If you’re getting married at a venue with limited space for portraits? Listen up because I’m gonna give you some tips on how to find locations nearby to make your wedding look unique.

1. Get there early, I suggest at least a day early to go and scout the area and see what is within 10 to 15 minutes of the wedding venue. You can also use Google satellite to get an idea if you don’t have time to get there early.

2. Make sure you’re using your Lumos app to check and see where the sun is going to shining through so that way you can keep your portraits backlit at all hours of the day.

3. Look at other wedding blogs from that specific venue, and see where they did portraits as well. This will be found in the galleries section of most venue homepages. You can also reach out to the venue owner and see where people have done photos in the past. I also encourage googling wedding blogs, like this one, of that specific venue to see where events took place.

WHAT THE COUPLE WANTED FOR THEIR PLAN B DAY

Kerrie really wanted to have a mountainous wedding. She initially picked a location in the Columbia River Gorge, but then had to come up with a plan B because of this little thing called COVID. She said her dream was to get married in nature, so we did their first look and bridal portraits at Sparks Lake which is about a 40-minute drive away from the venue, but we calculated in enough time to get from each spot and back to the venue by ceremony time. Even with a little rain interrupting our initial moments at the lake, it still turned out so beautiful because God showed up and broke through the clouds in the form of sunlight so they could have that dream come true. She got the best of both worlds, mountains for just her and Tyler, and then an indoor venue for the rest of the family who had been traveling in from out of state. Tetherow was a last-minute addition to the plan like; we are talking the week of, and it made for a safe space for all the guests to celebrate the union of K + T. 

Just utilize the entire space that you’re given. That means having one view in the background for bridal party photos, and then turning to have just green plants for family photos, the indoor section for the reception, and then out on the patio for dancing, you can make a venue look much bigger than it actually is. 

Making your wedding look different can come with challenges, but with an enneagram 3 like myself, we make it happen because my goal is to make your dreams a reality because you only get married once.

VENDORS:

Photographer: Emily Vandehey Photography

Venue: Tetherow Weddings

Florals: Flowers By Katie

Dress: The White Dress Bridal Boutique

HMUA: Cassidy Elise Artistry

DJ / Sound: Stump Town DJs

Videography: Mike Hiatt Media

Cake: Hapa Gril Cakes