Essential Stuff

This is Beth and Ben (and their attendants).  They look really happy.  That’s pretty much how they looked the entire day of their wedding.  Which made my job really easy.  When they saw each other for the first time, Beth kissed Ben on the back of the head, and nuzzled him a little, and they both just soaked in the moment, before Ben turned to see his bride.  They had that kind of awareness of each other, and connection with each other, and that kind of amazing poise, the whole day.

I loved how Beth’s dad got emotional when he walked her down the aisle (and when he danced with her), and I loved how Ben and Beth wanted time alone to wander off in the meadow.  And I loved how Ben gave his brother an extra annual hug.  I loved seeing how loving they were to each other, all day, and how happy they were.  Photographs from the wedding day can be seen here.

This is Adriane and Brian, or, maybe you know them by their “slot names”, Buzz and Vernice.  They got married ten years ago, in a small backyard wedding, with Brian in shorts and Adriane without a white dress.  Very few friends were there.  So for their tenth wedding anniversary, they decided to throw a party for their friends and family–for the few that had been at the original wedding, but even more so for those who couldn’t, and for all the new friends they have made of the last ten years.

The arranged for their celebration to be in the Fox Theater in Spokane, which was cool for me, because I shot the very last wedding in the Fox before it was closed for its restoration, and this was the first time for me to shoot there again (verdict?  Much cleaner).  I was under explicit instruction to shoot lots of their friends and family, because while they were celebrating their marriage, they also wanted this to be a celebration of those who were most important to them.  You can see some of the photographs from their anniversary celebration here.

Kim and Colin are outdoorsy people.  Hiking, camping, campfires at the beach, surfing.  They scouted several locations on the Olympic Peninsula for their wedding, a location that would reflect that aspect of themselves.  They found it at Hobuck Beach, just a few miles from Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the continental United States.  And the location was spectacular.

From their cabins, there was a small meadowy spot for the reception, and beyond that, tall wild grasses and dunes, and then past that, a flat expanse of sand where they held the wedding ceremony, and beyond that, the ocean itself, pale blue on this day, with a bleached sky with wispy clouds swept in on the Pacific wind.

It wasn’t just the location that reflected their personalities, but the whole day, with personal touches like their dog walking down the aisle, flip flops on the feet, an exchange of leis, and lots of good coffee.  The day ended with a spectacular sunset, which seemed fitting after such a gorgeous and joyful day.  A gallery of their wedding photographs can be seen here.