Aurora Vineyards Wedding | Maria + John

This was a really special wedding to me, it has marked and followed my journey as a photographer in many ways.

I photographed John’s sisters wedding in 2013 and John’s family hired me to take family photos over the years, so I feel a connection to this family, as I’ve watched them grow and change over the years.

So when John reached out to me last year to tell me he was engaged and ask me if I would photograph his wedding, I was super excited to go back to Portland, see John’s family and photograph he and Maria’s wedding day.

Their wedding was in late April and I was so grateful that even though it was cloudy almost all day and rained some, there was still plenty of time where it wasn’t raining, and the light at Aurora Vineyards for the couples photos combined with the moody sky was really spectacular.

Enough rambling from me, I’ll let the photos tell the story, and here’s the excellent team of vendors:

Ceremony Venue: St Michaels

Reception Venue: Aurora Vineyards

Coordinator: Driftwood Point Events

Hair Sytlist/Salon: Kelli Thomsen

Wedding Dress Designer: Justin Alexander

Wedding Dress Boutique: Charlotte's Weddings

Florist: Songbird Floristry

Officiant: Fr. Ignacio Llorente

Caterer: Aurora Vineyards

DJ: Craig Kraus w/ Silicon Forest Entertainment

Bakery: Lux Sucre

Rentals: Arden Event Collective

Musicians: Elizabeth Eunjee Miller, Jennifer Westermann, Maria Shim, Liz Vonn

Second Photographer: Emily Gigoux

The Baker Building Wedding | Lauren + Chris

From the moment I met Lauren and Chris I knew two things. 1.) They were really awesome and I really enjoyed them. 2.) Their wedding would be so awesome and right up my alley. Those first impressions were correct, and I spent such a fun day with them photographing their wedding in Portland two weeks ago.

Portland springs are iffy, what I mean by that is it may downpour, or it may be the most amazing perfect feeling day you can imagine, and luckily Lauren and Chris had the latter for their wedding day, the weather was so perfect out, not too hot and not too cold, and if you’ve never experienced a perfect day in the PNW, just know that you’re really missing out.

What I love about photographing weddings is how present it allows me to be. I’m observing what’s happening so carefully and intently, I’ve never been hunting, but I suppose it’s kind of like that, I’m hunting for special and meaningful moments, and this day was full of them.

Ok, I’ll stop rambling, and let the photos tell the story of their incredible day…

Vendors (they had an incredible vendor team, I’d recommend all of these people):

Venue: The Baker Building

Coordinator: Clarity Mettler-Sensenig

Hair Stylist: Stephanie Baroni w/ Dreamboat Salon

Makeup: Stephanie Baroni w/ Dreamboat Salon

Wedding Dress: Jenny Yoo

Wedding Dress Boutique: The English Department

Florist (and First Look Venue): Solabee Flowers

Officiant: Rachel Roscoe

Videographer: Lovebug Pictures

Caterer: Lepage

DJ: DJ Karl Kling

Bakery: Petunias

Second Photographer: Olivia Groves w/ Fire Heart Frames

Lauren and Chris, thank you for trusting me with photographing your wedding day and for being so much fun and so incredibly kind.

Bogus Basin Wedding | Hillary + Jason

I’ve photographed over 400 weddings in my career, and I’ve done a lot of weird stuff with a camera. However, Hillary and Jason’s wedding at Bogus Basin gave me my very first (and second and third) opportunity to tube backwards down a snowy hill while taking pictures of people also tubing. Yes I was slightly nervous about my very expensive camera, but this was what I call a “professional tubing hill”, so steering and even seeing where I was going was unnecessary. It was a complete blast, and the photos are so fun.

In addition to tubing, I also snowboarded with Hillary and Jason and their friends and family and took photos of them on the slopes, I love snowboarding, and this was so much fun for me.

Hillary and Jason’s wedding was one of the most fun weddings I’ve been to, and that’s really saying something. From the moment I talked to them, I could tell that their wedding was about being with the people they love most and having a great time, two things very near and dear to my heart. I’ll let the photos tell the story from here, but this day at Bogus Basin was a complete blast behind the camera.