A fun wedding

Yesterday's wedding was one of those events you witness and assume an army of people spent at least a year coordinating and planning. Every detail was perfect. Some of the most amazing flowers I have ever seen. An entire bar made out of ice. A table covered with jars of every kind of candy you can imagine. The best band in the Northwest Design Band. I talked about Design Band when I photographed them at the Lori and Brett's wedding earlier this year. If you are planning a wedding and haven't chosen a band yet...book these guys as quick as you can! They are simply amazing! Performers in every sense of the word. The fact they were there playing was yet more confirmation that they had chosen the best for every part of their day. The Pierre family has a close friend that owns an immaculate classic car...a 1934 Nash that inside and out looks as though it was just rolled off the lot! The ceremony was at the Bastyr Chapel in Bothel. Talk about a beautiful place to have a wedding! It has amazingly high ceilings with beautiful stained glass throughout. The pews face the center of the church and there is an enormous aisle for the bride to make her grand entrance. They turned out all of the lights in the chapel so the aisle was lit only by candles. It was a very romantic, dramatic, beautiful setting. The reception was held at a private log clubhouse on a lake in Woodinville. The food was amazing! They had a staff of some of the hardest working people I have ever seen and as you may know, I am in the restaurant business and have worked with some of the best. The caterer was another vendor that if you are planning a wedding you absolutely have got to book! Landau's Catering out of Redmond, WA. An amazing husband and wife team Mary Jane and David Landau are perfectionists. They had appetizers strategically placed throughout the reception area, the dinner was incredible and after the cake cutting they set up a table filled with a wide assortment of delicious desserts. David is in the kitchen preparing each dish with a level of intensity that would be difficult at best to duplicate while the incredibly charming and talented Mary Jane is out front making sure every guest has all of their needs satisfied. You can contact Landau's Catering by calling 425-882-1300 or emailing landauscatering@aol.com. Be sure to tell them Mat Hayward sent you!

So all of these details were not planned by an army of coordinators and were not put together over a year as I would have expected. Instead in 8 weeks, the mother of the bride Barbara Pierre coordinated, organized and planned it all. With a clear vision of what she wanted and an attitude of anything is possible she put together what I call a "WOW" wedding. I am so impressed with what she was able to accomplish in such a short period of time. Her and her husband Jamie Pierre of Pierre Auto Centerare a fun couple that I truly enjoyed meeting. The Maid-of-Honor in her toast made the statement "No one can party like the Pierre's!" and I believe her.

Their daughter Trina was the bride. Another quote in a toast was that she is the type of person as soon as you meet her she has you wrapped around her finger. I can completely believe that as well. With a contagious smile that seemed to be on her face all day long she kept saying "I am so happy!" throughout the day. That is exactly how she should have felt and I am so happy for her that her dream wedding came true. I hadn't met her before yesterday and knew very little about her. She lives in San Francisco and during the toasts I learned that she was a professional ice skater featured in Disney on Ice and went from there to perform in Cirque Du Soleil which I absolutely love every show I have ever seen performed by them. It was great fun watching her interact with her friends and family. She is clearly a genuinely sweet person with a support network of people that are all absolutely crazy about her.

Alex the Groom was another genuinely great guy! Also armed with a contagious smile and an overall sense of kindness, intelligence and general likability. The combination of him and his new bride make it so obvious that they have the necessary ingredients of a long, happy, adventurous life together. I wish them all the very best!

I have been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to photograph wedding days for so many spectacular couples this year. Yesterday's wedding was the last of 2007 for me and looking back it's been a great year. Every couple has had the certain something I mentioned above. So much true love and support. Each couple I've been privileged to photograph I have been so happy for and hope to get progress reports on their lives, babies and all that fun stuff.

Take care,

Mat

P.S. If you are wondering about Dan and Kali pics, they are on the way. Dan and Kali are in Australia until the end of this month so I've delayed the blog update on them until they return.