Photography ~ Seeing as Lincoln and I are both photographers, it was also important to us that our wedding was well documented. We hired the talented Eric Cable to photograph our wedding. We also had a photo booth set up in the bar area for guests to use at their leisure. This was a hit! Not only was the photo booth fun for guests, but they were able to take home prints from the booth that night. A fabulous and unexpected favor from the evening!

Wedding Planner ~ About 4 months before the wedding I realized that I was going to need some help planning and arranging details for our wedding. I was in the middle of my wedding photography season and was feeling extremely overwhelmed with work and wedding planning. I had been referred to Carmen Bailey by another photographer who had worked with her as a photographer at a few weddings. Carmen was awesome. I wish there were photos that depicted how amazing she was throughout the planning process as well on the day of our wedding. I highly recommend hiring a planner, even if it’s just for the day-of. It really made such a huge difference for me and Lincoln, especially since our family and all of our wedding party was from out of state.

Thank you so much to Lauren and Lincoln for sharing their day with us! It has left me feeling all cozy and in love. And, if anyone needs more Lauren inspiration, check out her gorgeous blog for total eye candy.

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Post tags: Echo Jazz Trio, Eric Cable, Lauren Brooks
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

photography by Eric Cable

From Lauren…

The Cake/Cupcakes/Groom’s Cake ~ Jocelyn Barda of Bakery Bar made our adorable wedding cupcakes as well as our little ‘cutting’ cake. Nicole and Grant Simmons, our wedding photography clients, let Lincoln and I take a couple of their perfect moss-covered logs from their wedding and we used them as our cake and cupcake stands. Lincoln ordered a yule log from Beaverton Bakery (his favorite bakery) as his groom’s cake. It looked just like a log – it was adorable!

Guest Book ~ A good friend of ours is an experienced bookbinder and offered to make our beautiful guest book. She made the book out of natural materials that went along with our woodsy theme. One of our friends took 4×5 Polaroids of guests that were placed on each of the guestbook pages. It’s a precious, hand-made reminder of our day – we cherish it!

Stationery ~ I’m a fan of everything paper so our save-the-dates, invites, and reception pieces were one of my favorite things to help create. We used KBella Invitations to design our invitations and coordinating reception pieces. Using a design from our Save the Date magnet as inspiration, we created elegant yet woodsy coordinating pieces that were just perfect!

Even more to come!

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Post tags: Bakery Bar, Beaverton Bakery, KBella Invitations, Lauren Brooks
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

From the lovely bride, Lauren…

Fashion ~ When dress shopping, I only went to one bridal salon, AniA Bridal, in downtown Portland. I ended up buying the third dress I tried on. I didn’t know what I wanted when I went shopping but knew the minute that I tried my dress on that it was ‘the one’. It is a fluted Alvina Valenta gown made from silk shantung with Guipire lace trim. I had a bolero made out of the Guipire lace – it was lovely.  I decided not to wear a veil but instead made a hairpiece by deconstructing a necklace from Banana Republic and wiring the broach-like jewelry to a hair comb.

Choosing bridesmaids dresses was a challenge. I had 7 bridesmaids and wanted them to feel comfortable in their dress. I chose the designer, color and fabric and let each of them choose the style. The crocodile-green color looked surprisingly good on everyone and the girls said that they felt very comfortable. As a gift, I bought them all sage-colored wraps to help keep them warm. I also found wonderful jewelry designer on Etsy. She had a lovely red fern pendant necklace in her collection and I bought one for each bridesmaid as well as Lincoln’s sister, our groomswoman.

Lincoln and his groomsmen rented espresso-colored suits from Mr. Formal in Portland. We bought satin fabric that matched the bridesmaid dresses had the groom and groomsmen’s ties custom-made. Lincoln gifted each of his groomsmen hoodies – one of his favorite articles of clothing and a must-have in the Pacific Northwest.

Family and Friends ~ The most memorable part of our wedding day was, of course, the love and support or our family and friends. We wanted to include them as much as possible in our wedding celebration since they’ve had such an impact on who we are today. We really saw our wedding as not only the union of the two of us, but also the joining together of all of our friends and relatives.

Lincoln and I decided that we both wanted our parents to escort us down the aisle. We did a ring-passing ceremony, where our mothers gave our wedding rings to our wedding party members. Our wedding party then passed the rings to one another, offering a silent blessing before Lincoln and I exchanged the rings.

At the end of our ceremony, each of our parents stood and offered a blessing. My dad and stepmom read the Art of Marriage, my mom read ‘Two Happy Lovers’ by Pablo Neruda and Lincoln’s parents offered some valuable words of advice about love and marriage.

My maid of honor is a talented singer and one of Lincoln’s groomsmen is a talented guitar player. Several months before the wedding, we asked if they would be interested in singing and playing our first dance song. They agreed and, man, was it great! The best part is that a friendship between the two blossomed out of the whole thing.

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Post tags: Alvina Valenta, AniA Bridal, Banana Republic, Eric Cable, Lauren Brooks
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

And Lauren Brooks took everything that she had seen, and made it completely her own…

photography by Eric Cable

From Lauren…

The Ceremony ~ We chose to get married in November because we both love the Fall in Oregon. The season really set the tone for our big day. We wanted our wedding to feel romantic, woodsy and cozy. The view at the Inn is amazing so, naturally, we wanted to do the ceremony outside with the view of the Columbia River Gorge as our backdrop. The day of the wedding, the weather was cool and windy and looked like it would rain. We had rented umbrellas (just in case) and handed out fleece blankets to our guests. Rather than have everyone sit, we decided that our guests might be more comfortable gathering around us in a semi-circle as we said our vows. It gave our ceremony a very intimate and cozy feel. Our officiant, Lisa Kristen Scott, was so wonderful. She worked with us to help make a ceremony that was very personal to us. The ceremony was my favorite part of the whole day.

Florist ~ The Inn is very pretty on it’s own and didn’t need a lot of decoration. Knowing that flowers would be the shining star of our décor, choosing a florist was important. Upon meeting with Francoise Weeks, we knew she was a good fit for us. We wanted our arrangements, bouquets, and boutonnieres to be made using flowers and greenery that were mostly ‘found’ items, meaning that they were local and seasonal. Francoise worked very closely with us to create natural, woodsy flower arrangements that really fit our theme and our budget. Her attention to detail was incredible – I’ll let the photos do the talking!

So many more gorgeous details of Lauren and Lincoln’s wedding are on their way!

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Post tags: Francoise Weeks, Lauren Brooks
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

photography by Eric Cable

From the ridiculously gorgeous bride…

About Us ~ Lincoln and I are both photographers. In fact, photography is how we met. He hired me to assist him on a photo shoot in June 2003.  Several months later we went on our first date. The rest, as they say, is history.

Lincoln and I moved to Portland, Oregon in June of 2005. At first, we thought we would get married in Charlottesville, Virginia, the town where we met. However, after some consideration, we thought it would be right for us to be married in Oregon, since it was our new beloved home state. Many of our friends and family members had never visited Oregon, so we thought our wedding would be a good opportunity to show them the place that we now call home.

The Venue ~ Since we work in the wedding industry, we’ve had the opportunity to see many of the wonderful wedding venues in Oregon. We photographed a wedding at the View Point Inn in September of 2007 and fell in love with the place. Not only is the Inn beautiful, it has an incredible view of the Columbia River Gorge that takes your breath away.

The Inn is also is a fine dining restaurant that focuses on serving local fare and provides all of the catering for your wedding. Lincoln and I are self-proclaimed foodies, so the food at our wedding was very important to us. We wanted our guests to feel welcome, pampered, and relaxed at our wedding and the Inn truly embodies casual elegance. There is a cool bar/lounge area that is located in the Inn’s former carriage house. The people at the Inn were willing to bring in local beers and let us bring in regional wines so we could offer our guests some of our favorite local libations.

So much more to come from Lauren’s wedding!

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Post tags: Foodies, Lauren Brooks, View Point Inn
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

From the bride…

Our ceremony was perfect. I walked down the aisle to our song – God Only Knows by The Beach Boys – with my step dad and dad. Our officiant was a friend and mentor whom we know through the university department in which we met. It was amazing to have someone who we respect and admire marry us. Although writing our vows was incredibly challenging, I am so glad we did. They were so personal and meaningful. We also had friends read an EE Cummings poem and included a statement that outlined how dependent our marriage is on the support of our friends and family.

Probably my biggest stress while planning the wedding was choosing a photographer – I am photo obsessed and needed to be confident that I would have no doubts. I spent 1/4 of our budget on photography and it was SOOO worth it. Lauren Brooks was perfect – professional, but approachable and great at what she does.

So much more to come…oh and Lauren Brooks, Nicole’s FAB photographer, is letting us feature her own very recent wedding in just a couple of days! It’s as gorgeous as you can imagine!

Also, you HAVE to check out the Little Black Book Blog today…James Christianson sent us the most spectacular Winter Wedding you have ever seen. The s’mores just might be the best thing I have ever seen.

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Post tags: Beach Boys, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, EE Cummings, Lauren Brooks, Rustic Chic
Post categories: Budget Beautiful, Casual Elegance, Do-It-Yourself Inspired