Romantic Wedding with a Candlelit Circle Ceremony in the Woods

Niko and Drew's wedding was held at Kingston House, a grand mid-century home on Washington's Kitsap Peninsula. Because it did require many to travel via ferry, Niko and Drew hosted a two-hour cocktail hour to kick off the festivities to ensure everyone had arrived for their ceremony.

The handsome grooms dressed in Brooks Brothers, Niko opting for windowpane check and Drew in charcoal gray. “We wanted simple, classic, and yet fun,” they say. As guests arrived, glasses of Champagne lined the driveway for them to scoop up on their way to the celebration, where activities awaited such as oversized lawn games and an interactive guest book canvas for guests to paint their well wishes.

Niko and Drew walked themselves down the aisle along with their three pups, to a candlelit circle ceremony nestled in the middle of the woods, where only their guests and the towering Douglas firs surrounded them. “Saying I do in the rain, as friends encircled us was probably the peak of emotion.”

After exchanging vows, the grooms jumped a handmade broom, an African American wedding tradition that same-sex couples symbolically adopted before equality was legalized, and is now also done within the LGBTQ+ community as a nod to those civil rights movements.

Following the ceremony, guests dined on tablescapes lined with lush greenery, floating candles and moss, bringing the forest setting indoors. In lieu of a first dance, the newlyweds performed a “first song,” karaoke-style, with the evening finishing up with s'mores around a campfire.