Tayna and Jerry have a Solstice Elopement Wedding

This was quite literally the start on my Summer wedding season; since the Solstice is the first day of Summer it’s pretty hard to  have a wedding earlier in the Summer than that!

Jerry contacted me way back in April about photographing his upcoming wedding. I was actually a bit surprised that I was not already booked, since it is rare for a Solstice to take place on a Friday. Jerry booked me right away and we were set.

Whenever I shoot a courthouse wedding, I always like to warn the couple in advance about some of the specifics of getting married at a courthouse as opposed to at a different venue. Lots of important things that need to be remembered. In this case, the most important thing was that a LOT of other couples were likely to want to get married on the same day, and that weddings at the Seattle Courthouse are assigned to available judges on a first come, first served basis. In other words, the couples who show up first will be the first to get married. And you never know how many judges will be available on a given date, usually anywhere from two to five.  I have photographed a couple of courthouse weddings on popular dates where we had to wait well over an hour for a judge to be available, and I didn’t want this to happen to Tayna and Jerry. Only the couple getting married are allowed to check in and reserve a space; they can’t seen someone else ahead if they are running late.

The day of the wedding I arrived at the courthouse a bit before 4PM, usually early enough to be at or near the front of the line. There were already two couples with photographers outside the building taking photos, and no sign of Tayna and Jerry. I went into the building and took the elevator to the 10th floor, which is where couples check in to reserve a judge. Still no Tayna and Jerry, but also one other couple was already waiting. Pretty soon the couples I had seen downstairs showed up, and now I was getting a bit nervous.  Fortunately Jerry and Tayna arrive a few minutes later, followed within a minute or two by three more couples! But Jerry was now waiting in line in position #4, so I figured we had a decent chance of seeing a judge fairly quickly.

While Jerry was waiting, I took Tayna to a nearby hall that has some nice spots for photos and took some photos of her. What a beautiful bride!  She was also not only unafraid of the camera, but quickly demonstrated that she could be quite a ham and we had fun taking photos for a few minutes. The Jerry joined us getting their names on the wait list, and I got some photos of the two of them together.

Pretty quickly their names were called to meet with their judge. The procedure is for the couple to meet with the judge to go over how the ceremony will work, and to sign their marriage license. No one else (except the photographer) is allowed at these meetings; the judges’ offices are quite small, so family and friends who are there need to wait until the judge takes the couple to the room where they will get married. In this case the judge was Anita Crawford-Willis, a judge with whom I have worked many times.

We followed judge Crawford-Willis to her office, and after about 10 minutes we were ready to gather the family and friends who had come to see Tayna and Jerry get married and get the ceremony underway. The wedding took place in the Law Library, a very nice room a a great view of the Sith Tower and South Seattle.  Mt. Rainier was being shy and hiding behind some clouds, but on a sunny day you get a good view of the mountain from all the wedding rooms at the Seatle Courthouse.  I included a few shots from the ceremony below.

Once the ceremony was over, we said goodbye to most of the friends and family, and the rest of us headed for Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill, a wonderful location for photos. Once there, we had to share space with dozens of other people there to take photos and enjoy the great weahter, but we were still able to get some open space and get some good photos.  Again, more of those below.

That’s it!  If you haven’t already checked out the photos below, now is the time to do so. You can see lots more wedding photos and more on my wesbite by clicking here.