Whimsical Fall Wedding at The Griffin House in Hood River, Oregon

The Griffin House Wedding Day Above the Columbia River Gorge

There are wedding venues that are beautiful, and then there are wedding venues where you spend the entire day wondering how a place that stunning could even exist. The Griffin House in Hood River, Oregon, is definitely the latter. Perched above the Columbia River Gorge, The Griffin House combines a historic home with sweeping lawns, stone terraces, and those enormous Gorge views that make it pretty difficult to take a bad photo. Located just outside of Hood River and about an hour from Portland, it’s one of those places that feels like a destination without requiring a destination wedding.

For Anne + Aaron, the setting was the perfect backdrop for a wedding day that felt incredibly intentional without ever feeling overly produced. They put so much thought into every part of the day, from the tiniest little details to the elaborate light installation that hung above the dance floor. As Portland wedding photographers and videographers, we love getting to capture weddings all around Oregon, and The Griffin House is a particularly fun place to work because the landscape gives you so much to play with. On this day, we got a little bit of everything: wind, clouds, almost-rain, sunshine, and one of the most spectacular golden hours we’ve ever seen. Take a look below at some highlights from the day shot on film and digital.

Getting Ready at The Griffin House + All the Little Details

Anne + Aaron’s Griffin House wedding day was clearly a labor of love long before anyone arrived at the ceremony. Every detail felt considered, but nothing felt like it was there simply because a wedding “should” have it. The getting-ready portion of the day gave us the chance to photograph all those little pieces coming together. The Griffin House is especially well suited for this part of the day, with several spaces throughout the historic home and property where wedding parties can spread out and get ready together.

As wedding photographers, these quieter hours are some of our favorites. Before the ceremony and reception kick everything into high gear, there are all these little moments happening around the edges. Someone fixing a button, a bridesmaid laughing in the other room, a parent seeing the final look for the first time, and approximately one hundred tiny details that somehow all need to make it to the right place. They’re also the moments that can be easy to overlook when you’re planning a wedding, which is exactly why we love documenting them. Years later, those seemingly insignificant pieces can bring you right back to the feeling of the morning.

First Look and Wedding Party Portraits on the Lawn

If you’re planning a wedding at The Griffin House, you already know the views are going to be a major part of the experience. What you might not expect is just how useful the entire property can be for wedding portraits. On Anne + Aaron’s wedding day, the wind was doing its absolute best to make things interesting, so rather than stubbornly trying to force portraits in one particular spot, we explored the grounds and found pockets that gave us a little shelter while still taking advantage of the landscape.

That flexibility is one of the things we love about photographing weddings at The Griffin House. There are sweeping lawns, stone walls, terraces, trees, and different orientations toward the Gorge, so you can move around with the light and weather instead of fighting them. The Eastern Lawn, in particular, offers panoramic views and is one of the property’s natural portrait locations. For us, portraits aren’t about standing in one perfect location and checking “couple photos” off the timeline. We want you to actually spend time together, move around, laugh, take in the view, and let us make something beautiful out of whatever the day happens to give us. And on this particular day, the wind became part of the photos in the best possible way.

A Windy, Unforgettable Ceremony with a View of The Columbia River Gorge

The ceremony was one of those moments when the weather seemed determined to keep everyone guessing. The wind was already making its presence known, and as the ceremony began, the sky started looking like it might rain at any moment. Then, because apparently the Gorge decided we needed a little drama, the sun came out.

Honestly, we’re glad the weather did whatever it wanted. The Griffin House’s ceremony lawn sits right along the original rock wall with the Columbia River Gorge stretching out behind it, so even a little wind becomes part of the experience. It made the ceremony feel wild and alive rather than perfectly controlled—and those are often the moments that end up being the most memorable.

One of our favorite details was what Anne + Aaron did with their rings. Rather than simply exchanging them during the ceremony, they passed the rings around to their family and wedding party first, giving everyone a chance to hold them and put a little good energy into them before they made their way back to the couple. It was such a simple, personal way to include the people who surrounded them that day, and exactly the kind of meaningful detail we love finding as wedding photographers. There were plenty of big moments during this ceremony, but this little one felt especially theirs.

Cocktail Hour + A Little Mingling

After the ceremony, everyone had a chance to exhale, grab a drink, and take in the fact that the weather had somehow decided to cooperate. Cocktail hour at The Griffin House is a natural transition in the day, with the property offering several spaces where guests can mingle while still taking in the Columbia River Gorge. The venue’s layout allows the celebration to move naturally from ceremony to cocktails to dinner without feeling like guests are being shuttled from one completely separate space to another.

This is also when the day starts to shift from the anticipation of the ceremony into the actual celebration. Friends and family who have been waiting all day finally get to catch up, drinks start appearing in hands, and the couple gets a few minutes to take it all in. From behind the camera, we love this part of the day because there’s nothing to manufacture. People are just happy to be together. For a documentary-style Hood River wedding photographer, that is pretty much the dream.

A Reception in the Clear Tent Full of Personal Details

Anne + Aaron put an incredible amount of thought into their reception, and one of our favorite details was also one of the simplest. Instead of traditional place cards, guests found their names in envelopes displayed together on a wall. Inside each envelope was a postcard representing a place that Anne + Aaron had traveled, with different tables representing places like Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and more. It was a completely personal way to incorporate their love of travel into the wedding without turning the reception into a theme.

And then there was everything else. The florals, stationery, tablescape, lighting, food, rentals, and all the other details came together to make the reception feel incredibly intentional while still feeling like a place where people could actually celebrate. The Griffin House’s clear reception tent is particularly fun to photograph because the surrounding landscape remains part of the room as the light changes outside. The venue describes the 2,600-square-foot clear tent as a blank canvas for florals, lighting, greenery, and decor, and Anne + Aaron’s celebration definitely made the most of it.

This is one of those parts of a wedding day where having both photography and videography can be especially fun. There are so many little pieces happening simultaneously—the details you’ve spent months planning, your reaction when you finally see everything for the first time, and all the movement happening around the room. Our goal is always to capture not just what everything looked like, but what it felt like to actually be there.

Golden Hour Photos at The Griffin House

And then came golden hour.

We’ve photographed a lot of weddings around Oregon, and we can confidently say this was one of the most spectacular golden hours we’ve ever seen. Even a few of the other vendors commented on how unusual it was. After a day of wind, threatening rain, and constantly changing weather, the sky completely showed off. The Gorge seemed to stretch forever, the light changed by the minute, and we were losing our minds by how pretty it was.

This is one of the reasons we love being Hood River wedding photographers. The Columbia River Gorge has a way of making the landscape feel like an active part of the wedding day rather than simply a backdrop. At The Griffin House, the lawns and terraces open toward the Gorge, creating opportunities to photograph couples in completely different light throughout the day.

So naturally, we stole Anne + Aaron away for a few minutes.

Golden hour portraits don’t have to mean spending half an hour posing while your guests wait for you. We’re much more interested in taking a little time to wander, breathe, soak in the sunset, and make some damn good photographs while we’re at it. And this sunset was worth every second.

Toasts, First Dances + Cake Cutting

The reception picked right back up with toasts, dinner, formal dances, and cake cutting. These are the moments that can feel like the “official” parts of the reception, but what we’re really watching for are the reactions around them. Someone laughing at a story they’ve heard a hundred times. A parent trying not to cry. Friends yelling from the table. The couple looking at each other when no one else is paying attention. Those are the moments we want to preserve alongside the big, beautiful golden hour shots.

And that’s really what we’re looking for throughout an entire wedding day. As Portland wedding photographers and videographers, we don’t want your gallery or wedding film to be a highlight reel made exclusively of the things that were scheduled. We want the weird stuff, the emotional stuff, the beautiful stuff, and the completely unplanned stuff. The little pieces that, when put together, make the day unmistakably yours.

An Epic Dance Party, Send-Off + Domino’s Pizza

This party was fun. Like, really fun. The kind of dance floor where nobody seems particularly concerned about whether they’re dancing well, which is exactly the kind of dance floor we want to photograph and film. The formalities were over, the timeline was basically irrelevant, and everyone could finally let loose.

Eventually, the night wrapped up with a send-off—and because no great wedding story should end with a send-off and everyone politely going home, Anne + Aaron finished the night with Domino’s Pizza. It was so perfectly them. After all the planning, florals, weather negotiations, beautiful portraits, emotional vows, incredible views, and one of the most ridiculous sunsets we’ve ever photographed, there was something pretty wonderful about ending the night with pizza and a bunch of very happy people.

That’s what we love about weddings like this. The photographs are beautiful, absolutely. The Griffin House gave us an incredible landscape, and Anne + Aaron gave us a day full of thoughtful details to photograph. But the thing we’ll remember most is how much the whole day felt like them.

And that’s always what we’re always hoping to capture.

If you’d like to see more from the wedding day, you can view an expanded gallery of highlights shot on digital and film, their Instagram teaser reel, and highlight video. Here are all of the amazing vendors that brought Anne + Aaron’s day to life:

Planning a Griffin House Wedding?

We’re Taylor + Madye, a husband-and-wife photography and videography team based in Portland, Oregon. We photograph weddings throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Hood River and the Columbia River Gorge, and we love documenting days that feel a little bit like the people actually getting married.

If you’re planning a wedding at The Griffin House—or somewhere else in Oregon—get in touch here. We’d love to hear what you’re dreaming up!

Portland wedding photographers

Taylor and Madye are a wedding photographers based in Portland, Oregon. Capturing weddings and elopements across the Pacific Northwest and available for travel worldwide. They specialize in artistic, candid storytelling to produce creative wedding photography and videography that is fun and full of personality.

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