salem oregon wedding photographer
Shaylynn & Michael tied the knot at The Vue last year, but I’m just now getting around to sharing the images. Their theme was inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, with some of their hobbies and their love story (via pictures, on easels) , sprinkled throughout.
The Vue is located in downtown Corvallis and is a really cool venue. It has multiple floors, which makes it easy to separate the ceremony and reception areas. They offer catering, as well as bar tending, and a killer view!
Jon & Valorie tied the knot at Deepwood Museum & Gardens (formerly known as Historic Deepwood Estates) this past spring. Their hired wedding photographer had a family emergency, so they were in need of a quick replacement. Because they were getting married on a weekday, I happened to be available with only a few days notice. We met up for a quick “meet and greet” at the venue a mere two days before their wedding. One of the things I love about Deepwood is that it’s less than 15 minutes from my house, so meeting up there was actually easier than my studio (and parking was way better).
This was a custom wedding package, with only 2 hour of coverage. What do you get with 2 hours of coverage, you ask? Basically, it’s the ceremony and portraits. The bride and groom did not plan to do a “first look” as seeing each other before the wedding was not a big deal for them. As it turned out, they had an unplanned first look, as the bride and I waited for the groom to join us for pre-ceremony portraits.
Like many couples planning to get married in 2020 Samantha & Jonathon made some drastic changes to their wedding, due to the pandemic. Instead of a large affair at Willamette Mission Park, they opted for an intimate elopement at home. Well, at the home of Samantha’s parents. Although this is technically a backyard wedding, it was an unusually stunning backyard…and by backyard, I mean the river, as their back patio sat right over it and provided the most beautiful backdrop for the ceremony.
We completely lucked out with weather on this September wedding day. We had MASSIVE wildfires here last year and it was smoky for MONTHS, including every single day leading up to their wedding. Then, low and behold, we woke up to clear skies the morning of! WHAT?!
In attendance were the bride and groom’s parents, siblings, and grandparents. The bride’s sister served as the flower girl, while the groom’s sister was the officiant. Both women did an excellent job in their roles.
Details included touches of blue throughout, including the bouquet, Samantha’s ring, and even their socks! Because the date 3/14 is significant to the couple, they had pie for their wedding dessert, pi decorations, and they were pronounced married at exactly 3:14pm.
After their first look, the couple said “I do” in a short, but sweet ceremony. In addition to some portraits at and around the residence, we also took a quick drive over to Willamette Mission Park. There is a specific park bench that is very meaningful to the couple, so we made sure to get some photos on that bench. They also had their first dance in their special spot (sans music, but also sans audience!), which was incredibly sweet.
We didn’t have very much fall color here in the Salem-Keizer area (too early, plus all the smoke), but I managed to find a teensy little bit and I milked it for all it was worth because I looooove fall!
This was such a fun shoot, with Nicole, who happens to be a former student of mine. I’ve wanted to photographer her since I met her because, hello, look at her! I waited, though, until she was no longer in my class to ask if she’d like to model for me. I found this quirky little wedding gown in an antique store in the tiny little town of Canyonville, Oregon.
Although I’d taken a photography class (not Nicole’s class, by the way) to The Gray Lab on a field trip, I’d never personally shot in the space. As soon as I got home from said field trip, I booked myself a couple of hours as this really neat natural light studio in downtown Salem, Oregon. It is only a block from my own studio, which made transporting things easy. Although it is a natural light studio, like mine, the lighting is very different.
I knew that I had to place Nicole on that leather seat because it matched her hair. The Kombucha bottle was intentional as well, for the same reason.
