Going through old photos of site walks and I came upon this great one I took while venue sourcing for our dear client Kat. Even though she wound up choosing Castaway as her wedding venue, I still love Union Pine and can't wait to do another wedding here.
There's just something about this space that I really love! Below, a photo of the venue all set up with our client Rachel and Justin's wedding (Photo by Bryan Aulick Photography):
Isn't it gorgeous and also so simple? What wedding venues in Portland are you loving right now? Happy hunting this engagement/holiday season, to all who are looking for a site! (Maybe we can help?)
Today's photo comes from Scott McNamara, taken at a wedding we planned for Lauren and Kurt at Multnomah Falls in 2012. With this type of scenery you really don't need any other decor!
Their ceremony was held on the patio surrounded by forest and the falls in the background; the reception was held inside the historic 1925 lodge Great Hall, with its soaring ceilings and crackling fireplace.
Erika and Lionel came up to Portland from sunny LA to have a subtly-Hello Kitty-themed wedding at the The Grotto with reception at The Nines Hotel. As soon as she said "Hello Kitty" you know I was already SO THERE for everything. I was also super excited to help them combine Erika's Mexican cultural and family traditions with Lionel's Filipino heritage. Some of these traditions were expressed in the traditional Filipino Catholic ceremony, complete with veil, cord, and coins ceremonies; and in having a cumbia band at the reception. All in all, it was an exciting, whirlwind day with lots of love, great food, and dancing; and we were so lucky to be there to help with it.
Here's a question I get asked quite a bit: when and how do you sign the marriage license? I've seen it done a number of ways.
(First though, make sure you go in person to the county office and pick up your marriage license within 3 and 60 days before the wedding! You can start the process online in Multnomah County, but you both still must go in person to pick it up, with valid ID. More about that here.)
You will have given the county clerk $60 and your personal information, and signed your names to a triplicate form. The license is then given to you to wait until the day of the wedding when your witnesses will print their names, your officiant will sign it and add his or her contact information, and make the license legally binding.
There's also a commemorative license. This is the "pretty" certificate that is included along with your marriage license, and you will want to also have your witnesses, officiant, and yourselves sign this too. It's just for looks though, and is NOT proof of legal marriage. (It is fun to get your witnesses and officiant to sign that one too, and to flash it on your honeymoon, in hopes of getting freebies :-)
So, again, when does all this happen? If you don't mind not having the photographer there, you can cheat a little and get it out of the way by signing everything the night before the wedding. Usually your officiant and witnesses are present at the rehearsal dinner, so this makes things really easy. This is a little unorthodox though, since you are technically now married the day before the wedding. However, it does make for one less thing to worry about on the day of.
The next option is to pre-fill out all the paperwork and witness names, and let the officiant sign on the day of. This way you are still officially executing the document on the actual day of your wedding, but it still cuts down on the paperwork and poring-over-fine-print part.
The final option is still the most traditional; gather your 2 adult witnesses and officiant on the day of the wedding, either right before you walk down the aisle in the dressing room, or right after, and do the form filling and formal signing with your photographer present. Just make sure to decide where in the schedule this will fall, and that the witnesses know, and pick a good location with a table and light where all this can take place. With the triplicate form and the commemorative license, it can amount to about 10-15 minutes of careful paperwork and can take up to 20-25 minutes out of the wedding day schedule.
And that's it! Just make sure that your officiant does MAIL the license back to the county within the following week. That final step ensures that your marriage is recorded by the government and you can have your happily ever after recognized in the eyes of the law as well as your family and friends.
If you are looking for some great ways to save money during the wedding planning process, look no further. Here are a couple of deals from some of our favorite local vendors.
Vibrant Table is offering two deals to new bookings. If you decide to use Vibrant Table as your caterer they will include a complimentary champagne toast or they will provide their Loft on Belmont for the rehearsal dinner.
One of our favorite Lake Oswego venues, The Foundry at Oswego Pointe, is currently offering a 20% discount for all remaining 2014 dates! Here's a photo from a wedding ceremony we did recently there:
If you haven't decided on your venue or caterer yet, make sure to keep these deals in mind! We're always finding out about more of these for our wedding clients, so bookmark us and check back soon; or contact us at [email protected].
From Emee: It's so very easy to blog about what's going on around town in the world of Portland weddings -- however, I'm making more of an effort to go back and blog our own weddings that we have coordinated and planned in the past, under the tagline { Real Weddings }. Some will be little snippets, some will be full features -- but my goal by the end of this year, is for our { Real Weddings } tag to be as helpful to Portland couples as possible, full of as many real venue and wedding ideas, and providing inspiration and information to all.
In honor of St. Patrick's day, today's little glimpse is one of our favorite weddings that we coordinated at Bridal Veil Lakes. This Columbia River Gorge wedding included a Celtic handfasting ceremony to reflect the groom's Irish heritage, AND Filipino traditions to reflect the bride's. TOO AWESOME.
In the Filipino tradition, the ceremony often involves many extended family members called sponsors, and three important rites are used:
An exchange of thirteen coins representing the promise of the couple to support and provide for one another and the family.
A veil, historically symbolizing being clothed in the love of Christ, but in non-denominational weddings, more often interpreted as a symbol of the couple's home and safe haven in each other.
A cord, wrapped around the couple's shoulders, to symbolize the strong bond between the married couple.
Welcome back to our regular Under the Radar feature on Portland Wedding Coordinator, showcasing a cool new Portland wedding venue. Each time, I'll be sharing a site with you that I've stumbled across recently. Most of our Under the Radar wedding ceremony and reception venues are ones you won't yet find in the glossy wedding guides. If you use one of these sites, please let them know you heard it here first!
Today we're featuring Villa Catalana at Rare Plant Research, a gorgeous outdoor garden venue located right in the middle of Oregon farmlands and vineyards. I was invited to tour last fall, and even in chilly November, the unique beauty of the site was undeniable. In addition to the many varieties of rare and tropical plants, olive trees and wine grapes are grown on the property.
The wedding sites begin with a terraced lawn area with a cupola as focal point, facing a pond and the backdrop of the Romanesque-inspired architecture of the main house.
While the main house interior is not available for the event, its lower terrace (shown in the first picture) can be used for mingling or cocktails. A smaller outbuilding can be used as a bar setup or bridal party room.
After ceremony and cocktails, the party can move to the grape arbor, which is covered for shade and makes most tenting unnecessary. (This photo from summer 2013 shows the location of the newly-installed grape arbor. Sorry we don't have a picture yet but soon!)
In addition to the beauty of the site, and its convenient location within 30 minutes of Portland, Villa Catalana currently allows you to use the caterer and rental company of your choice, so the potential for customization is unlimited.
At the end our of our tour, owner Burl Mostul hinted at the next project; Villa Catalana Cellars, whose wines would be ready in summer 2014 for release, and a new wine tasting facility at the rear of the main house that would be open on weekends.
As with most outdoor wedding facilities, available dates are limited. To request more information you may email Rare Plant Research at [email protected].
2014 is roaring in and we are so excited to see what this year's couples are planning for their wedding designs. Here are some wedding trends we hear are going to be super-hot in Portland, from our own clients and also talking with colleagues around town:
This time of year, we're fielding tons of inquiries, cleaning up the blog, receiving happy emails from brides with links to their summer wedding photos. I was just going through some photo files and couldn't believe I'd overlooked blogging Mindy and Ashish's garba (Gujarati-style dance party) and wedding weekend from a few years ago.
The garba was held at the downtown Hilton Portland and catered by East India Company. I worked with Royce's Prop Shop and the bride, who had brought back a ton of gorgeous sari fabric that she wanted to use around the room. Royce and I came up with the idea of draping the saris over T-bar posts, and using uplighting for a festive effect:
Today is the Day of the Doctor - the 50th anniversary of iconic British sci-fi television show Doctor Who. We know many of our clients grew up watching DW on PBS in the United States and wanted to acknowledge its cultural significance. Hat-tip to the many Doctor Who-themed weddings we've seen on the internet; here are just a few of our favorites:
And finally, this lovely song ("Rose's Theme") that would be appropriate for any wedding party processional:
Ultimately, Doctor Who is a romantic, idealistic show that is more about the magic of positive thought than straight-up technical sci-fi. The time travel trope makes it easy for any fan to find a motif, subtle or overt, that works for their wedding. What better way to show your love than to promise one's beloved "All of time and space"?
