A Rustic Wedding at Machias Meadows | Snohomish, Washington

Mar 17

Some connections you can't plan. Some just keep unfolding in the best possible way.

It started in Vietnam. I was photographing a destination elopement, and Rachel was there — a bridesmaid, warm and lovely and immediately someone I wanted to know better. The following year, she asked me to photograph her own wedding, and I said yes without hesitation. And it was at Rachel's wedding that I met her sister Sarah — and Sarah's then-boyfriend RheShaun. So when Sarah and RheShaun reached out to have me photograph their wedding, it felt less like a booking and more like the next chapter of something that had been quietly building across continents and years.

That's the kind of full circle that makes this job feel like a gift.

Machias Meadows in Snohomish, Washington, is thirty acres of beautiful Pacific Northwest property that somehow manages to feel both wide open and completely tucked away from the world. The red barn anchors the whole property — warm and classic and exactly the kind of rustic backdrop that lets a wedding breathe naturally without trying too hard. It's the kind of venue that feels lived in and loved, which sets the tone for everything that follows.

And then there were the Highland cattle.

Scattered across the field like they owned the place — which, honestly, they do — the Scottish Highland cattle at Machias Meadows are something else entirely. Those long horns, that shaggy coat, that complete and total indifference to the wedding happening nearby. They were extraordinary to photograph, and I was delighted by their presence every single time I turned a camera in their direction.

The ceremony itself had a moment I won't forget. Rachel — Sarah's sister, the same Rachel from Vietnam, the same Rachel whose own wedding I photographed just a year before — walked Sarah down the aisle. Something about watching that unfold, knowing the thread that connected all of us in that field on that day, made it hit differently. It was quiet and tender and absolutely beautiful.

RheShaun and Sarah's people came ready to celebrate. The bridal party was rowdy in the best possible way — the kind of energy that fills a space and keeps giving all day long. Yard games out in the field, laughter everywhere, nobody taking themselves too seriously. By the time the sun went down and the dancing started the whole thing had built into something genuinely electric. Late-night dancing at a red barn in Snohomish with thirty acres of Pacific Northwest around you and a field of Highland cattle somewhere in the dark — there are worse ways to close out a wedding day. There are very few better ones.

Venue: Machias Meadows | Snohomish, Washington