Sara and Dorian’s black and white wedding is just so elegant. From the simple color palette to the understated glow of the candles at the ceremony, all of their details were refined and surprisingly warm (rare for a black and white affair). And Sara is just about the best bride ever for letting her bridesmaids pick their own black dresses. Those are truly ones they can wear again, and they looked amazing! Thank you to Yasmin Khajavi for capturing such a special wedding and for sharing it with Delightfully Engaged!

 

Did your wedding location hold a specific significance to you?

 

We wanted to find a location that would go with our elegant classic theme of the wedding. Once I saw the chandelier that hung in their Crystal Ballroom I was completely sold! We also wanted to make sure we stayed in Portland because we had a lot of out of town guests and wanted to make sure they could have as much of a Portland experience as possible.

 

What was the most meaningful part of your day?

 

Besides getting married, of course, was doing the anniversary dance. What was the most meaningful was having Dorian’s grandparents be the last ones dancing. His grandparents have been such an incredible part of this wedding. Dorian proposed to me in front of them by asking their advice for a successful marriage. They have been married for 75 years so they have plenty of marriage experience! After the dance this was their chance to give their wise words to what makes a 75-year long marriage last. Needless to say, they stole they show!

 

Did anything funny or out of the ordinary happen?

 

After the best man gave his speech, he said that he had something special prepared. The other groomsmen and some friends stood in front of us and sang, “She’s Your Queen to Be” from “Coming to America.” The whole room was in stitches and tears from pure laughter.

 

How did you know your partner was “the one”?

 

Sara: I knew he was the one when I knew how important he made his family and friends. And because of his love for his family I knew he would always protect me and put me first.

Dorian: What first attracted me to my wife was her beauty. I saw her picture on the door when I moved in to the dorms at Oregon State (she was my neighbor). When I met her, she was the kindest, most down to earth person. She is not just beautiful on the outside; she is beautiful on the inside.

 

 

Any advice you’d give new brides who are just getting started?

 

I had almost two years to plan my wedding and for the most part I got everything done in a timely manner. But when it is the week of your wedding, all kinds of things you did not think you needed to do will come up. So make sure you have trusty people who will help you, and do not put things off because you might not have that amount of time later. Also to cut cost down, ask other friends if they have anything from their weddings you can buy. Vases can cost a lot, but by asking people we knew we got to use $30 vases for free!

 

 

Vendors:

 

Photographer: Yasmin Khajavi Photography

Venue: Crystal Ballroom, Tiffany Center

Dress: Sottero and Midgley

Accessories: J. Crew and mother’s bracelet as something borrowed

Groom and Groomsmen Attire: Mr. Formal – White and black bow ties were their own.

Catering: Rafiti’s

Cake: A friend who is starting her own baking business made our cake. For our cake I didn’t want a regular shape cake, plus I couldn’t decide if I like round or square more! I found a unique cake that had a large rectangle bottom (that was actually foam!), round middle and a round topper. The flavor was champagne with butter cream frosting. We used foam on the bottom of the cake because it was cost effective but the cake cutting was still important to us so we had two small layers for the top of it.

Dessert table: For dessert at the wedding we chose some of our Portland favorites! We had many out of town guests, so of course we had to introduce them to the famous Voodoo Donuts! Our all-time favorite Portland dessert had to come from a food cart: mini fried apple and berry pies from Whiffies Pies in SE Portland. For our last dessert we had cupcakes from Bliss Cupcakes.

Event Planning: Nazli, from the Tiffany Center

Flowers: Trinettes Flowers

DIY projects:

• We made little s’mores bites. We put large marshmallows on sticks, dipped them in chocolate, and sprinkled graham cracker on them. They were wrapped in plastic wrap and labels were put on them that said “S’more love from the Smith’s”. I had my nieces pass them around on glitter dishes to our guests after dinner.
• We cut the cost of flowers for centerpieces by purchasing branches at a low cost website and glued on fake flowers so the branches had a blooming effect.
• We made all invitations and save- the-dates. We purchased a font that we liked and made the template for the invitations.
• Our black and white fabric was from Ikea. Purchasing it ourselves and not renting it from a store cut down a lot of cost and we got to design it in the length and shape we wanted.

Check out more wedding venues, décor and groomsmen accessories in Portland.