Steve Smith Photography | Seattle wedding and portrait photographer

Stephanie and Dean were married at Lord Hill Farms in Snohomish.  The couple had their first look soon after our arrival and then we headed outdoors for some portraits.  It was a great day for an outdoor ceremony and they picked the perfect time of the evening for the ceremony, as the light was perfect.

After the ceremony, party time hit and everyone headed inside for the reception, the DJ (who was a good friend of theirs) made sure the dance floor was packed by providing great music and a dance club atmosphere with all the lighting and fog. Thanks Stephanie and Dean for a fun day!

I’ve been enjoying the great late summer weather as I know this is not going to last for long.  It was a perfect setting for Hillary and Manuel’s wedding at the small former lumber mill town of Port Gamble. The ceremony was outdoors on the bluff overlooking Hood Canal and the reception was right next door in the new Pavilion building that was just completed this May.

I had a great time working with Michael and his crew at Events with Integrity.

Thanks Hillary and Manuel for sharing your special day with me, in one of my favorite small towns!

Megan and Alex were the first couple to have a wedding at the new sanctuary that was just completed at Christ the Rock Community Church in Port Orchard.  The weather held off just long enough to get some photos outside the beautifully landscaped grounds just before the ceremony.   This new building features state of the art audio and video, with flat panel monitors in the lobby and two large screens in the sanctuary.  The couple had a slide-show playing on all the screens before the ceremony.

This wedding also features the most people I’ve ever had in the bridal party, there was a total of 30!  You must have a big location for that many people, and the stage accommodated everyone perfectly made for an interesting wide angle shot during the ceremony. The previous record for the bridal party was 27.

The couple had a short reception at the church before departing for the evening.  Congrtulations Megan and Alex, I was glad to be a part of your wedding day!

It was a few weeks ago that we rented a vacation home near the town of Forks, Washington.  Twilight fans anyone? It’s a long drive so we stayed for two days and invited a couple of photography friends and our favorite couple we worked with at OSPWest earlier this year.  We spent about a day and half at a few different locations nearby.  We were about 15 minutes from Rialto Beach which was our first shooting location.   Delayna had borrowed a few wedding dresses from friends, so we had lots of options starting with a day after photoshoot.  A day after session is simply that; a session that usually takes place after the wedding, where we can get creative and don’t have the usual time limits that we have on the actual wedding day.  Plus the dress is usually dirty by then, so no worries if it happens to get dirtier.

We spent about an hour there at the beach as the sun slipped behind the clouds. The next afternoon we spent some time around the property by the house, which includes some river waterfrontage, a large garage/shed, and a large wide open field leading to the river.  The weathered wood of the garage made for a really nice backdrop especially in black in white.

We took a little break, had them change into some regular clothes and then headed down to one of my favorite Washington beaches, Second Beach. We were photographing them as if they were doing an engagement session, but they weren’t actually engaged…YET.   Nathan tells me he wanted to propose to her while we were walking aroud, so we waited for the perfect moment and location plan for him.  As the sun was beginning to set, we told Nathan to pull out the fake engagement ring Delyana brought to do a mock proposal.  Cameras ready… Nathan then pulls out the real ring, Delayna was perfectly caught off guard, mission accomplished!

Congratulations Delayna and Nathan on your engagement!  We thank you for making the trip out to be our models, and are so happy we could capture and be a part your proposal.

I’ve been meaning to put up this post for awhile but it got overlooked until now.  The day after the 4th of July we headed down south to Oregon for a few days.  Of course we checked out a few wineries on the way, all of them actually have the capability for weddings as well, but even better they all had exceptional wine!  The first stop was just outside of Salem, Zenith Vineyard; they have an amazing facility for weddings and also a great tasting room.  We especially liked their 2006 Justice Vineyard Pinot and 2006 Aden Vineyard Chardonnay.  Then about a half hour south just outside of Salem we visited Willamette Valley Vineyards, where we absolutely loved the 2008 semi-sparkling Muscat Frizzante, if you know someone who doesn’t like wine, buy them this, it’s delicious!

Then we arrived in Eugene where we would spend a couple days with Larry’s family before heading to the coast and then back home. While in Eugene we visited another winery called Sweet Cheeks, a spectacular winery location high above the hills.  It was a perfect day for enjoying a bottle outdoors on the patio and that’s exactly what we did.  The 2008 Rosy Cheeks wine was perfect with our cheese and cracker plate.

After a couple days in Eugene it was time to head to Tillamook located on the coast, to visit the farm of Oregon Coastal Flowers.  We met up with one of the workers and took photos of the hydrangeas that were just starting to bloom.  Oregon Coastal Flowers provides many types of wedding flowers, mostly Calla Lilies and Hydrangas to clients nationwide.   Of course no visit to Tillamook is complete without a visit to the cheese factory!  And the next morning we also visited Blue Heron for one final wine and cheese tasting before we left for the trip back home.