Seattle wedding photos at the Kubota Gardens and Tukwila Community Center

I am always interested in finding out how the bride and groom first met, and May and Joel have a good story.  The meeting was apparently a set-up by May’s brother and sister-in-law, who knew Joel through a church group.  They arranged for Joel and May to “just happen” to be at their house on the same day to help with a house/yard project, a big wood chip pit under a tree swing.  The two hit it off immediately, and Joel ended up giving May a ride home and asking her out.  Just over two months (I think the exact number is 65 days) later, Joel asked May to marry him.

May and Joel were married on July 11, 2015.  They decided that they wanted to start the day by taking photos at a different location than their wedding venue, and after discussing the option we chose the Kubota Gardens for our pre-ceremony photo session.  So bright and early the wedding party (including 7 kids) met at Kubota to begin the day.  We spent ~90 minutes wandering, exploring and taking photos on a wonderful cool morning, something that we all appreciated after enduring temps in the upper 80s and low 90s for the past week.

Then it was on to the venue for the ceremony.  The event was held at the Tukwila Community Center, a very nice facility run by the city of Tukwila located on the bank of the Duwamish River.  The ceremony was officiated by Joel’s grandfather, Paul McReynolds, and went perfectly.  May and Joel’s favorite colors are yellow and red respectively, and as May told me the two colors worked great together so it was easy to choose their wedding colors.

The theme of the wedding was a community celebration, with emphasis on family; all 7 of the flower girls and ring bearers are May’s nieces and nephews.  The adult members of the wedding party consisted both of family members (Rachel, one of the bridesmaids, is Joel’s sister) and of long-time friends (May has been friends with one of the bridesmaids since elementary school).  Music was provided by Myron Marston (bride’s brother) and Timothy Marston (bride’s cousin).  And Joel’s brother Luke read scripture during the ceremony.

May and Joel both enjoy board games, and during the reception there was a variety of their favorite games for the guests to enjoy.  The couple decided that rather than a traditional wedding cake they would have a variety of pies instead, and had some really tasty pies including apple, cherry and blueberry for the guests to enjoy.

At the conclusion of the reception, the guests lined up outside the doors and blew bubbles as the couple made their way to the getaway car.  Great day, really a lot of fun working with May and Joel, as well as their families and friends.