Sabrina and Charles: Leavenworth Wedding Photography at Mountain Springs Lodge

I knew right from the beginning that this would be a special day. Sabrina and Charles asked me to be the photographer for their wedding at the beautiful Mountain Springs Lodge in Plain, WA; a perfect location for their simple yet elegant wedding.  They planned to have family and a few close friends join them for a weekend of celebration. Sabrina and Charles took a laid-back approach that allowed people to spend time together without the usual stress of a lot of structured activities. It was refreshing for me as a photographer to not feel rushed by a tight schedule, and inspiring to see everyone simply enjoying their time together. The love that Sabrina and Charles shared, both with each other and with their families, was contagious and the mood of the event felt more like a family reunion than the joining of two families. Distilling a full day into a paragraph and a handful of photos is never easy for me but some events stick out in my mind: Sabrina seeing her father as he showed up to walk down the aisle, walking the winding grassy path to the ceremony site, Sabrina’s grandfather restoring a 1969 El Camino (that has been in their family since it was new) and surprising her by showing up with it at the wedding. In a day filled with emotion, there was one event that really stood out to me. During the father and daughter dance, Sabrina’s father had the DJ read a narrative he had prepared. While we always know that the wedding day is an emotional one for parents as well as the bride and groom, we don’t always explicitly hear the parents’ thoughts. As a parent myself, I was immediately moved by the opening words, “I remember the first time I held you…” As the narrative continued, I noted not only the moment that the bride and her father were having, but also the smiles on the faces of Charles and his father as they stood together watching and sharing the same moment.