This week I’ll be joining Erin and David at the über stylish Hotel 1000 while they tie the knot in front of an intimate and select group of friends and family from all over the world.  This will be my last wedding of 2010 and one I’ve been looking forward to all year long!

Their love story is unique in that it’s genesis was sown in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and nearly 7,500 miles from Erin’s hometown of Seattle and some 3,500 miles from David’s home base of Leeds, United Kingdom. The story went something like this:  David took an Abu Dhabi job in the building hotbed of UAE as an environmental engineer.  Erin headed towards Abu Dhabi with a sense of adventure to visit a college girlfriend (Molly) that was living there.  Molly’s husband Joe and David worked together.  David had family in town so he, along with Molly and Joe planned for everyone to do fun stuff like sand dune driving, Coldplay concert, drinks etc.

Word on the street is that Erin was smitten from the get go (no wedding band, she checked) and that Dave would ask Joe what “the American Girl was up to” each day at work.  One thing led to another and after a visit by David to Seattle in June of 2009, in April of 2010 Erin found herself being proposed to whilst on a Caribbean cruise when pulling into St. Martin with David’s entire family in tow to celebrate his mother’s 60th.  Nice style points David!

Not too long after saw Erin and I exchanging details over Skype to discuss photography and her wedding while she endured temperatures of 114 degrees and I basked in the wonderment of being a simple Seattle wedding photographer that had somehow made a connection halfway around the world.  Life is crazy / Life is good.

With David hailing from Leeds, UK and only having just arrived in Seattle the week before our session, like good tourists we descended upon Pike Place Market where we took in some pastries and cappuccinos at Le Panier, perused maps and got our bearings at Metsker Maps and enjoyed some mimosas and Champagne at Maximilien, one of my favorite French hideaways in town and also the scene of the crime for some of the frames from Kristi + Erin’s Bestfriends portrait session.

Hats off to these guys as they embark on the next phase of their journey together and celebrate their love through marriage, travel and the coming together of cultures and families.

To see all the images from the session, visit the Slideshow

To purchase prints from the session, please visit the Photocart.