Jamie Buckley Photography

Danielle & JR’s wedding at Salish Lodge was attended by only thirty of their nearest and dearest but the love felt all day was many times that. There were tears shed, there was laughter and there was a party shirt. Scroll all the way to the end to see it in all its glory.

I had the best time with Loren & Kelsi yesterday celebrating their engagement. We shot at the Smith Tower which is my favorite building in all of Seattle and also where they met when they both worked there, so it was special for all of us. Then we drove down to the waterfront and hung out at Pier 54 with the Seattle Wheel and the ferries and it was the most beautiful, perfect Pacific Northwest weather.

When Seth suggested Freeway Park as the location for his and Danny’s engagement session, I was hesitant. Typically I shoot in very green, nature filled spaces and what I knew of Freeway Park was concrete. But I trusted his vision and it paid off beautifully. There was a whole side of the park I’d never seen before with waterfalls and yes a whole lot of concrete but it fit their vibe totally. I loved the juxtaposition and brutalist nature of the concrete pressed up against the grass and trees. But more than that I loved the way that Seth & Danny would both smile immediately as soon as I told them to look at each other.

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since I wandered around with Alexandra & Sam at Carkeek Park. But I know it is because today I’m flying home from Scotland after being here for three weeks! One of the things that’s wild to me is that Sam is from Cambodia and when I told him I was from Glasgow he asked Rangers or Celtic and I was like wait what how do you know about that. It’s weird to me that people in other countries care about the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic that I grew up with. Thankfully after talking about the weirdness of that rivalry (it’s pretty violent) we moved onto other topics and had many a laugh as we roamed the park.

Allen & Courtney met me at one of my favorite parks in Seattle: St Edward’s State Park and we wandered around talking about their wedding day and sports. I could only field discussion about one of these things 🤣 their wedding in July is coming up fast and I can’t wait to spend the day capturing it with my bestie

Felt so good to be back in the swing of things this past week starting with Faye & Jack’s engagement session at their beautiful home in Gig Harbor with their two adorable dogs Fiona & Cordy. Fiona was all friendly until it was time to take photos and then she said no paparazzi 🤣 I still love her though.

It’s been such a weird and wild six months being on the road that I didn’t even stop to think that this is the longest I’ve gone without shooting clients since I moved here in 2015. Even through the pandemic I didn’t go as long as I have now. My last client shoot was on November 26 and that streak finally gets broken tonight with an engagement session! And then two more over the next two days. Then we fly to Scotland for 3 weeks. Then it’s pretty much weddings every weekend until October. I’ll miss traveling while we’re in Washington for the summer but there’s so much of Washington we haven’t seen either so we’ll still be exploring some in our downtime. Now to try and remember how to take photos…..

Throwback Thursday to the time I did a consult with these two and we talked so long in the sun that we got sunburnt 😬 as a precaution now I always put on sun tan lotion before in-person consults 🤣

Today in wedding tips, let’s talk crowd control. And I don’t mean that they’re gonna get rowdy. What I mean is that as the wedding couple, assign a person to tell people how many seats are reserved, and also to fill the rows from aisle outwards. Unless your wedding party is sitting after entering, chances are you’ll only need 2-3 seats open on the very front row. But most weddings assume the front few rows are strictly for family and so they’ll avoid them. If you have someone there who can tell them what’s what then you’ll end up with nice full looking crowd photos. Same with having people sit from the aisle outwards. People for some reason are scared to sit in the aisle. Most weddings I have to go round and ask people to skooch in so the aisle seats are filled up. It makes a world of difference in photos.

So in short, don’t assume people understand how to fill your ceremony seating in a photogenic way!

It’s weird that this was two years ago. How is time still broken? But look how cute they are. I had totally forgotten I took photos alongside video at this session so that was a nice wee surprise.

What is it the cool kids say these days? “Drop it like it’s hot?”

One of my favorite prompts for my couples is the “drunk walk”. After checking that they both drink, I tell them to imagine they’re heading home after a night at the pub. It’s so funny how pretty much without saying anything more everyone does almost the exact same walk, as if drunkenly walking home with your partner is such a universal thing.

Also can we talk about Justine’s amazing bridal pant suit?!

In 2017 when the eclipse happened in Oregon, I chickened out at the last minute to drive down because of traffic. I had such fomo later that day that I looked up when the next one would be and said there and then: I will see it.

And today I did. While at a campground in the middle of nowhere Missouri. It’s funny how different life is from that day back in 2017. We’ve just come from Florida where we were for the winter and tomorrow we continue on our journey to Pennsylvania and then back to Washington for the summer.

It’s been exactly six months today since we accepted the offer on our house and moved into our RV full time. We’re still adjusting and there’s good days and not so good days. Today was a really good day.

25 years ago I stopped on the side of the road with my Dad and watched the partial eclipse in Scotland. I was 11 years old and I had no idea what it was. But I remember seeing all the news footage of what the total eclipse looked like in the south of England and I knew that one day I wanted to see it in person.

And today I did. And it was everything I hoped for.

(I FaceTime’d my Dad during totality so he could see it too since I was with him back then and wanted him with me now)

If you were wondering why it’s so quiet around here, and don’t watch Instagram stories, it’s because for the past two weeks I’ve been on vacation in the Maldives and Singapore. It was an amazing trip (if you want to see more of it head over and follow ) and I’m glad we got to do it before heading into the busy wedding season. It’s wild to think it’s just over a month until we’ll be back in Washington for the summer and my wedding season starts on June 22! I’m really looking forward to all my weddings this summer and the places they’ll take me. There’s really no place like the PNW in the summer

Happy anniversary to these two beauties who threw the best wedding weekend there ever was.

I love when couples get ready together! It’s such a private special moment on a day that is almost completely observed by others. Highly recommend.

If you don’t look this happy after saying I Do, you’re doing it wrong.

As I sit sweating in the Florida sun while watching stories of people back in Washington dealing with snow I find myself missing it but also not missing it. Do we have a word for that feeling?

Aside from my own weddings I love getting to second shoot for other photographers because it’s so much fun hanging out with a like minded person all day. This year I have a few video weddings where I know their photographer and I’m super pumped to work alongside some awesome people this summer!

If couples are bringing 100% of their authentic selves to their wedding, then I need to do the same.

Does the mean bad puns? Yes, yes it does.

It’s Friday! Yay! Except it’s supposed to rain all weekend here in Florida. Which is fine cos I don’t have a M-F 9-5 anyway so what even is a weekend?

As excited as I was to leave Washington back in December, I am missing the colder weather right now. There’s just something about curling up on the sofa with a good book, a fire going in the fireplace, as the rain or snow falls outside. Don’t get me wrong I love reading in the sun, but doing so in February feels wrong somehow.

The wonderful shared a beautiful post of two ladies who found love in their 70’s and I think it’s so important in our industry that when we say we’re including everyone that we’re including those above the age of 30*. Especially in the q***r community those people have such amazing stories to tell. Stories of resilience, stories of resistance, stories I think a lot of younger people could benefit from. So let’s celebrate them.

These are photos of Deke & Mike who were my first ever couple and still are some of my favorite memories from that series ever. They told me all about finding each other in a bar in Seattle in the 80’s and all their adventures over 40 years together. For context: they’ve been together longer than I’ve been alive. How amazing is that?

*according to Google the average age of a person getting married is 29 years old.

If your face doesn’t look like this when your person asks for your hand in marriage, that’s okay because everyone has different faces.

This was such a good day. I remember B’s mom came over to me at dinner and was like “you don’t have to sit all the way over here by yourself, come join us” and I had to awkwardly explain I’m an introvert and dinner is my quiet recharge time and she was like “heard, I will divert everyone away from you” and if that isn’t the sweetest thing ever I don’t know what is.

It’s hard to believe that it was nine years ago today I first arrived to the US as a permanent resident. These past nine years have been some of the best and worst of my life but there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be than with Tim and Loki.

Did I capture your wedding? Would you love an easy way to support my business? Well then have I got a link you should click on!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WWD-BO24-Voting?fbclid=IwAR1Eh5XZcR3a9xkYbVzBMFgmV7IZVZkweUY3TrXp6mDlEM8ednkiKPFp9Bw_aem_AYhPsqzXfSK1Ok1thqm8N2uCA4PfaMicbRsUS0pQnaetYVvI7J_qxeyytGc9SPKf4Hg

Washington Wedding Day Best of 2024 Awards Voting Please vote for your favorite Washington wedding professionals in Washington Wedding Day's Best of 2024 Awards Voting!

Finally getting around to blogging weddings from last summer starting with Jon & Chris’ multi day Seattle Aquarium extravaganza! These two put on such an amazing weekend for their out of town guests to get to know each other. It started on Friday night with a welcome party at Ice Box arcade, then games at their house on Saturday morning and then the main event at Seattle Aquarium on Saturday night.

My favorite thing about the whole weekend was that I was there to capture it all and ended up feeling like one of the family after hanging out with everyone so long.

If you’d like to take a peek, head to https://www.jamiebuckleyphotography.com/blog

Every year around this time of year I get antsy to go capture something. I shot my last session on Thanksgiving last year and my first wedding of the season isn’t until June. This time is for doing all the behind the scenes stuff that makes the business work. The blogging, the paperwork, the taxes, the SEO. None of it is sexy but all of it isn’t necessary and yet every year when it rolls around my brain fights it with everything in its power and says “but what if we went outside and found people to take photos of?”

Something I don’t understand since moving to Florida is how a hot 50 is different from a cold 50. A couple days before we left Seattle it was 50 degrees and I was wearing pants and my fleecy hoodie. Today it was 50 degrees in Florida (if you didn’t know the locals will make sure you know) and I was wearing shorts and my lightest hoodie. It’s the exact same temperature so why do they feel different? It confuses me.

I don’t know if it’s from our 4 weeks of driving or what but I am TIRED. I used to wake up at 7:30 every morning and now I haven’t gotten out of bed before 9am since we got here a week ago. New routine starts Monday!