Christine and Clement elope at the Seattle Municipal Courthouse

This was a classic elopement wedding, planned with very short notice.  I first was contacted by Clement less then two weeks before the wedding date.  Fortunately I was available, so we started right in on the plans for the day, and how to make this the best wedding experience possible.

May is a very popular month for elopement weddings, and since Christine and Clement were getting married on a Friday I knew there was a good chance that a lot of other couples would also be planning to be married the same day.  the way the system works at the Seattle Courthouse is that couples who have made a reservation get priority over couples who just show up and wait for an available judge.  But even for the couples with a reservation, there is no specific time held for them.  It is “First Come, First Served!” for these couples so there is a strong motivation to arrive early to be at the front of the line.  If you show up right when the office opens you might have 5-10 or even more couples already checked in and waiting, and it can take more than an hour before a judge is finally available.

I warned Clement and Christine about this, and they arrived nice and early and were one of the first couples in line.  And it was a good thing, because we had a near-perfect Seattle spring day with temps in the low 70s and beautiful blue skies.  When their turn was called, Christine and Clement opted to have their wedding outside on the rooftop balcony.  This is one of the nicest places in Seattle for a small elopement wedding, with fantastic views of much of the city and a good look at Mt Rainier when the clouds cooperate.

This was one of those days, and Mt Rainier gave us a perfect backdrop for the wedding ceremony.  Several relatives from each side were in attendance, including a couple of Christine’s nephews.  the ceremony went perfectly, and we got a lot of fun photos.  You can see some of them below.