Real Weddings: Plaid in Portland

Caitlin Burkhart is currently in the curatorial practice program at California College of the Arts. Her husband, Mackenzie Schubert, is an illustrator and graphic designer who draws comics on Plain Comics. The couple has recently started selling wedding decorations and design work at Like Fun.

After dating for almost seven years, Mackenzie and I got married on July 14, 2013. We had been living in Michigan while Mac attended graduate school, and he proposed during our drive back to Oregon. We knew we wanted to tie the knot in Oregon, surrounded by family, so we didn’t waste any time in the planning stages.

Mac and I love the outdoors, and we wanted the wedding to feel easy, warm, and summery. We chose our venue – McMenamin’s Cornelius Pass Roadhouse – for its huge octagonal barn, which was built in 1913. The property is hidden away in the suburbs and functioned as a family farmstead until the late ’60s.

We tried to aim for clean and simple decorations and let nature do the rest of the work. Everything started with our color palette (red, yellow, and grey) and evolved from there. When it comes to design, Mac and I tend to have similar taste, which made the process not only painless but also incredibly fun!

Mackenzie illustrated, designed and printed all of the invitations, while I worked on the little flags that we wrapped around them. Mac also designed and built all of the signs and centerpieces (with help from his father and friends) in the basement of his grandparents’ house. We borrowed some of the vintage decor from our parents and grandparents, and my mother sewed all of the striped table runners.

The decorations inside of the barn were also all DIY: I made the bunting out of coffee filters and twine; Mac’s mother crafted the flowers on the walls from tissue paper, and and his sister hand-lettered all of the names for the seating chart on paint chips. In keeping with the aesthetic of the paper flowers, we ordered dried flower bouquets and boutonnieres from Danielle Marie of Three Little Birds.

My maid of honor Alyssa and I made over a thousand sea salt caramels in my mom’s kitchen, and all of the cakes were made by Papa Haydn bakery in Portland, Oregon. Mac designed the cake topper to match the table numbers and centerpieces.

The wedding was a huge labor of love and we couldn’t have done it without all the friends and family who pitched in to help!

All photographs by Jamie Street and Michelle Pullman from Rad & In Love; wedding coordinated by Rebekah McNall of A & B Style.