I never thought Ken and I would go this long without posting to pasteboard, but see, we have a great excuse: we got married last Friday! For those of you who don’t know, Ken and I got engaged exactly one month after we decided to start Barista Magazine. So you can see how some things got in the way of us planning a wedding… for, um, almost 3 years after the engagement. But last Friday, October 19, at 5:30 p.m., with the blessing of our dear friend Kyle Larson, who served as our officiant, we did it. Finally.
The wedding was everything we hoped it would be. We were surrounded by our friends and family, who came from Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, New York, Wisconsin, South Africa, Denmark, Italy, and England. After it was all said and done, Ken and I took a few days off to relax and eat cake. We got back into the office on Wednesday and have been working nonstop! But of course, we had to take a little time out to post these photos. Hope you enjoy, and we wish all of you could have been there with us! It was an incredible day filled with love and laughter and of course, awesome music.
Here are me & Ken with Ken’s (and now my) nephews, Josh (left) and Jack.
This is my beautiful older sister Jen. She was soooo amazingly helpful and wonderful throughout this wedding process. I love her so much!
Here we are with my whole family — that’s my mom and dad, Leanne and Steve, at right. Mom, and Dad, thank you so much for making our wedding so special! It was such an amazing day! We love you!
Here is the Avila crew: from left, Elisa, Tim, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Patti, Ken, me, and Tony. Patti is Ken’s mom’s sister, and this whole gang is just one of the best and most fun ever! Tim and Elisa got married in June 2006, and Ken and I took lots of notes at their wedding!
Hey, look at that! The Reverend Kyle D. Larson officiated at our ceremony. He is and always will be one of our very best friends. Thanks for doing such an awesome job, Kyle!
So this is the whole lot from Ken’s side of the family. From left Tony with his girlfriend Emmy, Elisa, Tim, Patti, Uncle David (Ken’s dad’s brother), Jerry, Janie (Ken’s mom and the best mother in law ever!), Bruce (Ken’s dad and the best father in law ever!), Ken, me, Josh, Kristi (my new sister in law! Mom to Josh and Jack), Mike (Ken’s brother, Kristi’s husband, Josh & Jack’s dad, my new bro in law), and Jack.
Me and my mom. She’s so pretty!
Olsons! Bruce, Janie, Ken, and Mike
Here’s Kyle chillin with my BFF Kim. Kim and I went to both college (UC Davis) and grad school (U of Oregon) together, and she’s lived in London for the past 6 years. BUT she’s going to move to Portland soon (right, Kim???). She flew to Portland from London for TWO DAYS just for the wedding.
Thank you, Ikea. Ken and I got the centerpiece stuff at Ikea and really loved them. We had picture frames from all of our travels together and of our pets, surrounded by chains of candles and flowers.
If you haven’t already noticed, the main color we worked with was purple (in lots of shades) because Ken loves those UW Huskies!!
That’s our guest book (note to friends who had too much wine that night: there is still time to sign the guest book!). It also included plenty of photos of our pets.
This is people arriving. At this time, I was hiding out in my room.
My new mother in law, Janie! She looks so great!! (Not to mention happy that Ken and I finally made it official!)
So here we are during the ceremony…
Ken and I wrote our own vows. I held Ken’s hand when he got choked up reading his.
Trooper that he is, though, he recovered and soon had everyone laughing.
Look, sweetie! We’re married! At this point, Ken and I hightailed it back to our room to chill for a second.
Here is Lani (Da Vinci) talking to my mom and sister. I think they’re probably talking about how awesome Lani is because she made Ken’s and my wedding cake as a gift! She’s an incredible pastry chef. Not only was the cake gorgeous, it was soooooo yummy!
Here is my husband with my father in law. Can’t tell the resemblance, can you? Just kidding…
Ken and Mike trying to figue out the marriage certificate. We still managed to fill it out incorrectly. Thank goodness for White-Out.
Here is Phuong and Kevin (Albina Press) and Kevin’s beautiful girlfriend, Erin.
Here is Stephen Vick (Stumptown) giving me a REALLY big hug!
Kyle makes our marriage official.
Hanna (Extracto) and her fiance John.
Billy and the ever lovely Caroline
Aaron Soenke Ruona (Stumptown), Lani and Brent. Why is Aaron shhhh-ing, you ask? Because Ken calls him Silent D. Long story.
Here is Jessica, Barista Mag’s awesome art director, and her boyfriend, Steven.
Here is Kristine (David Latourell’s wife), with Bjorg (my dear pal from Cafe Europa in Denmark), Stephen, and Bronwen (Hines).
Uncle Jerry gives the buffet a thumbs up! People loved the baked brie. Yum yum.
Jen Boelts (Batdorf), her husband, Brant, Heather Ringwood (Batdorf), and Dave White (Espresso Parts). These guys are so rockin!!
Here is our former neighbor and dear friend, Heidi, and her rugrat, Jack.
Here are our current neighbors and dear friends, Alex (he worked on the Ace build out), Soooooze and her brother Mike (Mike works at the Stumptown in the Ace).
Seriously, though, we really do know people who aren’t in the coffee industry. Proof: Dave (Ken’s fellow Husky fanatic, in green shirt at left), Julie (or as we call her, QT, Ken’s former roommate), and Julie’s partner, Joel.
This is Cheryl, one of Ken’s and my best friends. She goes back to the QT and Ken days in Portland. She started off the toasts, and set the bar high, as she wrote a cheer for us and performed it!!
Here is Mike giving us an awesome toast.
My super handsome dad giving us a politically charged toast.
Dave gave a great toast, too. Go Huskies!
My sis giving us a toast. Of course she made me cry.
My new sis, Kristi, gave us a beautiful toast!
Um, how poised were you when you were 11? Cuz Josh here takes the cake. He gave us a heartfelt toast that made us both tear up!
This is Ben! Ben is “my oldest friend” — no, just kidding. What I mean is, he’s the friend I’ve had the longest — since 6th grade — and he came up from San Francisco for the wedding. Part of his toast was telling everyone how I have ruined him for coffee now and he can only drink Ritual and Blue Bottle now. I call that success!
Matt Milletto (ABCs and Bellissimo) gave us a great toast. He was stoked to be at someone else’s wedding (his and Kylene’s was in August).
Doesn’t he look like he’s up to something?
It was so totally special to have Bjorg at our wedding!!
Check out that cake!! Lani made 150 individual chocolate flowers for the decor. The inside was chocolate cake with cherry filling on the bottom and raspberry filling in the top layers. Soooo friggin good!!
So a very unique component of the wedding was that our friends Tone Liavaag of Norway (Solberg & Hansen) and Sonja Grant of Iceland (Kaffitar) made us a movie to be played at the wedding in their absence. It was so funny! I’m going to try to figure out how to transfer it from the DVD to YouTube so I can post it here for you all to watch because it’s so hysterical. Anyone who knows how to do that, please feel free to leave me suggestions in the comments section.
This was our first dance. Ken picked the song: “Stars Go Blue” written by Ryan Adams and sung by Bono and the Corrs.
The after party began early. Here is Silent D buying whiskey.
The UK contingent: Giles, Johnny and Kim get down.
Can you tell how much fun we had? Thanks for looking at our pictures. It was the best day ever!!!
Mazol tov, you two! Lovely people and a lovely day. Wishing you every happiness!
Oh you lovely people! Sarah you look amazing and Ken as dashing as ever! Really wish we could have been there, and not just James via laptop. (Sorry bout that) London for the honeymoon? Open invitation any time, you know!
Lots of love, Anette and James
Wow Guys big love out to the both of you really liked the photos. Looks like a very special day for two very special people.
Congrat’s
Steve
Congratulations again Sarah and Ken! Looks like you had the best time and you both look beautiful!! We really wish we could have been there to share this day with you.
Hugs from Sigga Dóra and Klaus
Congratulations!
awe man, i missed out big time. sigh.
major congrats! you guys look awesome.