Pohl-Drake Wedding, Bainbridge Island, Washington

The Pohl-Drake Wedding, 2012, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 40 inches, by Sam Day

The Pohl-Drake wedding was, for the bride, just a visit to Grandma's house for some blackberry pie— along with 275 guests.
The bride rides horses, and has fond memories of visiting her grandmother’s summer house on Bainbridge Island, and picking blackberries. The groom rides everything else— but chiefly motocross bikes. That’s why, during his father’s toast, his brother rode through the tent on the front seat of a tandem bicycle, with an English saddle on the back seat, and a hobby horse tied to the front (I painted that in the lower left corner).

The grandmother’s summer house is situated in an enclave known as The Country Club of Seattle, wherein eighteen estates on a wooded hill are surrounded by a grassy apron of equestrian paradise, nine holes of golf, and Puget Sound. The ceremony was in a tent on the lawn looking south at Blake Island and west to Rich Passage.  Cocktails were held a few hundred yards to the east, in another white tent right on Restoration Point. I set up my easel in the final reception tent, northernmost of the three, pitched within a wooden railed equestrian circle, not far from the barn, looking east. The view stretched from Blakely Harbor on the left, to the cocktail tent on the right, seen just over the hill. One can see Seattle from here, over the blackberry bushes that line the shore. The tall skyline appears in my painting just left of the cocktail tent. Blakely Rock is just 800 yards off the pebbly beach, in the center of the painting, where a sailboat passes. A Washington State Ferry is seen leaving Eagle Harbor en route to Seattle.

The tent itself was a hundred and fifty feet wide, open to the view on the water side, and decorated with elegant antiques (Vintage Ambiance) in subdued colors. Erected as it was in a horse’s trotting ring, the floor was grass, cut golf course short, and combed clean as a carpet. I painted barefoot (by permission), and believe me, it was immaculate.

The wedding was semiformal. The groom wore a plaid suit with a bow tie, like an English gentleman. The groomsmen wore dark suits and bow ties of various colors; the bridesmaids each wore something boldly unique. The bride wore lace. Everyone wore broad smiles.

There was a dance floor and a stage. Dinner was serenaded by an unamplified bluegrass band, The Tallboys. After dinner, The Craig Lawrence Band played everything from jazz to classic rock and current pop.

Herban Feast catered, and floral magic was provided by Bainbridge Island based Rachel Bowes of Finch and Thistle. The maestro who brought it all together was Sarah Cabatit, of EventWise Planning.

Locally sourced Blackberry pie was served along with the coconut cake  (bottom right, on the table behind Grandma).