Chapel of the Pines - wedding services

07/24/2024

We had a lovely wedding couple this evening! Just their parents and sisters attended, a lovely early evening wedding.

07/09/2024

Did a nice little vow renewal this morning. They had been married 27 years.

There were happy tears.

When I do a vow renewal ceremony I like to calculate how many months, days, weeks and hours they have been married.

Today, I said to them at the end of the ceremony: “Today, you celebrate not only 27 years of marriage. You also celebrate 324 months of hugs, 1,404 weeks of laughter, 9,855 days of patience, and 236,520 hours of love. That’s a lot of love and it is an excellent foundation!”

To my pleasant surprise, the groom had also calculated the exact number of days from their actual anniversary date, which they had not given me. It was so much fun because he gifted her with a pair of diamond earrings for their 27th anniversary!

06/02/2024

It’s Gay Pride month and in honor of that we are offering a 10% discount to all LGBTQ+ couples scheduled to be held during the month of June.

06/02/2024

The geek in me is very happy this evening.

You may be asking why?

WELL! I’ll tell you!

So, I did two weddings today, and the second one was one of my favorite packages that I offer through my wedding officiant business, Chapel of the Pines. This package includes both the ceremony and photography.

A few months ago I bought a new camera, which automatically uploads the photos I create with that camera into my IPad. Which means I don’t have to wait till I get on my computer to play with them. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still load them into my computer, edit and send them to the wedding couple.

But these SOOTC (straight out of the camera) photos are good enough to use right away, and I can text a couple sneak peaks to the couple so they have photos right away, as well as use them for social media.

PLUS! BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! I took some of today’s wedding photos and made a collage out of them, complete with my new favorite toy, a QR code going directly to my Chapel of the Pines web site, and posted it on my Google page. And of course, here as well.

Did I say the geek in me is very happy!

Oh, and I’m also happy that we (me and my photographers) also still use lights. No raccoon eyes for us!

05/18/2024

We did a wedding today and had a ball with this couple. The weather was perfect too! I just want to show off a bit because this photo is what is called STOOTC. That’s photographer speak for straight out of the camera. I’ve got a new camera that will send my photos straight to my IPad or IPhone, so this shot was taken just a few minutes after the couple got married, and there is no editing done on this photo. Just a technically perfect shot. I also texted this image to the couple so they could have a good “real” camera shot right away.

I just love technology!

05/06/2024

This past weekend was filled with beautiful weather, a snow day, and a clearing up day. I got to do a wedding on the beautiful weather day, stay home on the snow day and another wedding on the clearing up day.

Here’s a photo from the clearing up day wedding. This couple was very much in love, and it was the first time getting married for the bride! She was very excited!

04/19/2024

For this post I’m going to use photographer Pete Rezac’s words, as well as his photo. He summed everything up quite nicely and he did an excellent job of creating this image during the ceremony.

“Mother Natures Intimate Church” Not all weddings are huge, have young couples, or happen in formal churches. I love working with my friend who marrys all types of people, ftom all walks of life, from all over the country and world! I think what I love about working with Karen and photographing her weddings, is I never - ever - know what I’m going we’re going to run into. It’s the challenge of the unknown and figuring it out on the spot that I love so much. It’s true that the venue is familiar, but weather, couples, tourists, weather, parking, weather, other weddings going on and did I mention weather are all wild cards for every event! This past Wednesday I feel Mother Nature made up to us with one of the most glorious days I can recall at Lake Tahoe in a while - I mean it’s always amazing at Lake Tahoe, but this past Wednesday was something special! It was so great to be a part of this couples day not only as the photographer but wedding witness too! I’m proud of the work from this one and my friend Karen for providing a great ceremony and experience for the couples she unites in marriage!

04/17/2024

What a nice spring wedding! Our photographer Pete Rezac did a splendid job creating images for this wonderful couple from Texas.

02/04/2024

Had a very nice elopement today in between storms. Perfect timing. Cell phone shots, not our work.

01/03/2024

First wedding of 2024, sneak peek!

12/30/2023

Item number zillion on cool things I learn from my wedding couples:

I have a couple getting married tomorrow who wants this included in their wedding ceremony. I’m not a numerology person but this was really fun:

What does 123123 mean? To understand the meaning of this sequence, let's break down what each digit means in numerology.

One is connected to new beginnings.
Two has to do with harmony, balance, and love.
Three represents creativity and self-expression.

When these three numbers are combined, they create a powerful force to make positive changes in our lives.

12/11/2023

Did you know there is a cool tool that you can use to find out how to pronounce a word?

I have a wedding today, and my couple gave me a couple of quotes to use in their wedding, and one of them I had no idea how to pronounce.

Sophocles

I’m an excellent speller, I can usually nail the correct spelling of any given word. But correct pronunciation sometimes eludes me.

However, if you go to your browser and type in “how do you pronounce….” And then the word, it will tell you, complete with a sound bite!

So Sophocles is pronounced SAA fla kleez.

And the little graphic they include with it even has moving lips, so you can see what the mouth looks like when one pronounces it!

Sometimes I just love technology. Well, most times I do.

I bet you never imagined a wedding officiant would have to do things like look up pronounciation of words. All part of the job.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, here’s the quote they wanted: “one word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

12/08/2023

I just love my wedding couples! As I thought, New Year’s Eve is proving to be a popular day to get married, with the numbers lining up as 123123. And the latest call I received was so fun! The groom told me he thought I had “good vibes.” Well, I like to think so!

11/16/2023

Well! I hope you will accept my apologies for not posting in a while. We had a busy summer filled with wonderful wedding couples! This is what is typically called shoulder season in the wedding business and it has slowed down a bit, which is pretty normal. But we have a fun date coming up: New Year’s Eve, which numerically looks like this: 123123. We expect it to be a busy day. So if you are looking to get married on New Year’s Eve, contact us now!

07/05/2023

I love it when this happens: I just received the nicest thank you note in my email box. This is from a couple who got married last month:

“Just a quick note to say Thanks! You both made our day special!
I will certainly mention you if I hear of anyone wanting to elope.
Best wishes,…”

06/10/2023

Just another beautiful elopement in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Elopements are our speciality!

11/12/2022

I thought you might like to see the hidden gem at Chapel of the Pines. Meet Pete Rezac.

He just got another degree in photography from Professional Photographers of America. He shows up to my weddings to help me photograph them and this is usually what he’s carrying. Two digital cameras and a film camera. And a light meter. And a light stand. He’s been working with me for about 3 years now (I think) and I’m lucky to have him. He’s got a great work ethic, good values and a pretty wicked sense of humor. He is a big help in getting our couples to laugh so we can get those wonderful natural smiles. He was an in studio portrait photographer when I contacted him and asked him if he wanted to do on location elopements with me. He said yes. Which is pretty amazing when you think about it. On location photography is a different animal than studio photography. And weddings are way different than portraits. He was very willing to step outside his box and that is one of the other things I like about him. Our first wedding was in the middle of a snow storm. It was quite beautiful and I think he ultimately got a merit from an image from that wedding, but I’m sure he wondered at that first wedding in the snow what on earth he had gotten himself into. Oh, and he teaches photography too. Travels all over the US to do that.

11/02/2022

Here’s a couple of shots of a wedding I did the other day on behalf of Simply Eloped. Obviously, it was snowing! Still beautiful though.

10/14/2022

I showed up to a wedding the other day and the sister of the bride had these hats made up, and she gave me one! I love this hat!

07/24/2022

I am not a Christian Pastor but I am an ordained minister licensed to do weddings in both California and Nevada and I would be happy to do yours, no matter if it is same gender, in*******al, non-binary, interfaith, or any other kind. Even non religious. And if you tell me you support equal rights for all when you make your reservation, I will happily donate 10% of my fee to an equal rights charity of your choice, in your name.

06/24/2022

If you are in support of human rights, which means you support a woman’s right to choose, marriage to who you love no matter their gender, true equality no matter what a person’s color or culture is, and you want to get married, I will donate 10% of my fee for the ceremony to one of the following human rights organizations: the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Reproductive Rights, Human Rights Watch, NAACP, Human Rights Action Center, Human Rights Campaign, or the Center for Constitutional Rights. This is by no means an exhaustive list but simply the ones I know about. Just tell me when you contact me that you support human rights for all, and tell me which group you would like that 10% donated to, and I will make it happen. Yes, we can vote, but this is going to take more than just voting. I’m not the kind of person that participates in protest marches, but there are other ways to fight. This is one of them. By the way, I’ve done many more same gender weddings this summer than normal, and they all have told me that they are convinced their right to get married will be taken away soon. I believe them. This has only just begun.

05/07/2022

So! You’ve decided to elope. Now what? Here’s a little primer:

We’re getting married! NOW WHAT?!?! I had a bride ask me once if getting married in Nevada was like it happens in the movies: you just decide to elope and VIOLA! You are married! Well, while it is easy to get married and even to elope, it isn’t THAT easy. There is just a little bit of planning t...

04/29/2022

Now this is cute and fun! I would have totally been on board (see what I did there?)to do this wedding had I been, ahem, on board this flight. FUN!

04/23/2022

When the date lines up like it did today, the weddings happen. We did three today, on 4-22-22. The weather cooperated, all our couples were great, and my photographer Pete Rezac showed up with yet another camera! Here’s some cell shots we got today. Real photos coming soon.

03/29/2022

I got to have this special moment with the Groom just before the ceremony began. This photo was created by one of our great photographers, Scott Chapman. The wedding was held at a private home with great views of the surrounding desert.

11/01/2021

We have a wedding coming up and the bride speaks Chinese, and very little English. So the groom, who speaks fluent Chinese and English, translated the vows into Chinese. I am very impressed by this loving gesture of care and consideration by the groom towards his future wife! And I thought you might like to see what the vows look like, in Chinese:

我桂枝，带你肯做我的丈夫，从今以后，无论是好是坏，是富是贫，有病有健康，有爱有珍惜，为我们余生 在一起的日子。

Wǒ guì zhī, dài nǐ kěn zuò wǒ de zhàngfū, cóng jīn yǐhòu, wúlùn shì hǎo shì huài, shì fù shì pín, yǒu bìng yǒu jiànkāng, yǒu ài yǒu zhēnxī, wèi wǒmen yúshēng zài yīqǐ de rìzi.

07/16/2021

One of our wedding couples just texted me this cell phone photo they took. I think it is cute! Their family consists of the two of them and their Border Collie, Finn, who was just a sweetie. In a couple of weeks we will be doing a wedding with three dogs accompanying the couple! Yes, if the venue allows it, we love having dogs at our weddings!

04/24/2021

I just love my wedding couples. One of my brides just sent me an email asking if her and her fiancé should practice kissing. I told her that when it came to kissing there was no such thing as too much practice!

02/11/2021

I just got this response from a bride to whom I sent a copy of her ceremony:

“Omg I really love it! Can’t wait to marry him 😻”

I love it when that happens.

01/10/2021

I just love it when I get these thank you cards in the mail from my couples! This was the cutest card, and the message they sent gave me the warm fuzzies.