Our Very Durham Wedding!

Hi, friends! I’m writing this blog post on our one-month wedding anniversary (four Sundays later) which feels very fitting. My hope is to capture everything about the wedding in this post.

After the welcome party and rehearsal dinner the day before, we were fully expecting to sleep in a little bit but we woke up earlier than we meant to, which gave us plenty of time to walk over to our favorite coffee shop EverLou and get caffeinated for the big day ahead!

Rex left for his friend’s room mid-morning since I was getting ready with friends in our suite at The Durham Hotel. My mom and my sisters came over earlier and my friends shortly after, and we all got ready together. I didn’t get my hair and makeup done professionally, and I was happy with how everything turned out (though maybe I would just curl my hair and not do half-up if I were to do it again).

We didn’t have an official wedding party but I loved the idea of spending time with friends in the morning and getting some photos together. I had been wanting to do my wedding this since since my supervisor at my first job out of college did something similar for her wedding! Some of my friends knew of each other or didn’t know each other well so I’m glad they all know each other now after spending time together on wedding day.

I completely forgot to take any photos but I got a used book for all of my friends and sisters which I had wrapped in grocery bags with velvet ribbons! Our photographer Thais from The Anchor Studio captured some photos of me with The Midnight Library which I gifted for Sujung.

It was important to Rex that he didn’t see me in any type of wedding dress until the day of our wedding. We opted to do a first look and private vows earlier in the day, which I’m glad we did. It gave us an opportunity to spend more time together throughout the day and relieved a lot of pressure for us.

Following our first look and private vows on the rooftop of The Durham Hotel, we took family and friends photos in front of Carolina Theatre. Afterwards, our family and friends were released, and we stayed with Thais to take more photos just the two of us.

That involved a trip to The Parlour, a Durham institution which was also the second stop on our very first date! We shared a cup of Vietnamese Ice Coffee and Honey Lavender ice cream as we have done so many times over the years. A little girl coming up to tell me I looked like a princess and so many sweet people congratulating us reminded us of what a wonderful community we have in Durham.

This is one of my very favorite photos from the wedding day. I love how Thais captures the beautiful bouquet Shoua from Shoomee’s Flowers created for us. I plan to share more about the flowers once we get the full gallery from Thais (all the photos in this post are from the “sneak peek” which are unreal, I know).

Another photo I love so much! I think I’m going to have to frame this one.

Motorco Music Hall was our venue for both ceremony and reception. We loved the idea of getting married in downtown Durham where we met and have created so many memories. Since we are not very fancy people, Motorco was the perfect place, especially since we’ve been to Motorco many times over the years. In fact, one of our earliest dates was at Motoro, for a Tinkering & Drinkering event hosted by Museum of Life and Science.

After our ceremony, we took some time to ourselves at Cocoa Cinnamon across the street!

To be honest, I drank more water than coffee while we were at Cocoa Cinnamon since I was feeling so parched and dehydrated… Definitely recommend sneaking away for a few minutes if you have time! We enjoyed the little bit of quiet time.

Once we returned to Motorco, it was time for some food! We had KBBQ bowls from Itaewon Grill, which was one of my favorite Korean spots in the Triangle. They have sadly gone out of business just earlier this year so it was extra special to have food from Itaewon Grill one last time.

One of our favorite parts about wedding planning was working with small businesses we love, and Little Barb’s Bakery was one of them. She created this beautiful, retro-style three-tiered cake for us. We chose a different cake flavor for each tier too!

Poetry Fox was our splurge for the wedding, and possibly everyone’s favorite part too haha. I’ve been a fan of Poetry Fox for years, and Rex and I actually got a poem from him together some time ago so it felt like another full circle moment to have him as the entertainment/wedding favor.

Our photographer pulled us at some point in the evening, and we crossed the street again, this time to go to the little park behind Cocoa Cinnamon for more photos.

It was later in the day but a lot more humid so we were SWEATING. Thankfully, I don’t think you can really tell and I LOVED how these photos turned out.

These were probably the most “fun” photos we took throughout the day, with no nerves or time constraints, and I think that shows in the photos.

Once we returned to Motorco, it was time for dancing! We had a live band, which was one thing Alex really wanted.

Can we just talk about how photogenic Rex is in every photo?!?!!

I switched out the veil for a pearl headband because you know I’m a headband girlie.

Another impromptu photo Thais pulled us aside for. OBSESSED.

For a long time, we weren’t going to do a formal exit but we opted to a no-mess streamer exit! We went with colorful streamers (vs. metallic ones), and I love how fun they look!

When we were planning our wedding, it was important to both of us that we made decisions that were intentional and felt true to us. Our wedding was not the fanciest (actually, very far from it) but it felt very us. Thank you for reading and for all the kind words you’ve sent our way!