21.6.14

Wedding, Summer Solstice 1986

Today is Saturday, June 21, 2014. It is Summer Solstice. Twenty-eight years ago, Summer Solstice also fell on Saturday, June 21. We felt it was an auspicious day of the year to get married.

All photos by best bud Herb Payton. Thanks, padre.

First we led our small crew of witnesses across Puget Sound and around the top of the Olympic Peninsula to the deep fiord of Lake Crescent, and then through the woods to our chosen spot.


No fancy church for us.

I'd written a suitably idiosyncratic, humorous, and marginally poetic service, and we'd hired a local judge to do the honors. (She is now a State Supreme Court Justice.)

There was something meaningful about letting balloons loose across the lake, but I'm not sure what.

The parental units (mine bookending the group, Robin's mom and step-dad to the center right). Everyone was looking different directions because there were three photographers!

There was also something symbolic about finding a snakeskin in the grass -- old lives left behind, I reckon --  not to mention the deer who wandered by to watch the proceedings.

Live noodling by the talented brother-in-law in the sumptuous old lodge. The bartender was named Lloyd, like the one in "The Shining."

Cutting the custom cake (in a "Miami-Vice"color scheme, with abstract "New Wave" marzipan shapes and plastic bride and groom in hand-painted psychedelic dress). Plus PeeWee Herman-ish palm-tree vegetables as table decorations.

Pleased with ourselves.

Whew, that's over.
For more wedding content from the past, check out this week's Sepia Saturday.

9 comments:

  1. How meaningful and perfectly lovely and fun every step of the way!

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  2. The love is evident in the first and second last photos.

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  3. You picked a memorable date. Some 20+ years ago my wife wanted June 7 but I insisted 6/6 was easier (for me) to remember. Though even with photos to remind me of things I forgot, it still seems a blur.

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  4. What a happy relaxed wedding day you had. Great hat - how did you keep it on?

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  5. I loved this wedding...out in nature which had so much meaning for you all. So glad the weather was good too. My favorite thing about your whole post is that people aren't staring into the camera...but interacting either with each other or the photographer, moving, doing things, having fun. Herb Peyton's photos reflect the casual and simple enjoyment of your celebration. Thanks so much for sharing these great memories and photos.

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  6. Fine wedding - so different to a formal church affair and light hearted all the way.

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  7. I have developed an affection for weddings in natural settings. Thanks for sharing yours. It was beautiful.

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  8. Wow Sean, these are a treat!

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  9. Your wedding was surely unique for its time, and now it looks much like what a lot of brides on Pinterest are striving for.

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