Backyard Wedding – In My Cul de Sac

My neighbors got married last night in their backyard… and believe it or not, there were more local connections beside the Snoqualmie location…..

I don’t know my neighbors that well.  They are a very nice, young couple.  I do know they enjoy their yard like we do ours.  They have put a lot of time, effort, sweat and (I would guess) money – as have we.  We live in a moderate Ridge neighborhood.  Most of us moved in to no backyards. The choices were do it yourself or pay the builder to do it.  In my opinion, doing it yourself assures you know how it was done and more importantly, control that it is done right.

My neighbors used a local Snoqualmie landscape company.  It’s a company I have used in the past… and one I tried to use when we put in our yard two years ago.  When it came to our yard, Lee, the company’s owner and old neighbor, realized my initial project was too big for him so handed me off to a friend’s company.  I ended up using his friend’s company for thousands of dollars of landscape work.  I still respect Lee to this day for referring me to someone more qualified for my large boulder rockery…. even though he lost a big job.

When my “marrying neighbors” came to me last summer asking for landscape company recommendations for their yard I recommended Lee.  They ended up using his company.  He transformed their large, down-sloped space into an amazing, terraced backyard.  Then he came back this spring and transformed their front yard.  It no longer looks like a builder (or at least our builder) grade front yard.

I got a chance to talk to Lee a couple months ago and complimented him on the landscape next door – and got to finally show him my finished yard. While chatting he told me how my neighbors decided to landscape their yard and then get married in it – instead of spending tons of money on a big wedding…. which I thought was so cool!

So the wedding was last night…. and the sun finally came out almost when the ceremony began.    It was a small ceremony under a garden arbor.   On the Ridge you can usually see part your neighbor’s yard from some window in your house.  Our cul de sac is no exception.   My kids were “wedding stalkers” last night.  They watched the wedding from my son’s bedroom window.  I saw the bride while she was walking into her backyard.  I had just been running and she was in a wedding gown getting ready to walk down her grass aisle.  I told her how beautiful she looked and that my kids were stalking the wedding from the upstairs window.  She laughed,  waved up at them and then proceeded to the arbor alter.

Have I mentioned I love where I live?  You can connect with new neighbors over landscaping.  You get to recommend landscapers who were old neighbors who in turn transform a yard into something fit for a beautiful backyard wedding.   You get to go for a Saturday evening run in a beautiful place and come home to neighbors getting married next door.   Maybe they didn’t have a huge wedding, but the trade off was a beautifully landscaped backyard where they began their married life….. what a memory!

It definitely wasn’t your average Saturday night on our cul de sac.  I can’t say it any other way except that it was just so cool!

I am going to have to start a new blog page for landscape contractors I would use again.  If you have ever seen my yard you would know I used lots of contractors…. so check back soon!