Gina and Allan Get Married at the Seattle Courthouse

I am terribly behind schedule getting this wedding onto my blog, for which I apologize to everyone.  Late Spring always gets far too busy, and my first priority is always to get the finished photos delivered to my clients as quickly as possible.  But that keeps me for spending much time on other things, with the Blog being the most obvious.

I was initially contacted by Allan way back in early March.  He and his fiance Gina were planning a wedding at the Seattle Courthouse in early May.  Allan had found me online and seen that I had done lots of weddings at the Courthouse, and asked if I was available.  We traded a few emails and I answered some general questions about wedding procedures at the Courthouse.  He sounded interested, but stopped emailing me after I sent him a contract so I figured he had found someone else.

In early May I got another email from Allan.  The wedding had been bumped back until May 28, and he wanted to know if I was available.  I did have the date open, so I sent him another copy of the contract and he booked me.

The day of the wedding was pretty typical for what we experienced all this Spring in Seattle – completely unpredictable.  A week out from the wedding date the forecast was for rain showers and cold conditions.  But as the date got closer it seemed that the Wedding Gods had decided that Gina and Allan deserved some nicer weather, and the forecast started to improve.  And sure enough, the day of the wedding it might not have been sunny, but it was dry and relatively warm!  Since overcast skies are in many ways better for photography than bright sunshine I was delighted.

While we had emailed multiple times and talked briefly by phone, I had never met the couple in person.  I had advised Allan that being early would be a good idea, because he and Gina wanted to take some photos before we reported in to the Courthouse to wait to be assigned a judge.  A lot more couples had been getting married at the Courthouse recently, and it is important to be at the front of the line to see a judge so you don’t have a long wait before your wedding ceremony.  It doesn’t take too many couples for this to happen, since most days only 2-3 judges are performing weddings.

When I arrived at the Courthouse it was clear that at least two couples were already there, but I had no idea if Gina and Allan were one of them!  Allan spotted me as I came through the door and identified himself, and we were set. Gina was stunning in a gorgeous dress in a style I had not seen before (how can it be possible for there to be so many ways to make a white dress?), while Allan was looking sharp in a nice suit. Because it was a dry day I suggested that we walk down the street for a block to City Hall, which has some nice places for photos.  You’ll see a few photos from City Hall below.

Once we finished there we hiked back up the hill to the Courthouse, where we met up with Allan’s mother, and then headed for the 10th floor, which is where couples check in for weddings. We were still early, so we took advantage of the time by getting a few more photos in the hall just outside the courtrooms; you’ll also see some of these photo below.  During this period Allan’s cousin, who was to be one of the witnesses, arrived.

Quite soon we were told that the judge for Allan and Gina’s ceremony was now ready, so we all headed back to meet the judge (Anita Crawford-Willis) and move to where the ceremony woujld take place. Allan and Gina wanted to be married on the rooftop balcony, so Judge Crawford-Willis had Gina and Alan sign all the wedding documents and then took us to the balcony.

It was a very nice ceremony.  A bit too cloudy to see Mt Rainier, but great views of the area as a backdrop for the ceremony.  I have done weddings at many, many different venues and very few have a better backdrop than the balcony at the Courthouse.

At the conclusion of the ceremony we took a few more shots on the balcony, then moved down to street level and got a few fun shots there.  It was a very fun day and I really enjoyed meeting and working with Allan and Gina.  And again, I apologize for being to slow to get their photos blogged and online – but they did receive their finished files on May 31, only three days later!

More weddings (and other things) on my website at this link.