Amanda + Dean // The Evergreen // Portland, Oregon
I think it’s safe to say that weddings are going to look a little different for a while. We know a lot of our couples are pivoting, either postponing their larger weddings until next year or choosing to elope now and have a celebration at a later date. We’ve been big supporters of the small personal wedding followed by a big party for a long time, COVID just happened to make that a much more prominent option! You really get the best of both worlds. Amanda and Dean were ahead of the game with this plan last year when they eloped and then later held their reception at The Evergreen in Portland. We thought they would be a perfect example to share of how great planning your wedding this way can be. I asked Amanda to share a few words about her experience, here’s what she said-
“When we decided we wanted to get married—ours was more a ‘decision by committee’ than a traditional proposal—we agreed early on that we wanted to have a small wedding ceremony followed by a bigger party with friends and family. We chose to get married in Yosemite because of its personal significance to me, not to mention its general beauty. It was just us, our parents, our officiant, and a photographer, and it was pretty much perfect. Then we held a big celebration with family and friends back in Portland about six weeks later. And that was SO FUN. We wore the same outfits that we had for our wedding ceremony and projected pictures from Yosemite up on the wall during cocktails and dinner so that our guests could get a sense of what the day looked like. We also shared a few choice lines from our vows during our ‘welcome/thank you’ speech. After dinner, we held a video dance party—you project the music videos while you play the songs—and we cannot recommend that enough! It was a total hit. All in all, we are so glad we made the choices we did. Exchanging vows is a big moment and it was so nice to just be able to revel in that without immediately jumping into socializing and entertaining. Doing what we did allowed us to be present in a way I don’t think we would have been if we tried to do it all the same day. Also, I think the best advice we got as we were planning was to invest in great photographers, and it was, indeed, excellent advice. The time goes fast and having wonderful photos to return to again and again is well worth it. The best of all worlds is to hire great photographers who are also really fun to hang out with, so thanks, Taylor and Madye, for being both!”
If you’ve ever spoken to us about weddings you’ve probably heard us say this a million times- your wedding is about you!! It’s about you being in love, finding your best friend, and starting the next chapter in your life, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. We’ve been so happy to work with couples this year in getting creative with rescheduling or making a whole new plan. I think we’ve found we thrive in the unknown, getting to create in ways that we had never thought of before. So I suppose the moral of the story here is don’t be discouraged. I know 2020 can feel like it just keeps coming at us with changes but always remember- at the end of the day your still in love, everything else is just noise 🙂
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