“Every summer growing up, my family would go to Spirit Lake, Idaho, where my great-great-grandfather purchased a small property in the early 1900’s with the most amazing view of Mount Spokane. As a little girl, I witnessed a wedding being set up at the community clubhouse, and from that day on, I knew it was my dream to get married there. Tom and I met in middle school, but drifted apart in high school and college. We had the same mutual friends and would rekindle the friendship we had in middle school. Eventually, the timing lined up, Tom returned from the Army, and I was about to graduate. Everything fell into place, and it felt so natural. Since the beginning stages of our marriage, we had intentions to make the moment as meaningful and special as it could be. Tom’s mother gave him the diamond for my engagement ring. Tom then asked my father for his blessing and for a recommendation to a jeweler. He sent Tom to a goldsmith who had known my dad for decades and remembered me as a little girl helping my dad pick out jewelry for my mother. Tom made a one-of-a-kind engagement ring for me, the same way my father made an engagement ring for my mother. It felt like a full-circle moment, where all the parental figures in my life are part of the engagement ring I wear every day. We decided to continue including meaningful details in our wedding. It didn’t take much convincing to have our wedding at Spirit Lake. I felt it was the perfect place for an intimate wedding. We got married at the community clubhouse that was built in 1908. One of our goals was to incorporate the historic, quaint feeling the clubhouse exuded. Not to take away, but to enhance the beauty that was already there and to indulge in the details that make the Pacific Northwest so unique. I could not imagine us getting married in Arizona, where we currently live. Since our friends and family met us up in North Idaho for the wedding, I wanted to bring in elements of the Pacific Northwest. As I planned the wedding during my lunch breaks in Arizona, I found amazing vendors who helped capture the vibe and vision I had, many states away. The florist used native flowers and greenery, and I had the request to add as many pinecones as possible to the decor. Erin, the florist, included pinecones and cedar garland as centerpieces, and pinecones in my bouquet. The caterer, Malvagios, was a family-owned Italian restaurant from Coeur d’Alene. She brought in the most amazing appetizer of salmon crostini, caprese, and meatballs along with huckleberry lemonade. For dinner, Malvagios brought in a wood-fired pizza oven. Tom and I are not sophisticated people, and we couldn’t imagine a more perfect dinner for a perfect day. We ended the night with huckleberry cake and cupcakes from Sweet Frostings in Spokane. Once again, we are not sophisticated people, so we had to include a bride-and-groom dinosaur cake topper from Etsy. The food was one of our favorite parts for the wedding, we still reminisce about the appetizers and pizza. Our amazing photographer, Found in Fables, captured every detail of the night. I still can’t get over how beautiful and dreamlike the event was. I am so grateful that I found all these amazing vendors. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding.”
– Olivia, the bride
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