Tag Archives: washington wedding photography

KIM + JOE | HOUGHTON LAKE WEDDING

UK couple referred to an Oregon photographer by an Australian photographer for a Michigan wedding. Because internet. It’s amazing how small the world can be… and I love how you can make friends across the globe with this job. It’s a weighty responsibility to figure out my clients in short order, document their joys and sadness, and provide images that will last forever to remind their great grandchildren that they are a product of this sacred day. It’s a responsibility that also happens to be one of my greatest privileges. It’s also interesting how some of the photographs we can smile at and quickly pass over become treasures as life moves along. We lose people we love. We see friends marry. Siblings move across the globe. Babies are born. As a wedding photographer you just have to hope you find the heart and soul of the couple and their loved ones, because that’s the point. Not the details, not the food. I want couples to have the ability to share the images and let people experience the day as if they were there, and to have a visual remembrance for the rest of their days. If I’m lucky, even strangers can smile and feel like they know a little bit about the people… if I’m really lucky.

USA meets UK with this couple. The London bloke and the Michigan gal. It’s always fun to see the cultural differences at weddings, and I am a big fan of the British toast/roast of the groom format. Dry British humor just makes my day, thank goodness the toasts are so much longer overseas, it gives them time to really set the jokes up 🙂

Houghton Lake was perfect, and it provided the setting for two of my most memorable moments from this wedding season: waist deep in the lake shooting the couple in a rowboat by moonlight, and a massive midnight wrestling match in the water that all started with the groom getting tossed from the dock. Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for getting in the water to shoot, so yeah, I was in my happy place. Thanks to Joe and Kim for letting me be a part of this amazing day, I will honestly remember it as a favorite so long as I hold a camera in my hands. A bonus thank you to my homie Rob who hooked us up from the other side of the world (never underestimate the gesture of offering to do a friend a favor because they ask for help on Facebook 😉 ).

BENJ + MADDIE + 4 YEARS | TACOMA WEDDING

It’s been 4 years since Benj and Maddie were married. I can’t even begin to explain how much I love these guys, and how much Benj’s friendship has meant to me. In 2008, we were simply Flickr friends, and beyond a mutual admiration for each others work, we really had no points of connection. Little did I know that this would end up being one of my favorite weddings, and a couple of my favorite people, not to mention the wedding photographer I would choose if I were getting married today. The things I remember most from the wedding are all great stories on their own, but together they build a broader narrative of love and commitment. This is in large part what a wedding photographer does. We tell a story that could never contain everything you need to know about the couple, their families, and their friends… but it’s a snapshot. It’s a teaser or a trail of breadcrumbs for other people, in order to get the conversation started. For the people directly involved, it is a reminder that life “can be whatever you want it to be.” It is a window that shows both the past and causes you to wonder about and plan the future. That’s the story we try to tell. I have no idea what Benj and Maddie’s story will look like in 5, 10 or 15 years. All I know, as I approach my own 15th anniversary, is that they have both chosen wonderful companions for the adventure.

Some of my favorite moments:

  • Maddie’s starbucks cup save the date idea
  • The very detailed card Maddie made Benj, explaining how he would now replace the teddy bear as her long time sleeping companion
  • Benj official relieving the teddy of his duties 😉
  • The pearl ring which is a new family heirloom
  • High school girls love them some romance. The looks on their faces as the newly married couple kisses outside the sanctuary kills me every time
  • The Canon cake
  • The party-foul… drink spilled on the best man’s sleeve. Who’s the blame, the best man or the planner? 🙂
  • Um, fireworks.

I sat at dinner with Benj and Maddie last weekend (we have a shared affection/obsession for Indochine) and talked a bit about their anniversary, and possible plans for their future and couldn’t help but smile at all they have to look forward to. It’s also Benj’s birthday, so go give him some love on his facebook page. Shooting and editing styles change, but I will never stop loving this wedding. High five to my Washington homies, here’s to 64 more anniversaries.

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A+C | BELLINGHAM WEDDING

This Bellingham event embodies so much of what resonates with me at weddings. Deep, emotional responses to the moments of the day. Authentic smiles, not the learned school-picture-day business we all offer most cameras. Great dancing. Personal connections. Wearing her grandmother’s gloves. Faith, coupled with excitement for what could be. Boys making bad decision and sinking on a dock 😉  She works at a food bank. He nervously switched legs before the first look. She hugged the kids she nannies like they were her own. He danced with reckless abandon. The bridesmaid trying to give away the bouquet, apparently uncomfortable with the marital implications. There were so many honest moments, but these three are my favorites.

1) Near Bellingham, there is a rock that people often paint with messages for special events. I love bookends at weddings. I want a good starting image, and a nice ending image to finish the story. Sometimes I get better bookends than others, but it is my goal. A couple of the bridesmaids called me as I drove up from Oregon and tipped me off that they did some work on the rock, and I thought the rock painted by the bride and her girls was perfect. The morning of the wedding I drove out to the rock, which was back out the highway, very much not on my way, but I felt like I NEEDED that shot to start it off right. So I drove. And I saw nothing. I looped around again. I saw nothing. I called one of the bridesmaids, whose wedding I am photographing this summer, and got some really poor directions (assigning full blame here), plus a description of the colors, etc. Nothing. One more pass is all I had time for before I had to head back into town for the getting ready shots, and then I saw it. The purple had been covered up already. I had to laugh… all that effort for a picture of someone else’s rock 🙂 Perfect. (props to bridesmaid Grace for the shots of the rock pre-Justin)

2) The bride’s mother is a florist, and has made countless bouquets and boutonnieres, and I am sure she also cannot count the amount of times she has pinned  boutonniere on a groom. On this particular day, she got to pin one onto her new family member. “Of all the boutonnieres I have put on before, I think this one is my favorite.”

3) After the ceremony, the couple’s recessional took them up stairs to an open area where she absolutely nailed the perfect “I just got married and I am so happy I will now cry” moment. An all-time favorite for me, and it was enough for me to get teary, too.

Now, the bride and her roommates have been in front of my camera before, for a personal project that was just for funsies. It’s a photogenic bunch, and although the cast of roommates has evolved, I wanted to include a couple here because I have always loved the images, and it was the first time I met her. By the way, all the dresses were from Goodwill, or Value Village, and if memory serves me.. none of the girls spent more than $10.

Much love to the families having me.

VENUE – PRIVATE RESIDENCE IN BELLINGHAM WASHINGTON

DEAR JUSTIN AND ASHLEE, YOU ARE THE WORST.

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