Raleigh Wedding Planners Helped This Couple Celebrate Chinese Traditions

Cort and Catherine are both UNC grads, but the pair didn’t cross paths until they met at a mutual friend’s wedding. A spark between them led to a long-distance relationship; Cort later proposed at the couple’s favorite park in Austin, Texas, where they’d moved in together with their dogs Bao and Miso. Cort and Catherine married at downtown Raleigh’s Market Hall on July 29, 2023, after a rehearsal dinner at nearby Jiddi Space & Courtyard.

Raleigh Wedding Ceremony and Reception Celebrating Chinese Culture

The pair hired Catherine’s childhood friend, Vui Co. owner Diane Wolk, to plan a day that honored their love as well as Catherine’s German and Chinese heritage.

“As soon as we got engaged, I called her,” Catherine says. “I knew that, culturally, she could execute our vision.” Diane’s wedding planning business is celebrates her own cultural heritage as a Vietnamese American.

Catherine chose a red dress that offered “a take on a modern qipao,” she says. She and her bridesmaids carried traditional Chinese fans in lieu of flowers. Cort and Catherine, following Diane’s guidance, decorated Market Hall’s ballroom with hanging lanterns and parasols.

Guests enjoyed a Chinese takeout station provided by Market Hall’s in-house catering team, which, combined with the venue’s downtown location, drew the couple to book the refurbished warehouse.

A red silk cloth from Catherine’s grandmother, Ivy Lee, adorned the sweetheart table. The gift was signed by Chinese family members who weren’t able to attend Ivy’s marriage to Catherine’s grandfather, William Lee, which inspired Catherine and Cort to ask their friends and family to sign a similar cloth rather than a guest book.