Wedding: Brent and Katie

October 6th, 2008 admin Posted in all_labels |

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Walking through the garden I stumbled upon someone who seemed of purpose.

“Can you point me to Brent or Katie?” I asked the woman in gardening clothes fidgeting beneath the willow tree. She happened to be one one of the owners of the semi-converted farm near Fall City (they host weddings, but still plow their fields).

“Brent’s not here yet, but Katie’s in the house over there,” she replied.

“How are things going?” I queried. I like to get the gauge of a situation from as many people as possible.

While Brent and Katie are an incredibly relaxed couple, weddings can be stressful.

“Katie is fine,” she replied. “She’s with the girls getting ready. I think Brent is the one to watch.”

Surprised, I nodded in response. Ducking beneath the drooping branches, I headed toward the house. Inside, the usual scene of casually dressed women and clouds of hairspray gave little doubt that bridal preparations were under way. Katie was, indeed, quite relaxed.

Brent is a man of many talents. He is the buyer for a retail store, one he was contracted to expand and remodel. He re-roofed his rental house, because he was a general contractor and wanted reduced rent. He likes rodeos. He is from Iowa.

He is also a skilled seamstress, possesses culinary talent on par with skilled chefs. His palate can discern the subtleties of fine wine and enjoy the boldness of single malt scotch. He is professionally trained to play the French horn.

And this was his wedding.

Katie, with her planning-free, unstressed demeanor affectionately called him her “groomzilla.” However, all of his meticulous planning paid off. The location was perfect. The ceremony beautiful. The string quartet lovely, the bluegrass band entertaining. The hors devours perfectly accompanied the hand-picked Washington wines (they did a state-wide tour to choose them). Dinner was amazing, the dj was fun, the best man spinning old-school hip hop even better, the scotch bar fantastic and I’ll bet the cigars were swell too. I don’t smoke, but they made for fun pictures.

For me, as the photographer, I had a lot to work with, plenty of time for portraits, and a cooperative family. Wrangling all of Katie’s family together onto a creaky bridge was a little nerve wracking but they were wonderfully patient as we waited for the bride and groom to step in. The only thing I might suggest, to a beautiful wedding and wonderful party, is that the priest under no circumstances–ever–should turn his back to the audience, blocking their view. Especially when the ring exchange is occurring.

But I think that misstep was completely redeemed by the fields of sunflowers and the tractors. They had lots of tractors. Shooting fun weddings like this make me think it might not be so bad of a career. If only there were more Groomzilla’s as skilled and talented out there.

(wedding photographed August 31, 2008)
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(and thanks to intern Jon Sparks for his digital production help!)