Alison and Nate Get Married at the Hideaway Cellars

This wedding was a surprise short notice job for me.  Alison contacted me just a few weeks before the date, after the photographer she had hired canceled.  Which, speaking as a wedding photographer, is a really terrible thing for a photographer to do to a couple who is counting on you to be the person who photographs your special day.

At any rate, Alison located me online, liked my work and sent me an email to see if I was available.  Happily I had her date open, and after we traded a few emails and phone calls she decided that I would be a good fit for the wedding.

The wedding was to be held at the Hideaway Cellars in Seattle.  This venue is run by an organization who also runs several other local venues.  I had never shot a wedding at Hideaway Cellars, even though I had shot numerous weddings at every other venue that is part of their group.  I’m always excited about shooting at a new location, which is quite a rare occurence for me because I have been a Seattle photographer for so long and have photographed weddings at pretty much every venue in the city.

Alison and I went over her “game plan” for the wedding.  She and her fiance Nate had decided that they did not want coverage throughout the entire reception, so I suggested that when it was time for me to leave that they do a fake departure, since the departure of the bride and groom is almost always a good photo opp.  Alison liked that idea, and you’ll see some photos of the departure below.

As per Alison’s plans, I arrived about two hours before the planned ceremony time to get some “getting ready” photos of Alison and her bridesmaids and Nate and the groomsmen.  I took a variety of photos (some of which you’ll see below) as Nate, Ali and the various others who would be participating in the wedding ceremony got ready.

We then did a First Look for Nate and Ali; these are always fun, though getting the bride and groom into position without them seeing each other ahead of time can be challenging. Once that was done we did the standard posed type photos of bride and groom, wedding party, etc. until the guests began to arrive.  Alison quickly headed back to her dressing room for some final hair and makeup touchups while she waited for the guests to be seated, and the ceremony to begin.

Following are a slection of photos from the day.  You can see more smaples of wedding that I have photographed on my website blog page at this link.