Wedding at the Lighthouse Keepers Residence in Cape Disappointment State Park
Hannah and Galen chose the salty route for their wedding ceremony and booked the lighthouse keeper’s residence at Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco, Washington. The reception took place nearby at the Historic Chinook School in Chinook, Washington.
Due to the treacherous seas where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, Cape Disappointment has become known as The Graveyard of the Pacific. Many vessels, and many lives, have been lost here. Due to the tempestuous nature of this environment it happens to be a great place to have the Coast Guard’s National Motor Lifeboat School, and apparently a neat place to have a wedding too!
I attended this motor lifeboat school while serving in the U.S.C.G., so when Hannah and Galen asked me to return to photograph their wedding at the old lighthouse keeper’s residence, I was stoked! What a great way to merge the love of sea and weddings.
The day before the wedding I prepped by staying at an awesome AirBnB near the Goonies house in Astoria, Oregon. The night of the wedding I would camped at Cape Disappointment State Park.
The day of the wedding, after a nice rest I walked out to a rickety pier that anchored my bones back to the sea. The pier was loaded with nautical shops, one of which being Coffee Girl. Here I got a bagel with lox, coffee, and spent a couple hours relaxing, breathing, and enjoying my coffee while watching the water.
The best way anyone can prep for a wedding is by clearing the mind and finding stillness, that way you can arrive to the day with fresh eyes and an open mind.
Let’s tell their story:
“When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.”
Thank you for joining us. The crew that came together:
PHOTOGRAPHER
VENUE
Cape Disappointment State Park with Reception at the Historic Chinook School
WEDDING DRESS
Brides for a Cause / Brides for a Cause is a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance for women focused nonprofits by collecting and reselling wedding dresses.
HAIR & MAKEUP
FOOD
