If you attended our wedding and took photos and videos we need them!!
We’re using WeddingMix to create a wedding video from all of the videos (and photos) you shot on your phones or cameras. But, if you didn’t use the WeddingMix App on your phone, don’t fret, you can still share your videos with very easily. Just download the app now, input our code: ALLSUTTONEDUP, select “Add photo or video” and then choose “import.” Or, if you used a standalone camera, instead of using a DVD or USB drive, you just upload your content directly to our wedding using this link: http://www.storymixmedia.com/weddingmix/app/add.php?upload_key=15PQ (500mb limit per file).
Thank you so much! We’re excited to share the video that YOU helped create!
We went to Spokane a week ago and met with 4 photographers in the area (3 in Spokane, 1 in Coeur d’Alene) and they were all amazing! We had a great time talking weddings, photography, chicken wings and Fireball and, by the end of the day we were really sad it wasn’t possible to have four photographers!
So if you’re looking for a photographer, make sure you check out Allie and Jerome, they’re seriously awesome!
But we ended up going with Tag Photography simply because Michael’s style and inspiration seemed to match ours the most closely. It was seriously so heartbreaking to have to tell people that we genuinely like and admire that we went with someone else, but we’re excited about our decision.
So what happens with last names when two ladies or two gentlemen get married? That’s a great question! To answer requires a brief history on the name-changing tradition…
Historically, when a woman married a man she would take his surname or family name in order to signify that she is becoming a part of his family. The idea of two becoming one is a sweet and important idea, but the significance is actually much greater than that. It involves a legal principle called “coverture.” This doctrine dictated that, after marriage, a woman relinquished her legal rights to property and ownership (even of herself) to her husband. That is to say, she and all of the children she made with her husband were his property. Obviously these laws were challenged and overturned during First Wave Feminism. The tradition of taking a husband’s name continues, however, til this day.
Most modern couples find this practice merely a traditional part of marriage and inoffensive. Others retain their own birth names or create hybrid or hyphenated forms of their last names after marriage. This is a very personal decision and I personally don’t think there’s a “wrong” way to do it.
Every same-sex couple approaches this differently, some retain their birth names in order to combat the idea of imposed gender roles in a same-sex marriage (he’s the “wife” or she’s the “husband”), others use some of the other methods above.
Blah, blah, angry feminist, what does that mean for you?
Since neither of us “owns” the other and equality is a hallmark of our relationship, we have considered every option. We decided early on that, even though we also want to resist the ideas of imposed gender roles (more on that another day), it is important that we share a last name to celebrate the fact that we truly are legally (yay, Washington!) becoming a single family unit! Hyphenated names don’t appeal to us though. We briefly considered a hybridization of our last names: “Brutton” has a lovely British sound, doesn’t it? Much nice than the alternative, “Sewer.” But, honestly, we’re not edgy enough for that and it felt a little bit like abandoning our family names altogether.
I actually finally decided that I (Sarah) would take Holly’s last name after we get married. Although Holly was willing to take my last name, we decided it made more sense for us to use hers. I’ll be keeping my maiden name as a second middle name.
So!
All that to say, you can address your wedding cards to Mrs & Mrs Sutton!
Okay, so it’s not exactly a surprise, Holly and I have been talking about getting married for about 8 months. We picked out rings together a few months ago so this wasn’t a total surprise. Still, for all of that Holly did a good job catching me off guard.
The Set Up
Like I said, Holly and I picked out our rings months ago. Originally, I thought my ring was way too expensive for people “like us” (we don’t pull in six figures a year), but Holly has a background in fine jewelry retail and she is a big believer in grand gestures. It was important to her, and that meant a lot to me. So I took one for the team and “allowed” her to get it for me, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely in love with it. So she’s been making payments on the ring for a few months, but has mentioned it will probably be a little while before she bring it home. I was thinking November/December at the earliest.
Holly’s sister and cousin live in Portland and have not been home since the holidays, so they “decided” to come visit this weekend. So on Thursday, I got this message from Holly’s mom:
Holly has been saying for weeks how busy it is at work and how her supervisor has said they will be working weekends for the next few months. She’s already asked for several weekends off this summer, so the odds of her not having to work are slim to none (which is true). Sure enough, she said she was going to have to work Saturday until 11pm.
Our friend Hanna recently moved to Seattle and has been talking about wanting to come home and visit us for a while so last week she also announced she was going to be home as well but had a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Holly suggested she drop Hanna and I off at the barbecue on her way to work, Hanna would hang out for a while, head to her party and then Holly would pick both of us up that night after she got off work.
That morning, as I was getting ready both Holly and Hanna kept giving me hints about what to wear:
“Wear your ‘Legalize Love’ shirt that I got you, Mom will love it!”
“When was the last time you wore that necklace Holly got you? You should wear it, it’s so pretty.”
“Baby, I love those sparkly tunnels. You just found them and still haven’t worn them, please? They’re my favorite.”
Haha.
All day Holly had been complaining about not wanting to work. As we passed her work on the highway, she even said “Ugh! I’ll see you later [name of work].” She even went so far as to put her work shoes in the car and put on her employee badge. She also kept talking about how much she had to go to the bathroom.
“Babe, you went right before you left!”
“Don’t make fun of my microbladder!”
(Honestly, this didn’t surprise me, she DOES have a microbladder!)
About halfway through the drive Hanna kept complaining about how she couldn’t find her phone.
“I swear, you guys, I’m having the blondest week! I’ve locked my keys in my car (which is true), I’ve lost my phone like 5 times (not true), I think it might have fallen under the seat.”
The next part was totally unplanned. I have a kind of embarrassing soft spot for Taylor Swift and, not 5 minutes before we reach Holly’s parents house, the song Love Story came on the radio. And, yes, I know all the words. For some reason, I was feeling incredibly romantic, so I started belting it out in the car:
“Romeo, save me, I’ve been feeling so alone.
I keep waiting for you but you never come.
Is this in my head? I don’t know what to think.”
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said…
“Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone.
I love you, and that’s all I really know.
I talked to your dad – go pick out a white dress
It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘Yes.'”
I mean, I was really getting into it. I had goosebumps and I was almost crying by the time it was over. Adorkably perfect, right? I’m getting weepy watching the video right now… Okay…I’m good.
So we pulled up to Holly’s parents’ house and my soon-to-be fiancee rushes inside to relieve her microbladder while I start digging around in the car looking for Hanna’s phone. She finally just asked me to call it, 5 seconds later her boobs start to ring.
Haha, let’s all laugh at how blonde Hanna is…
Meanwhile Holly comes back out the front door and take us around the side of the house to the backyard.
My first thought as I walked out was, “Where is everybody?” So I turned around and saw a wall of about 50 people standing on the deck, half of them with phones out and pointed at me. I waited for everyone to yell, “Surprise!” or something, but they just stared at me as I frantically tried to remember if it was my birthday (my birthday was two months ago).
Thank god for smartphones because I now have this awesome video of the rest of the proposal.
The best part of the whole day, narrowly beaten by the “getting engaged” part, was having so may people who love and support us there. I was so happy that we got to share this moment with (almost) all the people who have been there for us through everything. The fact that people went out of their way to be there was so humbling. It made me realize (again) just how blessed I am to have you people in my life.
And truly, there are many more who fit this profile who just weren’t able to be there, our phones were blowing up with messages of congratulations. I promise, every single Facebook “like” or comment, every text, every single smiley face or exclamation point meant so much to me. I love you all so, so much.
From Holly’s Facebook. Within 3 hours we had 200 “likes.”
Sarah and Holly 