I had the pleasure of photographing Taylor and Tresa’s wedding at the Exchange Ballroom in Portland. According to Tresa, they had the wedding of their dreams, surrounded by friends, family and endless love and support. Since Taylor is a professional hockey player, they often spend time apart, but this summer they were able to spend a long stretch this summer planning their wedding with their favorite little man Loghan. Taylor was quite busy with his season at Portland Winterhawks where he won the Memorial Cup. Taylor and Tresa met through one of the bridesmaids in 2013. Tresa says that they looked at a lot of venues, but when they saw the Exchange Ballroom and the rooftop, they were sold! The blown glass, well, blew them away as well. Exchange Ballroom is a new venue, but the combination of elegance and also exposed concrete with the beautiful view of Portland and the Willamette River from the rooftop is winning a lot of fans!

Tresa’s dress is from the local boutique Lena Medoyeff, in NW Portland. One of the reasons that Tresa chose her dress from Lena’s shop is that Lena was previously in the Peace Corps and is very conscious of the world around her. She uses fair trade materials and only two people are responsible for the production of the dress. Tresa wanted to support the local wedding community with this wedding.

A unique part of the wedding was that they reflected some of the Native American heritage and had elders bless the wedding with burning sage and also the beautiful blanket that they draped around the couple. Another highlight was that they were able to use Sweet GiGi cakes by Jessica Johnston.  Jessica and Tresa actually attended high school and college together. The “cakes” were amazing, I must say! The couple actually crossed off a venue from their list because they were not allowed to use Sweet GiGi.

After she graduated she went to french pastry school in New York then to Chicago to intern with the people of cupcake wars. This is her passion and I buy every single birthday or holiday treat from her so it was only appropriate I make sure she could bring my wedding vision to life.

I actually knew Tresa through friends and had photographed one of her best friend’s wedding some years back. I was happy to hear that (in her ow words): “We wanted moments captured and feelings behind images. Him and his assistant were calm and flexible with our huge families and wedding parties. I would go as far to say the guests felt incredibly comfortable with their humor and enjoyed their presence. You guys did amazing!”

I also loved that they had Converses as their wedding shoes! The food by Vibrant Table, as usual, was fantastic! The flowers, by Vibrant Flowers, were beautiful as well, and the large chandelier style hanging arrangement was a show stopper! Kudos to Page!

I almost forgot – the couple provided amazing late night snacks, courtesy of Taco Pedaler!