This post is part 1 in a 3-part series. Read Part 1 – Read Part 2 – Read Part 3

When Sarah and Jon got married, the Red Bats split up as usual for the getting ready part of the day. Patrick went to the groom’s designated location in a sort of cabin in the redwoods, and I hung out at the house where the bride grew up. It was a privilege to be part of this event – the house was clearly full of family love and good memories. Places like that are my favorite places in the world, and I drank in the warmth and the laughter and felt glad to have been invited along.

There were eleven bridesmaids! That’s right, ELEVEN. (Also, three junior bridesmaids and two flower girls.) A new Red Bat record. While looking at the photos later, I realized I didn’t know much about bridesmaids. How were bridesmaids invented? What was their original function? As a wedding photographer, I should know these things. So I went to my good friend Wikipedia, and asked about bridesmaids.

Wikipedia on bridesmaids: The Western bridesmaid tradition is thought to have originated from Roman Law, which required ten witnesses at a wedding in order to outsmart evil spirits (believed to attend marriage ceremonies) by dressing in identical clothing to the bride and groom, so that the evil spirits would not know who was getting married. Even as late as 19th century England, there was a belief that ill-wishers could administer curses and taint the wedding. In Victorian wedding photographs, for example, the bride and groom are frequently dressed in the same fashion as other members of the bridal party.

Well how about that! I had no idea bridesmaids were a defense against evil spirits. Of course, in their contemporary form, they’re usually clad quite differently from the bride, as they were at this wedding. In fact, when surrounding the bride in their orange dresses, Sarah’s bridesmaids could be said to make her more of a target to lurking evil spirits than she would be otherwise.

Fortunately, all evil spirit efforts were destined to fail on that day. Instead, bride and bridesmaids got ready and posed for portraits and drank tea and made their way on foot up the long driveway (this house is in the woods of Ben Lomond) to the limo. All eleven bridesmaids plus the bride crowded into the limo, and because this photographer insisted on getting in too when there wasn’t any more room, I got to sit on top of the bar for the duration of the ride. These limo rides with the bridesmaids to the ceremony are not to be missed. There is often screaming and raucous laughter and dirty jokes. And while it’s hard to get clear shots in such a dark and shaky location, it’s worth trying because the ones that work out are priceless.

Enjoy these photos, and tune in for the rest of the story in a few days…

This post is Part 4 of a 4-part series. Read Part 1 – Read Part 2 – Read Part 3 – Read Part 4

After hanging out at Pacific Oaks for a while, wedding cake was on everyone’s mind, especially the bride’s. It was time to hop into the limo and go back to the reception site, aka their hotel room. The wedding cake was a vegan delight from local vegan supplier Black China Bakery. As soon as the cake had been cut and shoved playfully into the appropriate mouths, Jill declared the photographers and the stylist to be officially off the clock.

Of course, we didn’t want to stop taking pictures. It’s hard to stop clicking when things are still happening! Jill was fairly strict about this though, so we don’t have as many photos to show from the last part of the day. She wanted to make sure we ate enough cake, and later, enough tasty vegan food at Malabar. The wedding dinner was enormous. We lost count of the courses, we were brought so many. At last we were able to relax and chat with Jill and Chase, and with Jill G. the stylist, who took out her own camera to show us photos featuring her incredible horror-film-style makeup skills. Have I said that Jill G. is awesome? If so, I must say it again. Jill G. is awesome.

As we ate ourselves into a coma, we finally heard the whole story of how Jill and Chase got together. This information is usually elicited long before the wedding, but what with one thing and another, we never got around to interrogating them about this. The tale was worth waiting for, and one befitting these two. It was full of secret longing, and fate, and explosions, and astroturf, and it could only end with the words happily ever after.

Thank you, Jill and Chase! Come back to Santa Cruz soon for another Malabar dinner, a walk in the woods, maybe a vegan donut or two…