As the first couple months of 2020 unfolded, it became clear that things were going to be different. I was supposed to shoot a wedding in Jamaica in March, which was canceled because there was no guarantee that guests could return to the US at that time. Wedding after wedding rescheduled into 2021. Work didn’t technically evaporate as much as it all turned into delayed gratification. A few weddings turned into elopements, and the rest turned into dramatically reduced guest lists, coining the word “minimony” as the brides and grooms figured out how to safely get married in the middle of a pandemic. The number of guests allowed to gather varies from state to state, but typically under 30 as of this writing. Guests are typically seated at least 6 feet apart, wearing masks at all times unless they are sharing air space with their pod of people in their regular social circle. Hand sanitizer is readily available in multiple locations and masks are provided. Guests that would have been present from other states and other countries often find themselves watching the wedding through a laptop via Zoom. Outdoor weddings are a lot less risky because air moves rather than recirculating.
Peter and Heather decided to move ahead with their wedding in late August after moving it from the original date of May 9th, dramatically reducing the guest count and making the needed modifications to proceed safely. They got married a few hundred feet from the home Peter built in the tiny western town of Mazama, WA, near Winthrop and about 5 hours from Seattle, nestled neatly in a low area surrounded by beautiful mountains. It requires a drive through winding cliff roads with views that cannot be described with adequate reverence. To give you some idea of the beauty, the final photo in the gallery is from Highway 20, part of the North Cascades Loop, a 400 mile drive I used to make regularly on my motorcycle during summer weekends when I lived in Seattle (1997-2009).
In order to accommodate all of their guests safely, wedding planner Kate Faoro of Tapestry Event Company released the guests in groups to maintain a safe social distance for the duration of each activity.
As Heather and Peter are both extremely active and fit, the guests were all encouraged to take part in morning runs and bike rides, and on the third and final day, everyone who wanted could go horseback riding in an area with scenery that looked like it was right out of a movie set. I even went on the bike ride through the woods and successfully took photographs with one hand while biking over rock, rocks and deep gravel.
Meals were catered by Table Catering Co of Seattle, served outside at Peter and Heather’s house in Mazama. The food was stunningly good, and they achieved the nearly impossible task of perfectly coordinating and packaging every meal individually and to each guest’s needs. Kate Faoro of Tapestry Event Co did an amazing job of wrangling everything from different locations and dealing with the challenges of trying to juggling timelines in an area with essentially zero cell phone coverage, particularly at altitude. Beautiful flowers were provided by Twisted Willow Floral.
I typically write my impressions of the wedding, the couple and how they met, etc, and my thoughts on the photographs and then share some photographs that communicate the feel of the wedding. Well, I’m still doing that, I guess, but this time I decided to share the words of their officiant, Emily Sterling from Rooted and Wild: Spirited Ceremonies, below the image gallery.
Heather and Peter had a great connection and seem to be living a nearly perfect life together. I wish them all the happiness in the world.
Click any image below to see it at a larger size
From officiant Emily Sterling:
“Hello everyone and thank you for being here to honor and celebrate Heather and Peter, as they join their lives together in marriage today! We hope you’ve had an adventurous weekend of activities thus far, joining Heather on a run or Peter on a bike, experiencing the beauty and the adventure that make up a day in their life when they come to their Mazama mountain getaway. They wanted you to experience a slice of heaven because you are all so important to them in this life. So thank you for traveling to be here with them today. We know that it has been a journey to get here in the midst of a pandemic: some of you drove from New Hampshire or California, and others of you boarded a plane with all of your masks and PPEs to witness this moment. So, thank you. Your love and your presence is so appreciated in this moment. We know that times are strange and things feel unpredictable, but love is resilient and an anchor in the storms of life. And so today, we celebrate the love between Heather and Peter and the love for these two that you all bring to this moment, exactly as it is: beautiful, vulnerable, and full of joy!
As we begin today, we also want to recognize those who were unable to travel today who are in our hearts and who are celebrating from afar: Peter’s siblings Freddy and Meredith and their children Nora, Eloise, Sam and Ellie, and Connor, and Heather’s sister Melissa and her son Quinn. Peter’s aunts Margaret, Lily, Ann Louise, and Lorraine and Heather’s aunt Debbie, Uncle David, Uncle Tom and Uncle Steve. We also want to recognize Heather’s father, Jim, who we lost in 2017. He was an incredible man whose devotion, thoughtfulness, patience, wry sense of humor and unconditional love are gifts that we carry with us forever. His memory, his spirit, and his presence are celebrated here with us today.
Let’s take a look back at the trail that these two have been hiking/running/biking/scootering to bring us to this moment of marriage. Peter first noticed Heather about three years ago as a blur running past him through the Eastlake neighborhood. As neighbors sharing the same alley, their paths crossed more than a few times at the local coffee shop or walking their dogs, sometimes with Peter helpfully pointing out that Heather’s car lights were left on. They both noticed each other: their cute, athletic neighbor with the sweet dog, and started making small talk about running or cycling, and the merits of their Bernese Mountain Dog and Rhodesian Ridgeback companions. When Peter’s relay race group needed another person for a race in Mazama last spring, he saw the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with Heather. The race actually started just feet from where we are standing right now. And though they found more and more in common on this adventure race weekend, and a few bike rides were shared, there were several more missed cues and subsequent calls made to friends for advice before they finally went on a first official date.
From that first date, these two found in each other their adventure partner. They found a person who was similarly ambitious and athletic, adventurous and competitive, who had a drive to balance work and play in a way that complemented one another’s lives. Heather has a way of opening people up, helping them to feel safe to reveal their inner worlds, and Peter described that she did just that with him. In Peter’s own words, he’s not the most forward guy, so with her gentle presence and persistence, these two deepened their connection. Meanwhile, for Heather, after the early days spent trying to decode Peter’s neighborly cues, such as bringing her old couch to Goodwill for her, Peter’s life partnership qualities quickly became obvious to her. His warmth, sense of humor, athleticism, constant quest for adventure, and generosity all stood out to Heather well before their first date, and this transitioned almost overnight into a sense of being in the right place with the right person.
Over the past year and a half, they’ve gone on runs, long bike rides, driven countless miles to Mazama listening to music for a weekend of mountain relaxation and adventure, traveled to Paris and Anguilla, hung out with Haedyn, schemed up big life dreams, and experienced so many other moments big and small that make up the story of their lives together. Along the way, they both realized that this connection was something significant. Peter said it was love when he heard the Lumineers lyrics “But I must admit it, that I would marry you in an instant’ and the first thing that popped into his mind was Heather’s smiling face. And Heather knew it was love from those first hikes in Mazama, first weeknight dinners, first road trips, first movie outings with Haedyn, that feeling of being at home. The compatibility and the authentic love they had for each other felt right from the very beginning.
So, when out on a jog (a warm-up run for Heather) near the University of Washington campus last spring, under a shower of cherry blossom trees, Peter got down on one knee and proposed. Yes, they were in the middle of a run and I can think of no more fitting of a time or place for these two athletes, to make the commitment to one another.
Heather, Peter loves the way you throw your head back when you laugh wholeheartedly, he loves that you patiently jog with him at a slower pace than you’d normally go, and that you can talk about anything and everything together. He loves that you let him sing along to songs on roadtrips even if he isn’t the best singer, and that you’ll spend hours in the back of an airplane as he and Haedyn learn to fly. You are an incredible partner, a loyal friend, an accomplished athlete, and he feels like the luckiest person in the world to be marrying you today.
Peter, Heather loves the way you dream big. She loves that you’re always ready for anything, whether it be riding your bike up a 10,000 foot mountain in Hawaii or dropping everything to do an unsavory errand just to make her day a little bit easier. She loves that despite your busy days, you prioritize quality time together, whether it be slogging slowly on cross country skis while she learned, tending to an unwieldy garden, or taking work conference calls together at the same table for hours on end. She is amazed by you, your talents, your intelligence, the compatibility you share, and she feels incredibly grateful to have met you and to be marrying her best friend.
Though the world looks a little different than it did at the time of your proposal, you two have navigated the challenges of a global pandemic and rescheduling a wedding with grace and love as the team that you are. And most importantly, today, you are surrounded by this incredible landscape, some very important people in your lives, and the strength of this love and commitment that you make today.”
If you want to follow me on Instagram, I have two accounts: @bradleyhanson is my personal one, all square images from my iPhone since 2008. @bradleyhansonphotography is my professional portfolio, a mix of weddings, family and portraits, as well as black and white and color landscape images. If you are still reading this far, you’ve already figured out how to find my website…
I am a Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota based wedding photographer, specializing in documentary style weddings and Indian/Hindu weddings all over the world. To see more of my wedding work, click the wedding galleries under the portfolio heading. To inquire about my rates and availability, call me at 206-393-8292, email me at bradley@bradleyhanson.com or fill out the contact form (click the “contact” link on the top right above this paragraph).
The wedding coordinator, Kate Faoro of Tapestry Weddings, has also created a lovely blog post regarding Pete and Heather’s wedding. You can see that here:
