Come Away With Me: A Breathtaking Celebration On The Hood Canal

Hunter Jeffers, an attorney at Foster Pepper, began dating Lauren Cascio, a design director in mixed reality at Microsoft, when they were both students attending the University of Washington. Rather than rushing into things after college, Hunter attended law school, and Lauren accepted a job in New York City. After three years of dating across the country, zipping between JFK and Sea-Tac every six weeks, Hunter proposed to Lauren as they were surrounded by their parents and siblings over a family dinner.

The couple dreamed of an oceanfront wedding, at a venue by the water with a beautiful backdrop they could make their own. After a lot of venue research, they trimmed their initial guest list of 500 down to a mere 100 and asked Lauren’s aunt and uncle if they could use their beach house at Hood Canal, where she had spent summers as a kid. “It was the perfect place, and they bent over backwards to help us. They made it all happen.”

Wedding planner Sinclair & Moore Events perfectly executed the couple’s vision for a waterside wedding. Guests gathered along two levels of deck to gaze out at the floating ceremony site, which was lined with flickering candles. A mix of glimmering seashells were used in lieu of flowers as decor. For dinner, wooden table runners sat atop linens overflowing with delicate seashells and candles of varying heights. A simple, tiered white cake set atop driftwood looked effortlessly elegant.

As guests arrived, they were greeted at the property with Aperol spritzers. For the “docktail” hour following the ceremony, they sipped rosé while sampling local cherries and oysters on the half shell. Dinnertime was inspired by Lauren’s family Sunday-dinner tradition and included Dungeness crab, pulled from the nearby canal that morning, served with sides of summer corn, stone fruit salad, potato salad and pesto-covered green beans. Toasts were opened with a gorgeous overflowing Champagne tower before the party got started.