Sunshine in Snohomish: Jessica + West

Aug 19, 2008 | Weddings

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

4 Comments

  1. Fine work, Kate. Lot’s of fun pictures!

    Reply
  2. beautiful moment. what memories you capture Kate. i absolutely love this.

    Reply
  3. Hi Kate, beautiful pictures. Thanks so much for your kind words about Erik and I. We will list you on our links page once we get it up and running.
    Glenn

    Reply
  4. Thank you Kate, for the wonderful teaser photos! I am glad you survived the heat on our big day, and we look forward to our final photos. I felt a little toasted the next day myself… Our honeymoon in Hawaii was great, and didn’t get quite as warm. =)

    Reply

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