Updated Oct. 30, 2019 4:00 PM
The photo is startling. A bride and groom posing in a smoky vineyard near Chateau St. Jean Vineyard in Kenwood, California, wearing face masks to protect them from wildfire smoke.
Curtis and Katie Ferland, a couple from Chicago, had been planning their destination wedding in Northern California wine country for a year.
When they arrived in California for the big event, they were inundated with news coverage of the Kincade Fire burning across Sonoma County. "The first thing we see on TV when we turn it on is flames everywhere," Curtis told ABC.
Chaos ensued. Wedding guests were evacuated from the Airbnb rooms they'd rented and the couple thought they would have to cancel their long-anticipated celebration.
“On the day of the wedding and the 24 hours before it, pretty much everything about their plans had to change. Everything about the wedding, all the events were going to occur outdoors and the smoke in the air was so strong that they moved everything inside except for the 20-minute ceremony," wedding photographer Karna Roa told AccuWeather.
Katie and Curtis Ferland pose in masks during their Sonoma County wedding. (Karna Roa / KMR Photography)
On the advice of their wedding coordinator, Curtis and Katie handed out masks to protect them from the thick smoke billowing from the wildfire burning just miles away.
“The smoke was pretty bad that day. Everyone started getting headaches and sore throats and itchy eyes,” Roa recalled. “The wedding coordinator asked that we get at least one photo of them with the mask because it ended representing everything that was going on with the fire.”
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When Roa saw the couple wearing the masks, she said she wondered if it was a harbinger of California's future.
“The masks went onto the couple and as soon as I saw that I immediately thought of the 1930s painting American Gothic and how that painting really represented the normal couple from that time period," Roa said of the iconic Grant Wood masterpiece. "And I looked at Katie and Curtis, and I thought, 'Is this the new normal for wine country in October?'”
California-based wedding photographer Karna Roa, who shot the viral photo of a wedding couple wearing face masks under ominous smokey skies from Northern California wildfires.
Roa lost power for several days because of the wildfire and wasn't able to download the photos for several days. "I found a friend that had power; I went there and downloaded everything and at the very last minute thought, 'you know what, I should pull out that one image that’s relevant right now.'”
She posted the photo on Facebook and the eerie image of love mingled with devastation quickly went viral. Roa says the newlyweds are overwhelmed by the response the photo has received.
"Even though there was a lot of tragedy going on, this still was the happiest day of their lives and it was important to focus on them and their relationship and how they were doing that day," she said. "They persevered through a whole lot, and so the photo just kind of shows the combination of it, that it’s a beautiful vineyard and there was a whole lot of smoke in the air.”
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