Real Wedding: Family Backyard Fun in Potomac, Maryland (Part 2)

MarylandGo back to Part 1 for this backyard wedding held at a private home in Potomac, Maryland. All photos by Kate Hauschka

Colors: Orange and Green. While these are not typical colors in an Asian wedding, Jessica loves orange and the green was inspired by the bamboo branches throughout the property.

Overarching Goal: The driving idea behind the whole wedding was combining families, as well as the couple’s preferences and personalities. Therefore, we were deliberate in the choices made for the ceremony and reception to make sure that the idea of unity was reflected in every part of the wedding.

Bill is of Italian and Germany descent and  Jessica is Taiwanese. Both have traveled extensively for their jobs and personal interest. Bill wanted a backyard BBQ with lots of mingling and activities, while Jessica loves to dance. This is how we incorporated everything.

Decor: Jessica loved lanterns so we incorporated them inside the main tent, inside the lounge area, and used ones her father brought back from Taiwan to greet guests as they entered. In the invitations, escort cards and programs, Jessica’s friend who is a graphic designer, designed an abstract of lanterns as part of the motif.

Activities: Bill wanted many options for their guests in terms of activities. So we set out bocce ball, croquet, badminton, hula hoops, as well as a photo booth and pop corn machine. It was a lot of fun to watch guests hold a drink in one hand while playing bocce with the other!

Tip: Take care of the children and the parents will have a great time. We hired two babysitters to entertain and to watch over the kids so that their parents can enjoy themselves, and they surely did! For a casual wedding like this, we set out some blankets for the children to sit on for the ceremony so that it’s not so formal, and children are fidgety anyway. The children also ate earlier than the parents and we had the babysitters order pizza for them. By the time they finished, they were able to join in the dancing.

Jessica had a lot of younger cousins, most of whom were home during the summer so we decided to put them to work. They made adorable signs and table numbers, and decorated popcorn bags. Very creative!

Reception: To incorporate Bill’s idea of a mingling party, we had 2 cocktail hours. The first cocktail hour was held before the ceremony. As guests arrived, they were free to mingle, grab a bite to eat and have a nice cold drink, which gave Bill a chance to talk to the guests. After about 30 minutes, we invited the guests to sit for the ceremony. After the ceremony, we had another cocktail period for another 45 minutes.

Tip: if you open the bar before the ceremony, be sure to serve some food along with it so guests don’t get too drunk too soon, especially on a hot day!

Food: In their choices for hors d’oeuvres, you can see both of them reflected. The food included ginger-lemongrass meatballs, summer rolls, antipasto, goat cheese fundido, Mediterranean dips. Dinner was served family style to encourage interaction and included Asian inspired flavors like miso glazed salmon with baby bok choy, quinoa and black bean salad with roasted corn and sweet peppers, ginger lemongrass angus beef sirloin with pickled carrot and daikon slaw. We also served Prosecco.

For more photos from this wedding, please visit Kate’s blog. Stay tuned for the continuation of this at-home wedding and a recap of one my favorite ceremonies of all time — Vicky