If you’re looking for Columbia River Gorge wedding tips, here’s my biggest one: your wedding should be something you actually get to enjoy! Weddings are beautiful, emotional, exciting, a little chaotic, and they go by so freaking fast!
There are flowers to choose, dresses and suits to find, invitations to send, timelines to build, vendors to coordinate, people to wrangle, photographs to plan β and somewhere in the middle of all of that, you’re supposed to actually enjoy getting married!
So, after photographing weddings AND having been a bride myself, here are a few things I think can make the whole experience a hell of a lot more enjoyable!
First Things First: Hire a Wedding Planner!
If your budget allows it, one of the best things you can do for your sanity is hire a wedding planner!
And I don’t say that just as a photographer.
I say it because I did it myself.
When I got married in Maui in 1996, I had never even been to Hawaii before!
Seriously. I went into the whole thing completely blind and basically let my wedding planner plan the entire wedding for me!
She knew Maui. I didn’t.
She knew the vendors. I didn’t.
She knew what needed to happen, when it needed to happen, and how to put everything together.
So I trusted her.
And it was SUCH a blessing!
Instead of trying to plan a destination wedding somewhere I’d never even visited, I got to enjoy the process and let someone who knew what she was doing handle all those little details behind the scenes.
And somewhere along the way, I completely fell in love with Maui. It is still my favorite Hawaiian island to this day!
Apparently the island was the real love story. π Maui lasted. The husband did not β I divorced him 14 years later!
But the grand prize? I got two rockstar kids out of the deal, raised them doing the single-mom thing, and they’re still out there rocking it to this day! So I’d say I came out pretty damn lucky! β€οΈ
And the wedding planner? Still one of the best decisions I made for that wedding! π
Thirty years later, I still believe that if having a planner is within your budget, DO IT!
Your wedding shouldn’t feel like a full-time event-management job. Let somebody else worry about the timeline, the vendors, the setup, the little fires that inevitably need putting out, and all the behind-the-scenes craziness.
You should be drinking the champagne, laughing with your people, getting married, and actually remembering what the hell happened!
Do an Engagement Session Before the Wedding!
Engagement sessions aren’t just about getting pretty photographs before your wedding β although obviously that’s a pretty great perk!
They’re also a chance for you and your photographer to actually get to know each other.
You get to figure out what it feels like being photographed together. You learn that you don’t have to stand there awkwardly wondering what to do with your hands. You get comfortable moving, laughing, kissing, being ridiculous, and just being yourselves in front of the camera.
And your photographer gets to learn you.
How you interact. What makes you laugh. Which little moments happen naturally between the two of you.
Then when the wedding day arrives, we’re not strangers figuring each other out while you’re already dealing with a hundred other things.
We’ve done this before!
Columbia River Gorge Wedding Tips: Give Yourself Enough Time to Actually Enjoy Your Wedding Day!
Please don’t schedule your wedding day so tightly that you’re sprinting from one thing to the next!
Build in some breathing room.
Things happen. Hair takes longer. Somebody can’t find their shoe. A boutonniere disappears. Uncle Bob wanders off right when it’s time for family photographs. π
A little extra room in your timeline means one tiny delay doesn’t turn the rest of your wedding into a stressful race against the clock.
And from a photographer’s perspective, having that breathing room gives us the opportunity to create photographs instead of simply checking things off a list as fast as possible.
Some of my favorite wedding photographs happen in those little in-between moments anyway.
The laugh nobody planned.
The look across the room.
Your mom fixing something on your dress.
Your best friend losing it.
The two of you sneaking away for five quiet minutes together.
Those are the things you’ll want to remember.
Your Wedding Photographs Are What You Get to Keep
Your wedding day will eventually end.
The flowers will wilt.
The cake will be eaten.
The music will stop.
The dress will get packed away.
But your photographs stay.
That’s why I want you to actually live your wedding day instead of spending the entire thing worrying about what’s happening next.
I photographed a beautiful wedding at Tin Roof Barn in White Salmon, Washington, right here in the Columbia River Gorge. The century-old barn is surrounded by the kind of Pacific Northwest scenery that makes this area such an incredible place to get married.
Weddings like this are exactly why I love photographing the entire story β not just the perfectly posed moments.
The details.
The nerves.
The laughter.
The ceremony.
The people you love.
The ridiculous moments.
The quiet ones.
And everything that happens in between.
Years from now, I want you to look through those photographs and remember what your wedding actually felt like.
And Now for a Wedding Gift They Definitely Won’t Be Expecting…
Want to surprise your future husband or wife with something a little more interesting than a watch? π
Do a boudoir session before your wedding!
Take those photographs and turn them into a gorgeous, sexy album.
It’s intimate.
It’s personal.
It’s completely unexpected.
And it’s one hell of a wedding present!
And yes β I can help you with that too!
I photograph dark, moody, sexy boudoir sessions through Rose & Lace by Tobi Rose, and I offer gorgeous albums that are absolutely perfect for this kind of surprise.
One of my favorites even zips closed and locks with a key β because some photographs aren’t meant for everybody! π
Give it to them the night before the wedding for a little preview of what’s to come… π
Or save it for the morning after, when the wedding-day craziness is over and the two of you can actually enjoy it together.
Either way, that’s a wedding gift they’re going to remember!
At the End of the Day…
You don’t need a wedding that looks like everybody else’s.
You need a wedding that feels like you.
Hire people you trust.
Get the planner if you can.
Do the engagement session.
Leave some breathing room in your day.
Sneak away together for five minutes.
Laugh when something inevitably goes sideways.
And for the love of God, enjoy your own wedding!
Because it will be over before you know it.
And if you’re looking for a photographer who will photograph the beautiful moments, the ridiculous moments, the sexy moments, the emotional moments, and everything in between…
And when the wedding is over? That dress isn’t done yet. Take it underwater. See what an underwater portrait session can become.
Let’s make some photographs you’ll still give a damn about thirty years from now!
https://tobirose.com
Hood River, Oregon
THE Columbia River Gorge, Windsurfing Capital Of The World!
Weddings β’ Elopements β’ Engagements β’ Boudoir β’ Underwater Portraits
Instagram β Tobi Rose Photography
Instagram β Rose & Lace by Tobi Rose
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