Annette & Bruce

Real Weddings

Annette & Bruce

Nov. 7, 2010 at Herban Feast in Sodo Park

By:

Kristine Lloyd

photography by:

It took a mutual friend’s matchmaking orchestrations to ensure the parallel paths of Annette and Bruce finally crossed. For years, Annette, an actress, and Bruce, an actor, storyteller and programmer for Bellevue video game company Sucker Punch Productions, lived on Queen Anne within a few blocks of each other. Both began UW graduate school in 1989, Bruce used Annette’s voice for a video game character he helped develop in 2005 and yet they’d never met. Finally, in 2007, on a group get-together (arranged by the scheming matchmaker), Annette was charmed that Bruce carried a ring puzzle in his pocket from a math conference he’d recently attended; he was impressed at how quickly she solved it.

The couple’s fateful courtship wedding plans called for a weekend full of festivities. Family and friends were treated to a Friday-night rehearsal dinner, followed by a rooftop reception at the Smith Tower on Saturday for the out-of-towners. True to their playful personalities, the Queen Anne couple, both in their 40s, made sure their November wedding was full of surprises. The couple’s whimsical invitations, by Paper Moxie, showed the timeline of near misses and love connections with a pop-up detailing the big day. Morse code messages decorated the banquet tables, and puzzles, just like the one Bruce carried on their date, were given away as favors.

“We made it up ourselves,” Annette says, crediting their wedding planners, True Colors, with bringing their quirky vision to life. “You find so much out about the other person when you plan something together.” Such as the fact that Annette and Bruce both love fun fonts and fanciful décor: Old playbill type was featured in the programs, signs and menus sprinkled throughout Herban Feast’s Sodo Park venue.

Friend Jose Gonzales played the processional, then, during the vows, Bruce brandished a guitar after months of clandestine study and serenaded Annette with the song “Home” by Duncan Sheik, surprising everyone, especially his wife-to-be. After leading guests in a sing-along recessional to the song “Firefly” by The Half Brothers, the couple stole a moment together upstairs before rejoining friends and family for dinner.

After sitting down to a banquet featuring ravioli and rack of lamb, guests rocked to the tunes of local septet “Awesome.” A late-night sliders bar sated ravenous revelers. Bruce, with his burgeoning guitar repertoire, sang “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room” by Flight of the Conchords to his new wife.

Even though the jaw-dropping, architectural wonder of stacked cakes shaped like a giant Twinkie, Ho Ho and Ding Dong was eye-catching, the bride and groom were the main attraction. “It’s great to be pleasantly interrupted the entire time by friends and family,” says Bruce. And despite a room full of techies armed with iPhones, it was an 11-year-old girl who finally cracked the Morse code (the solutions, as unpredictable as the duo: “wallaby” and “password”). That’s the kind of unexpected surprise the couple’s magical day delivered.

Bridal gown: Nicole Miller sheath dress, with crystal pins and red cocktail dress for the reception, both from Luly Yang Couture | Groom's apparel: Wall Street Custom Clothiers | Cake: The People’s Cake | Catering: Herban Feast | Florals and lighting: Flora Nova | Invitation, menus, signs & programs: Paper Moxie | Hair: Shine in the Market | Makeup: Stacya Silverman & Associates | Music: Processional, Jose Gonzales; reception, “Awesome” | DJ: DJ Sean with Seattle Parties | Registry: I Do Foundation | Rentals: Rented Elegance | Rings: Jeanine Payer from Fini | Wedding Planner: True Colors Events