Real Weddings: Home, Where the Heart Is
Slideshow: The Tanseys at home on their wedding. Tips, inspiration, and more from the couple and their photographer.
WWW: What made you decide to have your wedding at home?
Michele and Ryan: We wanted to share all the hard work we’d done at our house over the past year with our friends and family. We also wanted a relaxed and comfortable environment and to make sure that all of our pets could be there. The financially responsible part of us figured that we should spend our wedding money on something we could use after the wedding not just that day. The bulk of the wedding cost went towards home improvements (paint, new doorknobs, light fixtures, furniture, and decorations), a new deck, and landscaping.
What was the inspiration for the look and feel of the day?
We love all things vintage and antique, so our theme was Mad Men-inspired with late 50s early 60s attire. All of the decorations from the glasses, silverware, pie plates, chairs, tables, everything and I mean everything was collected by Michele (with a little help from Kaye and Michele’s mom) from Goodwill and Value Village. The wonderful people in the housewares department at the Goodwill on South Lane Street in Seattle knew Michele so well by the end.
How many guests did you have and do you imagine you would have invited more if you held the party in a larger venue?
We had about 75 guests at our wedding and we probably wouldn’t have invited any more if we’d had the event somewhere else. Obviously the process of choosing who to invite is a difficult one for all couples, but overall I think we didn’t have too much trouble since we knew we wanted to keep it small and intimate.
For some couples, planning a wedding is enough of a project. Wasn’t it also overwhelming to plan a wedding and fix up the venue?
We nearly bit off more than we could chew. We didn’t do much serious planning until about three months out from our wedding, and we decided to do most everything ourselves. We had to put in a deck, landscape our yard, install light fixtures, retile our bathroom, finish installing trim in a few places, paint a couple rooms, and find new furniture and art. We are so thankful for the help we received. In the months leading up to the wedding we had help from our “Best Man of Honor” Jon, and from Michele’s close friend Kaye who is a wedding planner in Indianapolis. In the few days before the wedding we had most of our family fly in and help fix up the house, bake pies, and set up the tables and chairs.
Michele: After the band left there was a group of about twenty of us sitting outside drinking and chatting. We pulled together all the comfy couches and chairs; it is the coolest feeling to be in your yard sitting on indoor furniture. I don’t know who started it but someone said, "Ryan! Wooooh!" and started clapping. Then everyone outside joined it cheering and clapping. "RYAN!" He had the biggest smile on his face, and I knew he was thinking, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” He tells me every day. I am so proud of him.
Tell us you didn’t also make all the food and dessert.
We decided to have brunch catered by Duos Catering. We had bacon, biscuits and gravy, quiche, strata, breakfast panini, fresh fruit, and yogurt. Everything was so good we wish we could have eaten more! For the dessert we had our friends and family bake pies. We had so many pies that we had ten left over after the day was done. As for the drinks, we got two kegs of beer from Georgetown Brewery. We also mixed up a cooler of tequila-spike limeade for the day.
Ryan: My favorite moments from the day came whenever Michele and I would sneak away to take pictures with our photographer Kristen Tourtillotte. The entire day was such a whirlwind of family and friends, with not as much time with Michele as I would have liked. Stepping out of the party for a few moments meant so much to me and it let me have time to spend with the woman I love so much on such a special day.
How is photographing a wedding in a home different than taking pictures at a venue?
Tourtillotte: Since there was so much character in the house, taking photos was almost a breeze: It was easier to search for light and negative space. The guests were comfortable with having a camera in their face and were close together rather than spread around a large venue. It allowed me to come up closer and document them in conversation without them noticing so much whereas if I walked up to them from 20 feet away… Guests were just a lot more at ease and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Michele and Ryan didn’t have the traditional events of cake cutting, bouquet toss and the like so the guests conversations weren’t interrupted and they weren’t called to move to a different room to watch traditional wedding events take place.
Tourtillotte: The way the house was decorated and landscaped reflected who Michele and Ryan are. Creative individuals with an eye for aesthetic beauty and love for antique and charming pieces that have been warmly loved in the past.
Tourtillotte: After having shot plenty of backyard, hotel, gallery, and large venue weddings, there was definitely something very different about this particular home wedding. I think what connected me the most to it was having met with Michele and Ryan a few times in their short planning process and seeing first hand the amount of work they had put into making their nest feel like a home and wanting to engage their friends and family in the home-making process. I think for couples to put their own hard work and labor into creating this type of event is quite the feat. Their guests were able to see this as well and it only created a more welcoming environment and appreciation for the day. Their hospitality was multiplied; guests felt more comfortable and hung around longer.
