A Wedding Planner's Wedding: Kari

Our team thought it would be fun to share some memories from our own weddings as we kick off 2021. We hope you enjoy this series.

Kari and Tim - Mendenhall Glacier

My husband and I eloped on Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska with only an officiant, photographer, and helicopter pilot around us. We did not necessarily select an actual venue in the traditional sense. Knowing we had a cruise to Alaska booked after only dating for a few short months, I brainstormed ideas and came across a wedding coordinator who helped me map it out (being a wedding coordinator myself I knew that enlisting some local help was the way to go). My husband just went along with my crazy idea and off we went! First, we started with a cross-country flight to a cruise ship, jumped in a limo, then hopped aboard a helicopter to the glacier.

When I think about our wedding day I think about riding around with our photographer taking photos in unexpected places, like when our photographer carried me through water and placed me on top of a beaver dam with the glacier in the background... the adrenaline rush getting onto the helicopter and seeing my husband's face as he experienced a helicopter ride for the very first time... stepping off the glacier in snowshoes thinking to myself "You are in a dress, do not fall, do not fall, do not fall"... and chuckling at our photographer's reaction when we told him we planned to hike two miles in our wedding clothes to capture photos at the top of Mt. Roberts.

If I could change anything, and I really had to rack my brain to think of something, I would have made our ceremony shorter. I loved our custom vows, but everything else surrounding it could have been shorter. That would have given us the time to really stand there and take in all of the beauty that surrounded us. Fun fact, we did not realize it until many months later, but we never actually said "I Do." Whoops!

Whenever we think of our wedding day we always say it went by way too quickly, which is why we will be renewing our vows in the very same place in 2022 with our same wedding coordinator planning it and the same photographer capturing the moments. Only this time my parents will join us and our daughter as well.

Heather Canada Randall, MWP

After working in the hospitality industry, Heather Canada Randall founded First Coast Weddings in 2002. Heather is nationally recognized by the Association of Bridal Consultants as a top wedding planner. In addition to overseeing First Coast Weddings, she is the Sales & Marketing Director for Bowing Oaks, a Jacksonville wedding venue. A graduate of Flagler College, Heather is a sought-after wedding industry speaker and advisor to other planners across the country.


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