Calm, collected couple tie the knot
After months of gathering recyclables, pair trade 400,000 cans for two ‘I do’s
When Andrea Parrish was 6 years old, she wasn’t yet dreaming about her wedding day. Instead, she was petitioning the mayor of Blackfoot, Idaho, to start a recycling program.
The groom came later, and luckily Peter Geyer shared Parrish’s passion for recycling. The couple collected more than 400,000 cans to pay for their wedding Saturday at the Corbin Art Center. It took them six months, 15 days to raise about $4,000 with help from friends and family, and people who heard the story after Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark wrote about their goal. In the month before the wedding, the porch of the couple’s home was consumed by aluminum.
“It feels like a test we’ve been studying for for way too long and need to take,” Parrish said.
On their website, www.weddingcans.com, the couple said they wanted a “community-centered, homemade celebration of family and friends.”
Parrish’s mother, Angelen, designed a four-tiered cake that incorporated the design of the couple’s wedding bands. The symbols they chose for their union were waves, mountains, flames and wind gusts.
The wedding photos will be donated by Seattle-based Plank Pictures Photography. Owner Catherine Jacola said she wants to donate her services for one wedding each year, and heard about Parrish and Geyer’s wedding through the website www.offbeatbride.com.
“Andrea’s making it happen,” Jacola said. “What better way to give back to this couple on their day?”
Parrish’s sister-in-law worked on the flower arrangements, and the mutual friend who introduced the couple officiated their handfasting ceremony, a Celtic tradition in which friends and family tie knots around the bride and groom’s hands.
The wedding had a medieval theme – Geyer and Parrish participate in a club called the Empire of Adria, which re-enacts medieval traditions. Parrish wore a traditional dress she designed. Members of the club attended in full garb. One of the members brought a trebuchet, or wooden catapult, used to launch the bouquet.
Geyer and Parrish laughed and hugged guests on the wraparound porch of the Corbin House. The matron of honor, Jasspenelle Stewart, commented on their low-stress day.
“You can tell they love each other by how relaxed they are. There was no 3 a.m. phone call from Andrea stressed about the marriage,” she said.
Even minutes before walking down the aisle, Parrish was calm.
“The worst-case scenario is that you end up married. If you end up married, everything else is tertiary,” she said.