The story
the couple’s Mendocino Camp Rainbow wedding is easily one of the most creative, colorful, and joyous weddings we've ever attended. The couple are actually good friends, members of the same community of artist, eccentrics, and performers. We had shot their engagement at Sutro Baths , back when we were just getting started, so we were delighted when they asked us to shoot their wedding. But, honestly, we were somewhat hesitant because so many of our friends would be in attendance and it's rare that we actually get to attend a wedding without cameras in hand. As soon as we arrived we realized that there was no way in a million years we could have survived the event without taking pictures. Documenting unique weddings, like this one, is why we do this in the first place.
In their own place
What made this one specific.
What's so incredibly special about this wedding is that there were no vendors, only friends. Guests cooked the food, officiated the wedding, threw treasure hunts for the kids, built giant cardboard flowers, made the floral arrangements, created ornate headpieces and boutonnieres, installed the sounds systems, erected a colorful maypole for the ceremony site, performed live music, and built colorful shrines. Even their wedding dress and suit were meticulously crafted by hand.
one partner imagined a day filled with a rainbow's worth of color, and insisted that nobody wear black. For a couple that shines so brightly in a community so full of talented, creative, and colorful characters, their theme was a perfect metaphor. Sit, and enjoy this love story that is very special to us -- I promise it's like nothing you've ever seen.
Venue - Mendocino Woodlands Camp | Dress - Maiden May Costumes | DJ - DJ Darkkat | Harpist - Kristin LLoyd | Tea + Tarot - Niuka Adaptogenic Tea | Contra Dance + Celtic Wedding Music - Mickey & Elizabeth with guests Dan Cantrell and Dina Macabbee | Cardboard Flowers - Jessy Roadkill | Campfire Music - Campfire Songs with Micha and Leighton | Catering - Table Nectar , Babs Barry, Jonathan Selin | Sound/lighting setup - One Hat One Hand | Coffee - Ritual Coffee | Sound System - Chicken John | Wedding High Priestess - Lorree Gardner | Elemental Elder - Jan Cyr | Fertility Goddess - Erin Staples | Performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Emeline Turner | Performance of " Because" - Jessy Brown, Jesse Roadkill, Paulie Anna Duke | Maypole Priestess - Dr. Deb Windham | Additional Thanks to Micha Grainger, Remy Beatty, Lukas WhatWhat + Serena Tino ( Spaz.org ) | Music: When We Fall In by Sean Hayes | Featured on A Practical Wedding
The complete sequence
A real story needs the parts between the portraits.
This wedding story in Mendocino County is shown as a sequence: the people arriving, the setting taking shape, the ceremony, the reactions around it, and the way the celebration changed afterward. The photographs stay together so the day reads as more than a short highlight reel.
Published elsewhere
Featured and selected.
This story has also appeared in the publications and collections below.
Rainbow Wedding
Archived copy of A Practical Wedding's editorial feature of this Mendocino Woodlands wedding; the publisher's live URL has retired.
