Photography, Ben Wagner Photography | Venue, Cathedral | Location, Ballard, WA | Film Processing, Panda Lab Seattle
Candid Seattle Wedding Photography at Cathedral in Historic Ballard
Seo and Hassan weren’t even sure they wanted another wedding. Seo is Korean, and Hassan Pakistani, and in 2023 they traveled to have weddings in each of their respective countries with their families and following local customs. But what about their numerous friends here in the USA?
So they decided to have wedding number three that would be a more intimate, scaled down affair, focused on their close friends. The venue for this Seattle wedding was Cathedral, a two floor event space right in the heart of historic Ballard.
But the day began at the couple’s high-rise apartment, with the large wedding party (including a very cute doodle) gathered to celebrate and get ready together. Their apartment building features a large common area on the top floor that Seo and Hassan had reserved for the afternoon, so the groom and groomsmen hung out and got ready with beautiful panoramic views of Seattle, while the bride and bridesmaids got ready in the apartment below.
When she was ready, Seo made her way to the roof for a first look overlooking the city. The group hung out in the sun taking photos for a bit before the mad rush to Cathedral, 15 minutes away in Ballard.
When we arrived the group rushed to get everything ready for the guests arrival. This being the couple’s third wedding, there was no planner, coordinator, or large catering staff. They wanted this to be a smaller ceremony and a big party, which meant the bridesmaids and groomsmen were drafted to do a lot of the setup work. But this ended up being a great time as the group hung out together getting the venue prepped, there were lots of laughs during the prep, and then of course the hugs started as guests started arriving.
When it was time for the ceremony the wedding party made their way out the back of the venue and hung out on the Ballard sidewalk waiting for the big entrance. While so many PNW weddings are all about the greenery, the more urban setting of a Seattle Wedding gives the photographs a different feel that I quite like. There’s something nice about a wedding party running down the busy city sidewalk as the sun sets.
The ceremony itself was quick but emotional, some sound of which can be heard in the PhotoFilm below. This was followed by dinner, drinking, and then a raucous round of speeches. Shots were served all around, and then the dancing began. The DJ had setup a multi-colored lighting system that, combined with a shutter drag, gave a real chaotic sense to the dancing images. This to me represented just how much fun the group was having as they partied late into the night.
Candid Seattle Wedding Photography at Cathedral — The PhotoFilm
Candid Seattle Wedding Photography at Cathedral — Select Photos
The gallery below includes a select group of photos from Seo and Hassan’s wedding celebration. In the following gallery you will see images in both Color and Black and White, and each couple receives all digital photographs edited in both color and black and white. Any film photography images are delivered depending on the chosen film stock.
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Click any image to view in fullscreen or slideshow mode.
Digital images photographed on the Fujifilm XT5 and Leica M11. Film photographs taken on the Leica MP and Hasselblad 500C on Ilford HP5 and Kodak Gold 200 film stocks.
