An Olympia, WA Wedding Weekend at The Castle at Summit Lake
Most weddings give you one day. One shot at the ceremony, one shot at the portraits, one shot to be present before everyone goes home, and you’re left wondering where the time went.
Benji and Vika said fuck that, rented a castle, and gave themselves three.
Benji and Vika's Olympia WA wedding was a three-day, multi-location, fairytale-meets-adventure celebration that took us from a literal castle on a lake to the depths of an old-growth rainforest to a golden hour beach scene I'm still thinking about. And I highly recommend you try this out too!
The Destination Micro Wedding, Explained
The idea is that instead of cramming ceremony, portraits, family time, and a party into one frantic eight-hour window, you spread it out. You keep the guest list small and intentional, just you, your favorite people, and as much time as you want to actually live inside the experience. Plus, you get to build in serious time to do the adventurous, dramatic, creative portraits you’re dreaming about instead of squeezing them in between cocktail hour and the first dance.
Benji and Vika did this about as well as it can be done. They rented out an entire castle, gathered their closest friends, and built a weekend that felt less like a wedding and more like a small, beautiful universe we all got to live in together for three days.
The Castle at Summit Lake, Their Olympia, WA Wedding Venue
The Castle at Summit Lake was an incredible venue to host a group at and have an intimate gathering. It might be the most magical property I’ve ever had a chance to capture a wedding at. Tucked into a private lake community just twenty minutes outside Olympia, this place is genuinely a castle — three stories, lakefront, with turrets, a poker room, and enough space to house their entire wedding party comfortably under one roof for the weekend. If you’ve ever tried to coordinate a hotel block for an event, you understand the appeal of this immediately.
The front lawn was a beautiful setting for the wedding ceremony, and the Castle has this amazing little terrace where we set up long tables for a candlelit dinner party. And the backdrop of the lake was so dramatic and peaceful.
If you're looking for a venue that does both "intimate gathering" and “absurdly photogenic” at the same time, this is it.
Private Vows at the Quinault Rainforest
On day two, we drove into the Olympic National Forest. Benji and Vika wanted to exchange private vows deep in the Quinault Rainforest, standing with their feet in the water at the base of a waterfall. A couple of their friends and I stood just a few feet away, but the roar of the waterfall meant none of us could make out a single word they said to each other. Which, honestly, might be the most romantic possible version of having witnesses.
The Quinault Rainforest was maybe the most lush, alive place I have ever set foot on earth. It is so incredibly dense with wildlife, and breathing in the rainforest oxygen amidst the gargantuan moss-covered trees makes all your cells feel at peace. And every leaf was about the size of my entire body! If you've ever wanted Jurassic Park but make it a wedding venue, this is the place.
Ruby Beach During Golden Hour
We closed out the weekend on the Washington coast with portraits at Kalaloch Beach's famous Tree of Life and at Ruby Beach. The sunset turned the entire beach gold and pastel, and the massive sea stacks rising out of the water gave us this otherworldly, dramatic landscape. Vika and Benji, dressed down in flowing white for this portion, looked like they'd stepped straight off the cover of a romance novel.
An Olympia, WA Wedding Weekend Built on Community
I actually met Benji years ago at a photography conference — he's a photographer himself — so getting to shoot his wedding felt like a full-circle moment. But what struck me most wasn't the dramatic locations (though, truly, incredible). It was getting three full days inside this tiny, tight community of people. By the end of the weekend, I felt like one of the friends.
A Multi-Day Intimate Celebration? Please, More of These, STAT
I don’t shoot in the Pacific Northwest often. After this weekend, I want to change that. The scale of the landscape out here and the moodiness of the light made for the perfect setting for the slow, no-rush, adventure-built kind of wedding I’m into.
If you're dreaming of an Olympia, WA wedding (or anywhere else in the PNW) that prioritizes your community, your adventure, and real time for portraits that actually feel like art, I would love to talk. I'm Caroline, a documentary wedding photographer based in NYC, but I’ll follow you wherever!
Get in touch, and let’s plan your epic wedding next!