http://offbeatbride.com/2011/09/seattle-arboreal-weddingThe offbeat bride: Layne, Travel Consultant, Dreads
Her offbeat partner: Daniel, Software QA Engineer, Soul Patch
Date and location of wedding: The ceremony was held in a sequoia grove at Lincoln Park in West Seattle. The reception was at Sodo Park by Herban Feast, just south of downtown Seattle. September 22, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: Daniel and I wanted a completely honest celebration that was an accurate portrait of ourselves, and that highest priority guided us through every decision. In the spirit of equilibrium, we chose to marry on the Autumnal Equinox and to celebrate our anniversaries on each year's Equinox, which means the date of our anniversary can change from year to year.
Choice Quotes:
I spent more than six hours having my hands and feet covered in intricate bridal henna, which was a magical and meditative experience I will always treasure. We wrote our ceremony to illustrate our friendly dismissal of certain marital norms and our deep respect for other ones. We showed our reverence for tolerance and diversity by including rituals from as many different cultures as we could.We didn't want to dress our attendants in identical outfits, preferring instead to have their distinct personalities shining through undimmed. So we asked everyone to dress nicely but above all, creatively, and to wear green as a reference to the woodland setting and theme of the wedding. They all came up with wonderful raiment as different as they are. Each member of the wedding party carried a Moroccan lantern through the forest and down the aisle. These later doubled as centerpieces for the dinner tables.Each table was named for a different species of tree, and our place settings were also the favors. We découpaged the guests' names, along with leaves from Thailand, onto stones we hand-picked from the Snoqualmie River. Gathering the rocks was a beautiful day spent knee-deep in glacier melt together, lugging bags full of river stones up sun-splattered trails, and driving for hours through the Cascades.We served a creative and organic, locally-sourced menu and a Guinness-chocolate wedding cake designed as a reference to the forest. At the end of the night, the wedding party distributed sparklers to all of the guests and we sprinted through the shower of shimmers to our getaway car, which was a bio-Benz from Seattle Green Limo.I believe the event was executed with a good balance between the traditional and the unorthodox, while remaining environmentally responsible and painting a true-to-life picture of my husband and me.Both of my parents walked me down the aisle, but when asked who gives this woman to be wedded to this man, I was the one to step forward and say "I do."We are devout believers in the respect of all spiritual traditions, so we incorporated wedding customs from all over the world: a Chinese wine-drinking ritual, the African hand-washing ceremony, the Hindu rice offering, a Philippine rope-tying tradition, and a Maori hongi. After Daniel and I said "I do," the pledge had a third question for the guests. The congregation was given the opportunity to say "I do" as well, when asked if they would bless our union and support us in our partnership as they had supported us individually.Afterward, the guests showered us with green wheat in the ancient Egyptian tradition. 
(yeah i basically quoted the whole thing fuck u gonna do about it)
