Cecilia and Stephen’s Courthouse Elopement Wedding

For me as a photographer, the crazy thing about a Courthouse wedding is that I usually have very little warning about them.  Usually I am contacted two weeks or less before the scheduled date, just to find out if I am available on that date.  If I am available, I then need to make sure that the couple getting married has jumped through all the necessary hoops so that their wedding will take place as planned.  Many couples mistakenly believe that they can just show up at the Seattle or King County Courthouse at the end of the working day and a judge will be available to marry them.  But this is not always (or even usually) the case!

Fortunately I have photographed more than 100 courthouse weddings, and I know the rules of the two main courthouse quite well.  So I am able to make sure that the couple has done all that is necessary to get married, and if not I can tell them what needs to be done before they show up at the courthouse so they are able to get married without any unforeseen problems.

This wedding was a bit unusual.  I got a call from Cecilia just one day before the wedding date; not exactly a lot of lead time!  Fortunately I had the time open and was available to be the photographer.  When I am contacted at the last minute like this I am always a bit nervous that the couple has not been in touch with the courthouse and learned all the necessary procedures, but as I talked with Cecilia I as very happy to discover that she had done the most important things to make the wedding possible, and that she and Stephen already had an appointment set up with a judge to conduct their wedding ceremony.

Neither Cecilia or Stephen had actually been to the King County Courthouse before, so I filled her in on where she could park and how early they should plan to arrive so that we would have some time to take a few photos before we went to meet with the judge. After talking a bit more about the logistics of the day we agreed to meet in the lobby of the courthouse building at 4PM, with the time to meet the judge being 4:30.

Of course, things didn’t end up going quite as planned!  Cecilia and Stephen arrived at the courthouse about 15 minutes late, so we had to adjust our plans for pre-ceremony photos a bit.  We took some photos in the lobby near the elevators (as you’ll see below), and then headed upstairs to where we were to meet the judge.  At this point a couple of the people who were supposed to be there for the ceremony had not yet arrived, and the decision was made to start without them.  But just before the judge began the ceremony the missing friends showed up, so we were able to begin the ceremony with everyone present.

I will admit that given a choice between having a wedding at the King County Courthouse vs, the Seattle Courthouse that I think the Seattle Courthouse is much more photogenic.  The ceremonies take place either in a room with a great view of south Seattle, or (when the weather permits) on the rooftop of the Courthouse.  At the King County Courthouse the ceremonies are held in one of the courtrooms, which are quite dated and not very photogenic.  But the big plus of getting married at King County is that there is literally no waiting time for a judge; you have a set appointment and your judge is waiting just for you.  At the Seattle Courthouse you have to wait in line for a judge to become available, and there have been times that I have waited with a couple for more than an hour before a judge was finally able to perform their ceremony.

The ceremony went perfectly, and afterwards we got a few photos in the courtroom with the guests, and then all of us headed out of the building to get a few outdoor photos before the sun set.  We had lucked out with a mostly sunny day, and I think we got a lot of nice shots.  Check out the selection below and see what you think!