastly, the natural environment of the lodge was so beautiful that we didn't need a lot of extra decorations.
The happy wedding party :) Photo by Logan Smith Photography.
How did you research venues?
It was pretty hard to find a venue mostly because of capacity issues. We were expecting about 150 people to show up and most venues we were drawn to have a max capacity of 100 people. We went to a bridal expo, and we asked around. We looked into some city parks.
The wedding party posing in front of the Lake Quinault Lodge. Photo by Logan Smith Photography.
What was the biggest challenge during the planning process?
The lodge is pretty isolated so we had to travel out there 3 times which was a pain. There was no cell service which was awesome during the wedding weekend because people weren’t on their phones and very present but it was a problem in getting in touch with the event coordinator. That said, the actual wedding weekend was the best and it was worth all the work in the end.
Portrait by Logan Smith Photography.
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