Asking Our Friend to Marry Us in Portland, Oregon! | Getting Hitched
Photo by Cast + Forge Photography
Initially, when we thought about our dreams for an officiant, we naturally figured we’d hire a past work connection of Kathryn’s, a professional officiant based in the Seattle area, but ultimately her rates were outside of our budget and our location wasn’t within her typical service range, adding on even more of a cost. While we did receive a wonderful referral from her, we ultimately took a step back and thought: Hmm… maybe asking a friend isn’t that bad of an idea after all! Kathryn’s parents were married by their friend and we were inspired all of a sudden. After a talk with her folks, the person instantly came to mind: JENNI! Later that month, we were asking our friend to marry us in Portland! We have to say: This was the best decision we ever made.
Asking Our Friend to Marry Us!
We landed on Jenni for a multitude of reasons, but here’s a few of the big ones: She and Kathryn have been colleagues and friends for many years, she is a professional copywriter (which means she’s fabulous with words!), and she’s older enough for there to be a clear generational difference with some wisdom she could impart upon us. We’ve always admired her marriage to husband Brian and the family they’ve created together, and we knew she’d give killer advice!
Photo by Cast + Forge Photography
Some of Kathryn’s favorite traits about Jenni are her thoughtfulness, sweetness, openness, and intelligence. She speaks in a kind yet effective manner, she’s not afraid of public speaking, and she makes everything just sound so smooth. It was a no brainer that we would be asking her to marry us. Was she shocked? “Shocked” may be an understatement! She never saw the request coming, which made it all the more sweet for us.
Throughout the process of prepping for the big day, we’ve been able to customize literally everything about our Order of Service, utilizing Jenni’s past years in the church (she’s more informed than us about what a solid ceremony involves!) to craft a powerful yet uniquely us ceremony. In addition to curating the ceremony flow and incredibly exciting elements, we’ve also had personalized vow workshopping Zoom calls and live Google Doc editing sessions to further tighten things up. We feel incredibly lucky to have such a supportive friend who is eager and willing to help us every step of the way, and to be able to share this monumental memory with an amazing friend!
Photo by Cast + Forge Photography
Here’s a few of the questions we asked Jenni in the beginning:
Would you be willing to research all the legal documentation + deadlines necessary for licensing - both to get you ordained and to get us married?
How much involvement would you be willing to have in our vow writing? How do you see the process working best?
How would you like to be compensated for your work?
We seriously hit the jackpot with Jenni and now that she’s ordained / we’re the first ceremony-writing clients under her belt, perhaps she’d do another wedding in the future! ;) Thanks, Jenni… you are simply the best of the best!
Vendor Rec:
Jennifer Crain of Pearl & Ink
@pearl.ink.copy on Instagram
www.pearlandink.com
About the Couple
We’re Jared and Kathryn - Olympia, Washington natives that have dated since April 2013 (a whole decade in, baby!) and have lived together a majority of those years as well. Jared is launching into his career in IT, and Kathryn is the owner of a freelance content marketing agency serving clients across the country. Together we’re tech nerds, Pacific Northwest travelers, the ultimate foodies, and drag show lovers. We’re so excited to share our wedding journey with you + hope to provide some insight that helps you along the way!
