Chris & Ashley at Bridal Veil Lakes

I always like to include a collection of images of the bride’s bouquet. This one was taken at Bridal Veil Lakes, about an hour east of Portland. There are many ways to do this and one of my favorite is to have the groom stand behind the bride and have them both clasp the bouquet together. I then frame the image so only their hands (with rings!) and the flowers are showing, with a little bit of wedding dress and tuxedo in the background. Whenever I start this sequence I always tell the couple they can relax their faces, since I’m only focusing on their hands. I happened to look up during this particular shot and saw very nice, unguarded expressions on both their faces. No time for fill flash, or to adjust my metering for the bright sky behind them, but I got the shot. They loved it!

 

Bridal Veil Lakes wedding photographer

 

 

Tulúm Wedding, Mexican Riviera

Looking back at the Cyprus post made me think of the warm places I’ve been lucky enough to visit. Here’s another place I love going back to: Tulúm, Mexico.

 

wedding photographer Tulúm Mexico

Cyprus Honeymoon Suite

When I shot my first Cyprus wedding a couple years ago, I met with the bride in her suite; it was the honeymoon suite. My own room was in a different hotel altogether so I thought I’d have a peek out of the bride’s balcony to see what the view looked like. Wow! The pool leads directly out to the Mediterranean. I’m putting this post up so I can remember what sunshine and warm air feels like:)

 

Cyprus wedding photographer

A rockin’ groom

Who says the air guitar is passé? When the band is playing, anything goes.
wedding photographer Eugene Oregon

Eagle Rock Lodge wedding

Here are a few more images from Amie & Curt’s wedding at Eagle Rock Lodge, located on the banks of the McKenzie River. Since it’s a rainy time of year here in western Oregon I thought these photos were appropriate.

Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding
Eagle Rock Lodge wedding

A Great Makeup Artist

Having a great makeup artist (or MUA, as they’re called in the biz) can make a world of difference when it comes time to process images. At this Eagle Rock Lodge wedding, Amie brought along her own MUA. While Amie’s skin wasn’t at all poor to begin with, she wanted to make sure it looked great in the photos. This makes it much easier for me in post:)

 

wedding photographer Eugene, Oregon

Whisper’n’Oaks sunset

Alicia and Sean were married at Whisper’n’Oaks and we took full advantage of the beautiful sunset that evening. This sepia tint was created in Lightroom; I modified that program’s sepia preset a little bit to give it more contrast.

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A Stormy Night

They say rain at a wedding is good luck for the newlyweds. If that’s the case, this couple should play the lottery every now and then because these clouds erupted into a raging thunderstorm a few minutes after this photo was taken. We all jumped up and took shelter inside King Estate’s Pavilion.  The band wedged its way in too, and the reception didn’t miss a beat.

King Estate wedding photograph

King Estate wedding

Elkton wedding at the Big K Ranch

Heather and Jon were married at the Big K Ranch near Elkton, Oregon. Despite the insanely hot weather, the entire wedding party was more than amenable to climb up these bales of hay for me. Since Jon is a friend of mine, I stayed overnight at the Big K Ranch. Let’s just say I got a great glimpse into what goes on at weddings in the wee hours of the morning. This was much the same as my experience in Cyprus (see previous post), when I stayed with the wedding party until 3 in the morning, simply because I had nothing else to do and the party was just too fun. Imagine drunken guests wading into the Mediterranean, completely dressed. Ahh, the life of a wedding photographer 🙂

Anyway, back to Heather and Jon!

Big K Ranch wedding photographer

Cyprus Wedding

It’s not often I get to travel to Cyprus to shoot a wedding, but that was indeed the case in 2009. My total travel time, roundtrip, was 51 hours. My total time in Cyprus was 86 hours! The wedding was amazing, and so was the after-party; it lasted until dawn. This particular scene is, apparently, quite common for European weddings. I can’t imagine this being legal in the US, especially here in Oregon, in the middle of the summer during the height of fire season 🙂 But this was in Cyprus and it was all just perfectly fine!

At the end of the reception, everyone was invited to light up their own personal balloon. These balloons were made of lightweight paper that must’ve been treated with some kind of flame retardant. I imagine they eventually burned themselves out as they sailed out over the Mediterranean.

 

Cyprus wedding photographer, Matt Emrich Photo