An Alaska wedding: Keeping it simple in Seldovia

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Focus Unbound Photographers photos courtesy Danielle Dillon

Danielle Dillon had to give up on her wedding shoes, which were filled with "little mini boulders" by the time she made her way down the aisle.

We're not getting married outside, so it must have been fate that made me click on the link to this Offbeat Bride post about how to accentuate an aisle at an outdoor wedding -- and the unmistakably Alaskan photo of a beach aisle lined with stems of fireweed. A few more clicks led me to Danielle Dillon, the laid-back Fairbanks bride at whose seaside Seldovia wedding the fireweed photo was snapped. This is her wedding story.

Danielle met Matthew Dillon, now her husband, in the laundry room on the seventh floor of their dorm at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He was there to help her with her calculus homework. After some uncertainty and a false start or two, they started dating in 2003, and Matt proposed in December 2007.

Danielle didn't run right out and start shopping for dresses, though.

"There was a sheer lack of planning for quite a while," she said, "and then all of a sudden several decisions started coming together." The couple knew they wanted to get married near a body of water, and Seldovia came to mind because Matt had been there a few times growing up. Soon after Matt and Danielle settled on Seldovia for their August 2009 wedding, Matt's dad took a job as the Kachemak Bay community's city manager, which made things a little bit easier.

"For us, it really was important to keep it simple," Danielle said. They planned the wedding from Fairbanks. They didn't even visit Seldovia until March 2009 -- five months before their big day.

"(We weren't) sweating stuff like flowers and party favors and all that other nonsense, because no one really cares about that," Danielle said. "The little things that you think are so important in the middle of it are just not." They bought her bouquet at Safeway. There were no programs, no wedding favors, no chair covers, no elaborate centerpieces. Danielle found her dress for $90 at Target.com, and Matt bought a suit in Anchorage. They planned a small, short ceremony on a city-owned beach, officiated by a mutual friend. About 15 friends and family members came from Fairbanks, Anchorage and Idaho.

Matthew and Danielle Dillon kept costs low for their simple Seldovia wedding, but they splurged on photography -- a decision Danielle couldn't be happier about.

If you've spent much time on the Kenai Peninsula in late summer, you won't be surprised to hear that it rained on the day of the wedding. Really rained.

"It was raining cats and dogs," Danielle said. "It was, like, horizontal rain. It was coming off the ocean. It was freezing."

Aided by friends, family members and the photographer, Matt prepared the beach for the wedding, including laying out the fireweed aisle borders (an idea volunteered by their marriage commissioner's husband), while Danielle got ready at their hotel. When the time came, Danielle's dad drove over and picked her up. He parked behind a bluff near the beach and escorted Danielle down the rocky, rainy aisle, holding an umbrella and helping her navigate in less-than-beach-friendly footwear.

"I had these really beautiful shoes that I wanted to wear," Danielle said. "It wasn't a particularly good idea, but we made it through. My dad and I teeter-tottered down this aisle that the boys had made."