Nik and Brian Get Married in Port Gamble Chapel

Nik and Brian were married in Port Gamble on a very blustery and cold day at the end of October. If you are not familiar with Port Gamble, it is located about 30 miles northwest from Seattle as the crow flies, but for people to get there involves either taking a ferry across Puget Sound, or driving around the Sound and over the Tacoma Narrows bridge, then up the peninsula. Either route takes 90-120 minutes.

Here is a brief description of the town –
“Port Gamble represents one of the few remaining examples of company towns, thousands of which were built in the nineteenth century by industrialists to house employees. Founders Josiah Keller, William Talbot, and Andrew Pope planned the town to reflect the character of their hometown, East Machias, Maine, where many of the early employees originated. For 142 years, the community existed to support sawmills that produced lumber for the world market. The mill closed in 1995, but as a National Historic Site, the townsite has been preserved to reflect an authentic company mill town.”
It is a very pretty little town that has actually grown quite a bit since the first time I shot a wedding there about 30 years ago. That wedding took place in the same chapel (St Paul’s) where Nik and Brian were married. But at that time there was no covered venu in town for a wedding reception, so the reception was held in the rather small basement of the chapel. I’ve shot numerous weddings in Port Gamble since then, and have enjoyed watching as the town has grown and turned into a popular wedding location.
But enough about Port Gamble, let’s get back to what matters – the wedding!

Nik and Brian had decided that they were going to go the “traditional” route and not see each other before the wedding ceremony. I met up with Nik and the bridesmaids at the chapel a couple of hours before the scheduled start time of the ceremony, to take some “getting ready” photos of Nik and her bridesmaids, as well as some pre-wedding photos of Brian and the groomsmen. LOL! That sounds like the name of a band from the early 60’s! And actually it was “Brian and the Groom’s People” since one of them was Camryn, the Best Woman.

While I’m discussing the wedding party, here they are –
Bridesmaids – Catie, Ashley, Amber
Groomsmen – Savian, Jeremy
Best Woman – Camryn
Flower Girl – Angela (Brian’s younger sister)

As I said earlier, it was a rather cold day, and there was a serious wind blowing at least 20mph. But other than that it was a beautiful Autumn day, with blue skies and plenty of sunshine.

After checking in on the ladies, who were in the middle of hair and makeup, I walked into the “business sector” of town, which consists of several small shops and a restaurant. Brian and his groomsmen were in a room in the basement under the restaurant, along with Nik’s father, Richard. They were all happily snacking on some munchies and enjoying not being outdoors!

I made my way back to the chapel, where Nik was about to get into her dress. The bridesmaids were all pretty much ready to go, fully dressed and with their hair and makeup completed.

Once Nik finished getting into her dress I took a few photos of Nik alone, as well as with the bridesmaids and Nik’s mom. Some of which you will see shortly!

By now many of the guests had arrived and were taking their seats in the chapel above. Nik was not going to be seen before the ceremony, so I took some photos of Brian and his groomspeople outside the chapel while we waited.

Once the guests were all seated, the wedding party (except Nik) got organized at the back of the chapel for their entrance, while Nik stayed hidden in the basement. I got myself into position to get photos of the processional, the music started playing, and the wedding began.

Once the ceremony finished, everyone moved outside to be ready to greet the newlyweds as they left the chapel. Brian and Nik climbed into the upper floor of the chapel where they pulled the rope that rang the chapel’s bell. Nik and Brian then came outdoors to briefly greet their guests – it was cold out there! The guests then headed down the street to the reception venue, while the wedding party moved back into the church so we could take the various photos of the wedding party.

At this point we ran into a bit of a snag. No one had remembered to bring the marriage certificate to the wedding (rookie mistake!), so two of the wedding party drove back home to pick it up. We took what photos that we could without the missing wedding party members, and once they returned with the certificate we finished the needed photos and Brian and Nik signed the certificate that completed (and legalized) their marriage.

Then it was off to the reception site for the party! It was a very nice reception, and Brian and Nik demonstrated their dancing skills with their first dance. They had taken dancing lessons just for this purpose, and did a very nice job.

Enough of my yakking, it’s time for the photos! You can also see many more weddings that I have photographed by clicking on this link for my blog page.