When you have a long engagement [2+ years] and/or you’re having a destination wedding, I believe that it’s particularly important to then have an engagement session [or two] in the place that you call home. For Erika + Matt both situations apply – They decided to postpone their wedding by one year so they could focus on purchasing a house AND their wedding will be on the East Coast on Matt’s family’s ranch property. In December 2013 we planned a short engagement session on Mary’s Peak, just outside mine and Erika’s home town of Philomath, hoping for snow. Well we didn’t get any snow, but it was plenty cold and misty.
When they told me they were moving their wedding to summer 2015 I insisted we do another engagement session, but this time in Portland, where they live. Erika + Matt are true city folks in style, but small town folks at heart so really the double engagement session couldn’t be more appropriate to expressing their personalities and relationship.
We split a mid- November afternoon at See See Motor Coffee Co and Cathedral Park. This particular coffee shop, as you might guess from the name, is motorcycle themed as well as a small moto-gear shop with vintage helmets and parts throughout. Both Matt + Erika have been known to indulge in some motorcycle/vespa activities so it seemed the perfect cozy location to start our day… plus who in Oregon doesn’t LOVE coffee?
We then moved to one of the area’s more iconic and romantic parks under the St. John’s Bridge to capture something distinctly Portland and PNW. I was honestly hoping for a tiny bit of rain so I could experiment with a clear umbrella and in true Oregon form we got the perfect amount to drizzle towards the end of our session! We again included their pooch, Blake, in some photos, and I must say that if you have a cooperative dog there’s nothing more adorable to add to a romantic engagement session. While willing, he quickly let us know that he didn’t approve of the cold wet ground and that he’d rather hang out in his car doggy bed.
We ended our afternoon with a late lunch at a nearby McMenamins that just happened to have a piping hot wood stove going strong! Ahhhh…
