Seattle Courthouse Wedding - Julia and Matt

Julia and Matt's wedding ceremony at the Seattle Municipal Courthouse. Tom Ellis Photography, Seattle elopement and courthouse wedding photographer

Seattle Courthouse Wedding – Julia and Matt

Seattle Municipal Courthouse Wedding

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with Julia and Matt as their wedding photographer.  I always like to ask the couples that I work with how they met; it is fascinating how this has changed over the last 20+ years.  Julia is a fairly recent transplant to the Seattle area, while Matt is a long-time resident.  And as an ever growing percentage of people are doing, they met online (I believe through Match.com).  Of course, 20 years ago there were no online dating services so the odds that Matt and Julia would have otherwise met is quite small.  My own research with “my” wedding couples is that roughly 1/3 of them first met online.   With most of the couples both people already lived in Seattle when they connected online, but almost half the time they lived in widely different parts of the country, further increasing the odds that they would never have met without the Internet.

Julia and Matt had decided to do a small wedding at the Seattle Courthouse, with just a small number of family and friends in attendance.  The Courthouse holds weddings every weekday after 4:30PM, and most of the times I have been there to photograph a wedding there are multiple couples waiting for an appointment with a judge to perform their ceremony.  I have been the photographer at several dozen weddings at both the Seattle Courthouse and the King County Courthouse, which is located just down the street.   The size of these weddings varies from just the bride and groom to groups of up to ~30; larger groups just won;t fit into the available spaces.  At two of the weddings I photographed at the Seattle Courthouse I was recruited to be one of the witnesses to the ceremony!

We planned to meet at the Seattle Library at 3PM, to give us time to get some photos before the 4:30 check-in time at the Courthouse.  The weather was not exactly cooperative for outdoor photos, so we started at the outer part of the Library in some covered areas and then moved indoors and took photos at a variety of places inside the library.  If you have never visited the Seattle Library, it is a very cool building with unique architecture that allowed us to take some very fun and cool photos.  Unfortunately I had not known that professional photography is “frowned upon” inside the Library unless a fee is paid, but we still managed to get a good selection of photos before we had to leave.

At the Courthouse we were met by Julia and Matt’s families, and after waiting a bit for a judge to be available Matt and Julia were married in a very nice room with a great view over the south part of downtown Seattle.  After getting some family shots the entire group took off for Ray’s Boathouse for a celebratory dinner.

 

Bride and groom outside the Seattle Public Library
Bride and groom pose for a wedding photo outside the Seattle Library
Black and white photo of bride and groom kissing outside the Seattle Library under the amazing girder structure
Sepia toned photo of bride and groom kissing under the lattice girders at the Seattle Library
Close up shot of bride standing under the outdoor lattice at the Seattle Library
Close up photo of bride with her groom out of focus in the background, outside the Seattle Library
Groom looking very dapper as he leans against a post outside the Seattle Library
Bride and groom smile at each other as they hold hands against the lattice backdrop at the Seattle Library Close up black and white photo of bride and groom laughing
Close up photo of groom kissing bride on the cheek, with blurred out background
Bride and groom riding the escalator inside the Seattle Library
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Bride and groom pose under an umbrella on a rainy evening in downtown Seattle
Bride and groom walking down a rainy Seattle street on the way to their wedding at the Seattle Courthouse Orme_015
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Orme_017 Wedding ceremony inside the jury selection room at the Seattle Courthouse Wedding ceremony inside the jury selection room at the Seattle Courthouse, with the lights of Seattle visible outside the window Black and white photo of groom placing ring on his bride's finger during their wedding at the Seattle Courthouse Black and white photo of bride placing the ring on her groom's finger during their wedding at the Seattle Courthouse Orme_022 Family photo inside the jury selection room after a wedding at the Seattle Courthouse, great view of nighttime Seattle in the background Bride and groom show off their certificate of marriage after their wedding ceremony at the Seattle Courthouse

One Response to “Seattle Courthouse Wedding – Julia and Matt”

  1. […] In the case of Matt and Julia, they planned the wedding far enough in advance that they were able to have both family and friends attend the ceremony.  Taking place in January the weather was predictably wet and cold, but we still got a lot of fun photos by meeting at the nearby Seattle City Library in advance of the ceremony.  Not a location that would be obvious to most people, but the library has some very interesting architecture and is one of my favorite spots for short indoor photo sessions when outdoor photos just aren’t possible. Here is the link to Julia and Matt’s Courthouse Elopement Wedding. […]

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