Category Archives: real weddings

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Hitched: Erin & Josh At Tacoma’s Annie Wright School

October 7, 2008 – 1:04 am

Erin and Josh.  Oh man, where do I begin… laughter.  One thing that nearly EVERY image has from the weekend I spent with them has is laughter.  Hysterical, joking, loving laughter.  I love it.  They love each other so much, and their family and friends loves them, and they love their family and friends.  In fact, Josh loves Erin SO much that he called 24 Ann Taylors to find the right sizes for the bridesmaids dresses.  Apparently this is what he does at work.  Awesome Josh, awesome.  (you can see their West Seattle engagement portraits here!)

It was just such a fun, fun, weekend.  First to Gig Harbor, Erin’s home town, to spend some time with their families who flew from as far as Japan!!  Then to the gorgeous and totally undiscovered Annie Wright School in Tacoma for the wedding day and ceremony (yes, you can rent an old prep school!).  Then, a few private moments for some post-nuptual jumping on the bed (shh! Don’t tell the folks at Annie Wright :) and then onto a great, great party, where the kids stayed up late, and no one wanted to leave.

A super special shout-out to miss Barbie Hull for co-shooting with me that day (daaang, she’s good at what she does!), Gallucci’s for yummy food, and the super talented family and friends responsible for the cake, hair, makeup, flowers, and programs/invites!  Mark Tsui for some awesome beats, and Jane Treleven for a stunning cake that was so fun to watch the destruction of :)  And especially Father Gerry, Erin’s highschool pastor who was able to marry Erin and Josh and keep us all laughing.

I just couldn’t narrow it down to a few for the blog (probably because its way past my bedtime, or maybe because I spent TWO days with them!), so here’s a really long, but fast moving slideshow (cause really, I’m sure you have other things you SHOULD be doing right now then watching a blog slideshow…).

Congrats you two!  And thanks so much to you and your friends and family for having such a fun wedding and being such fun people to photograph!  Babs and I had a blast!!!  It was truly an honor!  I do have the best clients, eh?  So much fun, so much fun.

By Laurel | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Hitched: Sarah & Tim at the Seattle World Trade Center

September 1, 2008 – 10:27 pm

Modern. Glam. Blahnik.

In July, Sarah and Tim had me over to their fun cocktail party of a wedding. A five minute ceremony. Ultra glam details and decor. And lots and lots of friends. Easily one of the hottest days of our super short summer (what the heck! we totally got shafted this year!), it was a really fun one. I couldn’t wait to see what they had planned, all of the details sounded so stylish! Here are some of my favorites!!! (and you can see their engagement portraits here)

I get really excited by the most random little things. 1. shoes. that’s a given. 2. how the end of bouts are wrapped. Aria Floral did a fabu job here. 3. the ceilings of the wedding venue- they end up in a great deal of the images, so it’s always nice if the ceiling DOESN’T look like the one at your office. They did good here too. Awesomeness.

It was SO sunny! Abnormally so! I couldn’t resist this one, sorry guys. Super cheesy, noted.

Ha! Running across the street while holding down the shutter comes out cool only one time out of 100 ;)

Venue: Seattle World Trade Center

Dress: Jenny Packham from Voletta Couture

Earrings: Glam By Pam (Pam is a hoot if you ever get the chance to browse her Redmond studio!!)

Shoes: Manolo Blahnik

Suit: Versace

Flowers: Aria Floral

Sweets: Trophy Cupcakes

Hair/Makeup: Erin Skipley

Favors: caramels from Fran’s Chocolates

Music: Greg Lowder of Affairs To Remember

Photography: Me!

By Laurel | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Hitched: Meghan & Kevin at the Skansonia

August 28, 2008 – 11:39 am

Romantic vintage is how I’d describe Meghan & Kevin’s wedding celebration on the antique Skansonia Ferry boat last month. I love how she put together the soft greens, romantic roses, and dreamy creams, all inspired by a turn of the century styled cameo necklace Kevin gave to Meghan while they were dating.

I love the attitude of this shot… so funny!


A little post-nuptual champagne and lounge on their fabulous velvet couch.

This was their sugary sweet signature cocktail. When Meghan and I were planning out the photography details at our last pre-wedding meeting, we had a little side conversation about what their drink should be called. They both have rather uncommon last names, so after a little name scrabble, the “Megvan Steensbak” popped out of my mouth. I was delighted to see this on the menu at the bar!! Naturally it’s one of my favorite shots of the day :)

I’m not much of a cake gal (cause if I ate the cake at every wedding… well… let’s just say I’d have to buy new pants!), but it looked so good I had to try a bit. YUM!!!

Venue: Skansonia Ferry

Dress: uber romantic design by Maggie Sottero at Wallingford’s I Do Bridal

Flowers: Ballard Blossom

Cake: designed by Iska of Cake

Transport: British Motor Coach

Wedding Photographer: Yours truly!

By Laurel | Also posted in bellies, wedding planning | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Alaska Part II: Amy + Brad

June 30, 2008 – 11:32 pm

I’m so glad to finally be back to posting again!  Amy and Brad were married in April (yes! April, and now it’s, well, July!).  Amy grew up in Ketchikan, and Brad in Michigan.  Brad came to KTN as a member of the coast guard, and as they got to know each other, well, the rest is history!  Barbie and I arrived in Alaska a week before the wedding, and Amy had the pleasure of playing tour guide to us while we helped her prep for the wedding.  So many beautiful places to see (post Part III will probably finally happen, oh, say, September ;)!  The weather was absolutely, uncharacteristically gorgeous (still a little chilly, snow on the mountain caps), but the morning of the wedding, Ketchikan was back to it’s usual April self with the big drops of rain, non-stop.  From the stunning custom jewelry (Heidi Hull Designs) to the candy bar (we all love candy!) to the handmade black and white ring bearer’s pillow, Amy managed to create such a bright and modern wedding from a somewhat isolated location.  Here are some of our favorite images!


LOVE that she wore snakeskin print pink shoes on her wedding day!  Barbie saw these in Seattle and snagged them for Amy, knowing that she’d be instantly in love with them- she was!


We took the tram from their hotel on the top of the mountain down on to Creek Street, the old part of town built entirely on docks (actually, all of Ketchikan is built out!!)

The cutest ring bearer to ever be rained on!

Have umbrellas, will travel.  We brought these with us from Seattle, good thing!  All is well until the rain travels down the umbrellas onto the poor guy/gal standing inbetween!

One of the traditions in the Norwegian culture is to be blindfolded, spun around, and then the bride has to cut the cake (made of sweet Almond flavored pastries).  However many rings she cuts through is how many children they’ll have- since they already have one uber cute daughter, looks like they’ve got three to go!

By Laurel | Also posted in travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)