Saturday brought blazing heat and an inside-outside garden wedding with Jessica and West.  It was a tough day for us all with the crazy weather, but the ceremony was beautiful and the evening was full of great music and much drinking and dancing.  I also had the opportunity to work with some really awesome vendors, including Lake Washington Video and the delightful Trista and Heather who coordinated.

I arrived midway through Jessica and her girls getting ready in the tiny bridal room downstairs at French Creek Manor.  Jessica was feeling the heat, quite literally, so I split my time between the girls and the set-up upstairs.

I loved the aisle flowers by Elliott Event & Floral:

The girls tried to give Jessica some air from the bottom up:

The guys also had a getting ready room, but I encouraged them to make the final touches out in the garden where the light was better and there was some space to move.

The boys all wore these fab shoes:

Once everyone was ready, I had Jessica join West in the far end of the garden for their first look.

Things were running quite a way behind schedule by this point, but we grabbed a few formals with the wedding party before Jessica went into hiding.

The ceremony was so thoughtfully planned, and I loved that they incorporated so much music; there was an amazing harpist, a group of singers, and West’s father also sang.

After the ceremony, I ran inside to recover from a mild case of heat stroke (!) and to get some more detail shots before the reception room filled with guests seeking air conditioning!  I also wanted to make sure I got some shots of their elaborate “Westica” cake before it took a tumble …

Do you recognize the cake topper?  They used one of their engagement photos – cute!

We were in the middle of some post-dinner formal shots outside when word got to us that the cake was on the move …  here it is being held up by one of the lovely catering staff:

And we moved quickly to have their cake cutting before it was too late!

Towards sunset I headed back outside with West and Jessica for some couples portraits in the garden.

Jessica and West switched things up a little for the first dances.  They started with the father-daughter and mother-son dances …

… then West sang to Jessica before starting their first dance.  It was really cute!

After the first dances, they had an awesome band, Dysfunksion, play a mixture of disco, funk and rock while I took some fun party pics in the photobooth.

Congratulations Jessica and West and have a fantastic honeymoon!

© 2008 Kate McElwee Photography