"The sunset was red and smoky because of all the smoke from all the tragedy."
That’s what Karna Roa said she was looking at when she snapped a picture of newlyweds Curtis and Katie Ferland, an image that went viral over the weekend.
"It was the third year in a row that I had a wedding in the wine country and had smoke," said Roa, who runs her own Bay Area photography business called KMR Photography.
The couple, from Chicago, didn’t know that would be the case when they planned their wine country destination wedding. The raging Kincade Fire caused mass evacuations and heavy smoke in the air. It was all new to them.
It was so smoky, masks were needed. The bride didn't think anyone would wear them.
The couple put on the masks in the end, staring straight ahead, perfectly framed between the vines with the dark, smoky sky above.
They were shocked when the photo went viral on social media.
"She had to be talked into it; she didn’t want to do it," Curtis said about his new wife. "She thought it would be tacky."
"All we wanted was to have our dream wedding," Katie said, "and we did. It’s crazy."
