Kelly and Shaun were one of the most fun couples I have photographed for a while and it was a hoot to watch them together. They were married in March aboard The historic MV Skansonia on the north shore of Lake Union and are so very much in love. A selection below are some highlights from their wedding on the MV Skansonia one of my favorite wedding venues.

Craig and Katie and family and friends at their wedding

Here are some pictures from the indoor wedding ceremony of Katie and Craig who were married at the Red Barn Studios near Chehalis Washington on a cold, snowy and rainy day in March. I was assisting Laurie who was the main photographer at the wedding. Because of the weather, we made 2 different panoramic large group wedding portraits. The first one, above was shot indoors right after the ceremony.  Later on during the reception, the weather cleared up and everyone went out and we made a second panorama on the deck of the barn, the last image at the bottom of this post. Below is a picture of Laurie at work making some formal portraits with her chickens and a turkey in the background.

 Jason and Laurie Dix  converted their 1937 gothic barn, a former dairy barn into a unique venue intended for weddings, retreats, and other social gatherings with the help and support of friends and family. It is a wonderful place for a wedding in all kinds of weather.

In more temperate weather the 25 acre property has wonderful places for outdoor ceremonies and receptions including a natural amphitheater not far from the Red Barn. But in every month of the year if you are planning a wedding it is always prudent to have a plan B and Red Barn Studios has a great one. For some people they are also  in a perfect location about halfway between Seattle and Portland, not far from I-5.

 Since 1997 I have been professionally photographing weddings and have been to hundreds of weddings.  American weddings are great to photograph and I have seen them evolve over the years as people see fit to define how they want to arrange their wedding. Some strictly follow tradition and many feel free to improvise. There is something very special about traditional Indian weddings.  No other culture has such elaborate rituals and ceremonies lasting days and such festive garments all of which make photographing them a radical departure from American weddings.   I had the pleasure to photograph the wedding of Namita Singh and Gauhar Junnarkar at The Golf Club at Newcastle. Their wedding was a traditional Indian Hindu wedding with three days of festivities starting on Thursday with the Mehndi ceremony, one of the most important pre-wedding rituals especially for the bride. It was a fun and festive ritual, at Namita’s home with family and friends with the women wearing vivid colors. There was a a professional henna artist applying the mehndi to Namita and some of the other women as well. The designs are fascinating and the really good henna artists hide the name of the groom in the intricacies of the design.

Friday night the celebration of  Namita and Gauhar’s wedding continued at the Bainbridge Island Community Center with more dancing and feasting.

Finally on Saturday, October 8th they had a  Hindu wedding ceremony at  The Golf Club at Newcastle. The weather was splendid and the light was grand. The Golf Club has a great white tent where the wedding ceremony took place and it was amazingly decorated with numerous flowers.

Before people began to arrive, Namita and Gauhar  and I went around the grounds and made some pictures with the beautiful scenery in the  background. The views from Newcastle are wonderful if the weather is clear and it was slightly hazy, but still very nice that day. In the traditional Indian manner, Gauhar mounted a horse ( if an elephant is not available) and with members of his family traveled around the grounds of Newcastle accompanied by music and drumming and dancing.  They finally arrived at the entrance of the Clubhouse and were formally greeted by Namita’s family. Then they all proceed to enter the tent for the ceremony.  Gauhar and the priests Mr Dilip Bhatt and Pandit Mahesh Shastriji entered along with almost everyone except the bride. The Hindu ceremony was performed according to Vedic traditions in the Sanskrit language. It was a relatively long ceremony made up of 16 different rituals. After the Hindu ceremony there was a cocktail hour on the terrace and then a formal dinner inside the main ballroom.

Here are some of the highlights of their wedding festivities beginning with the Mehndi and on through the end of the festivities on Saturday night.

Here is a link to Namita and Gauhar’s  previous post of their The Golf Club at Newcastle Wedding. I would like to give a shout out to videographer Aaron Horton of  Aaron Horton Productions who was a pleasure to work with. A real professional to work with. Would like to see his film with it is done. Finally hats offf to Erik Franklin and his staff at The Golf Club at Newcastle. They operate a really first class venue. One of the finest.

Jennifer and Polachi Sakchalathorn were married on the first Saturday in September at the beautiful orchard at the Farm Kitchen, an 18-acre organic farm near Poulsbo.  Jennifer and Polachai were lucky that the weather was warm and sunny  and so were the smiles. Polachai is from Thailand, known to travelers to Southeast Asia as the Land of Smiles. East Meets West. Deep in Love. Hard to settle on a title for their wedding day. 

Jennifer was glowing in her beautiful wedding dress that looked like a cloud.

Jennifer and Polachai celebrated their marriage with a ceremony that incorporated part western ceremony and part Buddhist wedding ceremony. The Thai traditional water ceremony, (or in Thai, Rod Nam Sang) which involved the bride and groom sitting side by side at a special table. Then their family and guests, led by the most respected elders, had the opportunity to bestow their individual blessings. They did this, one by one, by gently pouring water from a conch shell over the hands of the couple. The water passes through the hands of the bride and groom and into a bowl filled with flowers, (typically lotus flowers which symbolize fertility) beneath. It was serene and evocative mixing the  Buddhist wedding ceremony with the western ceremony. Annemarie Juhlian was the wedding officiant who melded the two cultures together with ease.

After some pictures and a fine dinner, Jennifer and Polachai danced a lot to some great live music. However, it was Jennifer’s grandfather who seemed to be out on the dance floor more than anyone. Whenever I looked, he was dancing with a different partner. He really knows how to move.

Here are some highlights from a wonderful wedding on a beautiful day.

Jennifer’s unique bouquet and other flowers were by the amazing Rebecca Slattery of Persephone Farms.  The reception had everyone out on the dance floor dancing to the awesome swing band JAVATOWN SWING ORCHESTRA lead by the talented Seattle vocalist, trumpet player and band leader Jake Bergevin.  Essence of the Thymes provided the wonderful catering. They really know how to cook. Krista Herman of Wishes Weddings & Events helped plan their wedding day for them. Monica Frisell assisted as my second photographer. Here are some highlights from a wonderful wedding on a beautiful day. At the bottom is an extended slideshow with more pictures from their wedding.

Here is a link to Jennifer and Polachi‘s previous post of their Farm Kitchen Wedding.

Kristine and Steve had a lovely intimate wedding with a small number of family and friends in attendance at Snoqualmie Falls and Salish Lodge & Spa, one of the most romantic destination wedding locations in the Seattle area   It was a late afternoon wedding on a terrace overlooking the Falls and although there had been some grey skies mid day the sun began to burn through the mist over the falls and light up the hill sides above the falls and river. Here a few selected pictures to preview what will come after editing and processing all of them. This next one below they are holding hands but did not see each other.  It was not until after Kristin walked out onto the terrace that Steve saw her for the first time.

The Tyee Yacht Club  also known as The Yacht Club on Lake Union was the scene of the wedding ceremony and reception of Judah Stevenson and Sarah Hess.   Sarah and Judah are such a creative, thoughtful and beautiful couple. The wedding was great. So too was the fabulous food provided by Ravishing Radish Catering. in fact The Yacht Club on Lake Union is the home of Ravishing Radish Catering so that was not a surprise. Sarah and Judah made their getaway as their friends and family looked on at the end of their wedding reception cruising to the The Woodmark Hotel in Kirkland via the “Seneca” a 38 foot, 1958 Chris Craft. Below are some of the highlights of their wedding. Click here to see more pictures from their wedding at The Yacht Club on Lake Union

Their wedding cake sat atop a multi tier of cupcakes in different flavors.

Sarah’s Dad walking her down the aisle.

Twisting the night away.

Making their escape to the boat dock.

A Bon Voyage from the dock of the Tyee Yacht Club to the wedding couple on board the Seneca.

Crusing Lake Union with the Seattle Skyline and Space Needle in the background.

Judah carries Sarah over the threshold to their room at the Woodmark Hotel for their wedding night.

One of the most stylish and charming couples I have had the pleasure to work with in a long time was Denise and Yong, who were married in San Francisco recently. A massive number of images were recorded and it will be a while to go through them to process and edit them all. In the meantime I wanted to share a few and offer them as a preview of what will be coming. Fittingly they chose as the site of their wedding vows and reception the San Francisco City Hall, which must be one of the most beautiful buildings in America and was the perfect setting for their beautiful wedding ceremony.

When Regan and Chris Hurley were first married it was at the beautiful Sun Mountain Lodge resort. They stood up with the Cascades in the background as they said their vows for the first time. In July not long after their tenth anniversary, they arrived at St James Cathedral with their children Jane and George, and in the Chapel with friends and family they renewed their vows. Afterwards we headed back to their place for a reception and dinner on a lovely July evening. Here are some of the pictures from that day.

One of the last pictures I made before leaving was the portrait of them above. It was just before sunset and the light was magnificent. Right after I pulled away from their house I stopped to make this shot of the sunset. It was a beautiful end of a beautiful day.

Below is a mini-slide show with some more pictures from Regan and Chris ’s wedding. Click on “toggle images” at top right to hide the thumbnails; to start just click on the right arrow on the image.[smooth=id:55]

Ann Krembs and Mark Casey were on Safari in Africa when they met. Mark saved Ann from a charging rhino and they returned to Seattle and were married on July 17th at DeLille Cellars, one of my favorite place for an outdoor wedding. Ann’s sons Conor, 9 and Seamus,7,  were on hand and had important roles in the wedding ceremony. I loved the intermixing of the different colored sands. The grounds there are amazing with the sheep grazing and the beautiful pond with a peninsular jutting out where their ceremony took place.
Actually they really met online not on an African safari, but it made a good story when they first told it. Rain threatened to spoil the day (which was so common this summer) but it did not deter Ann and Mark from making a commitment to go ahead and hold their ceremony outside at DeLille Cellars since the garden and landscaping was why they choose it for their wedding. The food and service was outstanding and was provided by Landau’s Catering and Events.

Here are some highlights of their day.

To go back and see the pictures I previously posted on my other blog previewing these wedding images click on DeLille Cellars Wedding of Ann & Mark,

Nicole Nichols and Patrick McVittie were married in August aboard the historic ferry MV Skansonia and the two gold rings they exchanged were handcrafted by Patrick. It took some time for him the learn the casting process. I believe that it took him 32 casting alone just for his ring. But in the end his persistence paid off and they exchanged two beautiful golden rings at their wedding. It was a warm and clear day their wedding day was full of fun and dancing. I especially love the final images. Nicole had a surprise for Patrick. Her exit strategy was planned in secret and she pulled it off with style.

I want to present some of the highlights of the day with these pictures. Rev Ray VanWinkle performed the ceremony and Monica Frisell assisted with the photography.

Here is a link to the Nicole and Patrick’s Wedding Web gallery. See some more pictures from Nicole and Patrick’s Skansonia Wedding .