Rafeala & Rob’s Elopement Wedding at the Bellevue Courthouse

Just a few weeks ago I received an email from Tamy.  Her son and his girlfriend were having an elopement wedding at the Bellevue Courthouse and they needed a photographer.  The wedding was scheduled for a Thursday late afternoon, and since I had the date open I happily agreed to be their photographer.

Much as I enjoy shooting “real” weddings that usually take 6-8 hours or more, I have always especially enjoyed the smaller elopement weddings.  Most of the courthouse weddings I shoot are the Seattle Municipal courthouse, but recently I have shot several at the Bellevue Courthouse.  Very nice location, easy to find parking and a lot of good places nearby for photos!

Back to the wedding! Apparently this wedding was not going to happen just yet, but Rafaela is from Brazil and just learned that she was going to lose her visa soon. So the option was to go back to Brazil and deal with visas again (which I understand is a PITA), or get married now.  Rob and Rafaela chose Option 2.  The downside here is that because the wedding needed to happen quickly, Rafaela’s famly would not have time to set up travel arrangements and so would not be able to attend the wedding. Which is certainly a bummer.  Fortunately Rob’s family is local, so there was good attendance for an elopement set up in very little time.

When I arrived at the Courthouse, Rob’s family were al waiting in the parking lot for the bride and groom to arrive, which happened about 5 minutes later. We all headed into the Courthouse to wait for a judge; I was a bit surprised to see that one wedding was already taking place, and another couple entered the building very soon after we did.  Clearly the Bellevue facility has been discovered by couples.

We waited in the lobby area for maybe 5-10 minutes before a judge was free.  Then the whole group made our way into the courtroom where the wedding would take place.  From that point, things went very quickly.  The judge went through all the necessary paperwork, and then had first Rafaela and Rob, and then the witnesses, sign the marriage certificate.  The ceremony was very nice if a bit quick; for these ceremonies the couples decide how elaborate (and long) the ceremony will be and the judge acts accordingly. Rob and Rafaela were minimalists, so the ceremony only took a few minutes. But they are planning a do-over once Rafaela’s family is able to come to Seattle, and I suspect the ceremony then will have a bit more substance.

Once the ceremony was finished we all went outside and took some family group photos.  I finished by taking the newlyweds to a spot where we had some nice lighting to get a few shots of the bride and groom together.

Photos showng the general outline of the day follow.  To see more of my work with weddings and elopements, please visit my blog page at this link.