Two Unusual Weddings!

Hello faithful readers. As you may have been able to ascertain, we here at Curtis Rhodes Weddings and A Perfect Little Wedding have been far from perfect in keeping up with our Blog Posts. I'd like to blame it on the change to Daylight Savings Time but we all know that couldn't be as the time change only happened this morning and its been MONTHS since we've posted.

Anyway...we're back!

We Seattle Wedding Officiants sometimes run into unusual requests, but we (almost) always happily honor them. Of course, I do prefer not to participate in a Sky Diving Ceremony, but just about anything else goes.

Two recent weddings come to mind. A short time ago we were asked to perform a wedding ceremony at the Olympic Hotel for a couple who have been married for 20 years! Not a vow renewal, mind you, but a wedding ceremony with the license to be signed (secretly) afterwards. How can this be? Well it seems that 20 years ago this couple had the big wedding but at the last minute had second thoughts about "legalizing" it and never signed a license. No one knew this and they have been enjoying their lives together, raising a family, being active members of the community, posing as Mr. and Mrs! Now, after all this time, they realized that their love for each other needed to be formalized and legitimized. They came to Seattle and I met them at the hotel. We asked a couple in the lobby if they would witness the ceremony and sign the long missing license and, lo and behold, our couple is now enjoying all the fruits of a blissful marriage!

Our second story began in the middle of last week when I received a call from a woman in Denver. She and her guy were going to be in Seattle for a vacation and she wanted to "surprise" him with a wedding ceremony. Just the ceremony...no license! She asked if Vickie would make a bouquet for her and if we would bring our cameras along to Kerry Park where she was going to bring him to see the view. I supposed that we were going to pounce out of the bushes or from behind the wall and yell surprise...what would his reaction have been??? What would your's be? The tension was relieved when they did appear, she in a wedding gown and he with a big smile on his face. She had sprung the news on him at the hotel and he was totally cool with it.

So, unusual, yes, loving, warm and wonderful, of course. What else could a wedding be?

A New Year's Resolution!

I must first apologize to my thousands of Blog Fans who wait on pins and needles to read another posting from this Seattle Wedding Officiant. I know there are others right here at A Perfect Little Wedding who are downright angry at my negligence in writing of the many wonderful weddings we are lucky enough to participate in. Well, it is the time of year to make a resolution and mine is...oh I think you can guess.

And here we are, starting off the year with a wonderful wedding on the Space Needle. On January 1st, 2012, Shanon and Durwin came down from Canada to be married in their favorite city. We asked a lovely young couple (and their baby son,) if they would be our witnesses and they were delighted. After the ceremony we took a few photos from the Observation Deck, then went to Gasworks Park for pictures with the Space Needle in the background. Here are a couple of photos from the 1st.

If my resolution holds true, I should have another story to tell on Wednesday when I go down to the Olympic Hotel for another Perfect Little Wedding!

Part of the Team!

Once again I've fallen a little behind in my posts but things here at A Perfect Little Wedding and Curtis Rhodes Weddings are hopping. I want to tell you about the wedding in Steilacoom and the wedding at the Marina Green in Kirkland including some of the photos we took but first I must tell you about the fabulous wedding I Officiated at Alderbrook on the Hood Canal. How international to have a Beautiful Blonde Bride and a handsome Middle Eastern Groom who live in China. And how wonderful to be among the elite wedding professionals they chose for their wedding! Janel Ellefson of Occasions Wedding and Event planning who recommended me! http://occasionsllc.com/index.htm And, although I didn't see her, Tiara was hard at work in the Brides dressing room working her magic... http://www.tiarasonlocation.com/ and to not only work with a marvelous professional photographer like Carol Harrold http://www.carolharroldphotography.com/billy/ but to be offered these fantastic pictures for my ceremony portfolio...makes me so proud to be a part of this community!

Everyone Loves A Wedding!

I know that we here at Curtis Rhodes Weddings and A Perfect Little Wedding love weddings! And so, it seems, does everyone else! Just the other day we received a last minute call from a couple who were visiting Washington from Nashville, Tennessee. They were staying at the Salish Lodge, had a marriage license and wanted to get married. So Friday evening, Vickie and I drove up to Snoqualamie Falls and met this wonderful couple. We took a few photos around the park and with the falls in the background then, as the sun was setting, thought it was a good time for a ceremony. We went up to the overlook platform, where another couple was enjoying the view. I went to them and said, "Excuse me...." The girl said, "Oh, you want to take some pictures here, we can move."
"No, no," I said. "Actually this couple is about to be married and they need two witnesses. They were hoping you could be their witnesses."
The girls eyes lit up...she raised a fist in the air and yelled, "YES!! We saw you at the Lodge and I just told my boyfriend that you looked so beautiful I really wanted to be a part of your wedding and now I'm going to be the Maid of Honor!! This is fabulous!!"
All the other people up there that night cuddled together and watched as our couple married with their brand new, very happy friends at their sides.
Afterwards we all signed the license and the four of them wandered back to the lodge intending to have dinner together.
It was... a Perfect Little Wedding.

Our favorite photographers!

After all those years as Curtis Rhodes Photography, we never did see any of our fellow photographers at work (only at play!) Now, however, we see an old friend almost every week! And lots of new friends too. We performed a ceremony a couple of weeks ago at a beautiful venue I haven't been to before, ACTs Bullit Cabaret. It is a very unique place absolutely designed for a party! The couple was wonderful...the bride stunning! And...we got to visit with our friend, Chris Sollart! http://www.chrissollart.com/

Chris was flying solo that evening and he was a ball of fire! Adjusting lights, checking his cameras moving his ladder to the best spot and all the while, directing the couple and their families into the nicest groups with the happiest smiles! Chris was good enough to send me a couple of examples from the wedding. Amazing!

Wedding Music

We here at Curtis Rhodes Weddings and A Perfect Little Wedding love to help our couples with ideas about how to make their wedding as beautiful as can be. When possible, one of the things we encourage is to add music to the ceremony. Of course, music for the processional and recessional is de riguire! We love to include "interludes" within the ceremony...such as a candle lighting, sand ceremony or our wonderful flame ceremony, and a short piece of music included here lets the wedding party and guests to take a moment to reflect upon the beauty of the moment. Often, especially when the Perfect Little Wedding is outdoors at a beach or park, the couple will bring along their IPod and ask a friend to be in charge of starting and stopping the music. When the ceremony is at the same location as the reception and the couple has hired a DJ company, they will often provide the perfect musical pieces to compliment the ceremony. We love working with DJs but most of all, for wedding ceremony music, we love live music. Live musicians can be much more able to adjust their playing to the situation, starting and stopping the piece in a natural way. We have many favorite musicians we love to recommend and work with and are always ready to help our couples with their music as they design their ceremonies. I'm including a photo of Spencer and Traci of A Bottom Line Duo, fabulous musicians who we love to run into at a wedding! http://www.bottomlineduo.com/

Summertime!

Hello faithful readers.I will be getting back to telling you all about wonderful music at weddings but thought today I would tell you about some of the wonderful weddings we've taken part in this summer. It seems that we have been everywhere in Western Washington, from Gig Harbor where I married a delightful couple who had their wedding on their beautiful property right on the water, to Discovery Park where we ended up walking two miles through the woods to our couple's favorite spot in the world! I've been out to North Bend and up to Snohomish, and loved every minute of it. This past weekend (the 4th of July) Vickie and I went to Vashon Island to a most beautiful spot...Fox Farms Lavender. http://www.foxfarm.org/ The couple invited us to stay for the dinner which was held down the road at The Hardware Store, a restaurant right in town and so we didn't get back on the ferry until just after sunset. From the ferry we could see in the distance the Olympic Peninsula. The mountains were silhouetted by the lavender sky, the crescent moon hung over the peaks as up and down the shore line, people set off their fireworks. It was spectacular! Here are Margo and David and their kids...I'll be back!