Jessica Liu and Sean Heckathorne tied the knot at the zoo July 7, 2017 in a joyous ceremony surrounded by their family and friends and we were absolutely thrilled to be part of it.
Fun Fact: Jessica booked the zoo for her wedding sight unseen!
Jessica and Sean planned their zoo wedding long distance. Sean lives in Dallas and Jessica was finishing up school in Philadelphia, so we adjusted our normal wedding planning timeline to take advantage of their visits to Syracuse to see Sean’s parents.
Jessica and Sean hired Joanna Young, aka JC Young Photography to capture all the special moments of their big day. Joanna’s photos have such a magical, fairy-tale quality about them and we absolutely love the end result! She stopped by for a site visit prior to the wedding and found some lovely areas around the zoo to pose this adorable couple.
The wedding party arrived early so they could take photos at the animal exhibits before the zoo closed for the day.
And Jessica stopped to visit our playful river otters.
Because of our animal collection, we have restrictions here at the zoo about flower girls throwing flower petals – unfortunately, we aren’t able to allow it. Jessica came up with the very sweet idea of having her flower girl hand individual fresh flowers to the guests as she walked down the aisle.
Jessica and Sean included the tradition of 1000 cranes in their ceremony. Japanese legend says that anyone who folds 1000 origami paper cranes will be granted happiness and eternal good luck. After all, who doesn’t want eternal good luck? Jessica and Sean spent the months before the wedding folding and stringing 1000 paper cranes to be used for their ceremony backdrop.
After the cocktail hour in the courtyard and the indoor zoo, guests headed into the banquet room for introductions, dinner and dancing.
After dinner and the cake cutting, Jessica changed into a gorgeous shimmery silver dress for dancing.
And they continued the fun Heckathorne family tradition of including the chicken dance in the festivities.
After the sun went down, Joanna captured more amazing shots of Sean and Jessica.
We wish the new Mr. and Mrs. Heckathorne a lifetime of love, lots of laughter and endless happiness. #HeckYes!
