Fernanda and Noah’s Wonderful Late Winter Snowy Wedding

This was another wedding where I was hired not long before the wedding date.  The mother of the groom (Alika) contacted me in late January.  Her son and his fiance were planning to get married at the end of February in a small ceremony at an Airbnb in a nearby town, and needed a photographer.  Alika was located in Hawaii, so she had to do everything by phone and the Internet.  I had the date open, and after we traded a few emails I was hired.

Over the next few weeks Alika and I continued to trade emails to confirm such important details as the wedding location and planned timing of events. When we were a few days from the wedding date, the Seattle area experienced one of our rare “snow days”, with (for Seattle) a decent accumulation of several inches of snow. When I left my house for the wedding there was still plenty of snow everywhere but on the streets.

As I said earlier, the wedding was to take place in an Airbnb, located about 30 miles from wheere I live.  As I was driving the clouds moved in and the sky got quite dark, but there was no precipitation.  I figured we’d have a rainstorm sometime that afternoon, which would be a bummer since it would likely keep us from being able to do any outdoor photos.

The Airbnb turned out to be a huge house located in a neighborhood of much more average sized homes, making this house look like a palace.  It was located a few hundred yards from Puget Sound, and I had a hope that if the weather cooperated we might be able to do some photos near the water.  But it was pretty cold, so I considered that possibilty to be a bit of a longshot.  When I arrived a did a quick scout of the area immeidately around the house; there was still some snow on the ground, which suprised me a bit due to the proximity to Puget Sound, which uusually means warmer temps and faster melting snow.  The house was beautiful, with a huge living room that looked out over Puget Sound; this was where the wedding would take place.

I quickly located and met Alika and Noah, the groom.  Fernanda, the bride, was in the basement finishing up getting dressed for the wedding, so I went downstairs and introduced myself.  Fernanda (or Fer as everyoe called her), was a beautiful young lady (as you’ll see in the photos below), who told me she was from Argentina.  I had not known this until we met, and we spent a few minutes while I asked her questions about her home – I have wanted to visit Argentina for a long time, it’s a beautiful country.

Because Noah and Fer did not want to see each other before the ceremony, I took some photos of Fer downstairs in her “dressing room”‘; the soft light through the windows was perfect for photos, as you’ll see in the photos below.

Finally it was time for the ceremony!  All the guests were in place, and Noah waited nervously with the officiant for Fer to appear.  He actually managed not to look at Fer until she reached him at the “altar”, a rather impressive feat! Once the couple had greeted each other the ceremony began.  First off was an exchange of floral necklaces, which is apparently a tradition shared by both Hawaiians and Argentines; again, you’ll see photo below.  At this point something quite magical happened; it began to snow outside!  And not just a little bit, it was snowing quite hard.  I tried hard to get some photos of the wedding with the snow showing outside, but had marginal success, as the light values were just too different.  I was hoping like crazy that the snow might continue until the ceremony was finished so I could rush Fer and Noah outside for some photos, since that is simply something that very rarely happens here in Washington.

It was a very nice ceremony, and when it finally concluded it was still snowing outside.  Right after the newlyweds recessed down the aisle, I grabbed them and told them to come with me quickly for some photos outdoors in the snowstorm.  They went to get ready while I went outside to see the best place for some photos.  But when I came back inside, the officiant insisted that Noah and Fer sign their wedding paperwork right away. She assured them it would not take very long.

Unfortunately she was wrong, It toook a good ten minutes for her to get all of the forms signed, and by then the snow had almost completely stopped.  I rushed the couple outdoors and we tried to get some photos, but they really did not come out at all as I had planned.  Sigh…..if the officiant had given me three minutes we could have created some very special photos.  Catching a snowstorm during a wedding in WA is at least as rare as catching a rainbow, and I sure wanted to give the couple those photos…. 🙁

After we came back inside Noah and Fer joined their guests for a combination of Hawaiian and Argentinian foods; I had a chance to try some and they were all very tasty, but my favorite was the empanadas.

I hope you’ll look through the photos below to see how the day went.  It was really a fun wedding, and I’m so happy that Alika found me, all the way from Hawaii.

To see more photos like these, please visit my blog at this link.