A beautiful spot
THE MICHELLE WROBLE & MATTHEW ANGELL WEDDING
O
STORY BY DWIGHT CASWELL • PHOTOS BY BRYCE JENKINSON
n Saturday, Aug. 15, Michelle Wroble
was at her family home on the Long
Beach Peninsula. She awoke to rain
and thick fog, what she calls, “a dreary,
typical Peninsula day, more like
November than August.” She was getting
married the next day in Astoria, but she
wasn’t worried. She thought, “It’s crummy today,
but it can be beautiful tomorrow.”
And it was. When she stood with her husband-to-be
beneath the bridge in the Maritime Memorial Park, before
150 family and friends, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky,
18 | RIVER & SEA WEDDINGS 2016
and the view of the Columbia River and Washington was
the perfect backdrop for the wedding.
The view of the Columbia River
and Washington was the perfect
backdrop for the wedding.
The couple had decided to marry in Astoria because
of those 150 guests. There are few options in the area for
a group that size, and Michelle had decided years before
that it was at the park that she wanted to be married. “It’s
a beautiful spot,” she says, “and it really showed the area
for all the out-of-towners.”
There was another reason, as well: “My grandpa,
Norman Grier, walked me down the aisle, and he worked
on the bridge as a civil engineer.”
The choice of the reception venue was an easy one,
considering the location of the ceremony. The Red
Building had sufficient capacity, was only a short walk
from the park, and as a restored cannery building it was a
good fit for the “vintage” theme Michele wanted for her
wedding. >>