Jessie and Brandon Elope at the Seattle Courthouse

I am feeling a bit remiss that it has taken me awhile to get this wedding posted.  Spring can be a rather crazy season for a wedding/portrait photographer, and my first priority is always to get my clents their finished photos as quickly as possible. So sometimes I get a bit behind on my posts.  Sorry about that!

This was my first wedding at the Seattle Courthouse since the beginning of Spring.  Courthouse weddings have been kind of a “strange beast” since the start of Covid.  First they didn’t happen at all, then judges would travel to other locations to officiate a wedding because the Courthouse building was closed, then weddings were allowed in the buildings but only to very small groups (like B&G plus witnesses only) with everyone wearing masks.  We have finally (Thank God!!!) returned to sanity and normality, and weddings at the Courthouse are essentially what they were pre-Covid.  But I still have been seeing much fewer courthouse weddings than per-Covid, and I’ve been wonderig about that.  Pre-Covid, most weekday afternoons when I was at the Courthouse for a wedding, there would be several other couples (at least) waiting to see a judge to get married.  But so far in 2024 when I’ve been at the Courthouse there have been at most only one other couple.

But today this changed.  I warned Jessie that she and Brandon should plan to be there early “just in case” there were other couples planning to get married that day, since it works on a “first come, first served” basis to see a judge.  We planned to meet at the court at 3:45.  When I arrived, there was a couple right behind me at the security gate, and sure enough it was Brandon and Jessie!  We took the elevator to the 10th floor, which is where couples check in to see a judge. Because we had some time to kill before a judge would be available, we went to the rooftop balcony of the Courthouse building to take a few photos.  It was a somewhat breezy and overcast day (hey, this IS springtime in Seattle!) but dry, so we took some photos to take advantage of the fantastic view.

When we returned to the 10th floor there were three other couples waiting to get married, so I was very happy we had arrived first and staked our place.  Both Jessie’s and Brandon’s moms had also now arrived, so we spent a litle time taking photos with them while we waited.

It wasn’t long before Jessie and Brandon’s names were called.  We had been assigned to Judge Anita Crawford-Willis, a very nice woman with whom I had worked at several other court weddings.  We followed Judge Crawfor-Willis to the Law Library, the room where the cermony would be held.  After Jessie and Brandon filled out all of the necessary paperwork to get married, the ceremony began.

The views from the Courthouse are wonderful, whether you are indoors or out.  On a nice day you can even see Mt Rainier in the distance; unfortunately that didn’t happen today.  But as you can see in the photos. we still had a great view of the Smith Tower and  South Seattle.

The ceremony went perfectly, and a short time later Brandon and Jessie were husband and wife.

Here are some photos from the day.  You can see a lot more weddings (plus much more) on my website blog page.