Love in the time of Covid...
2020 has been quite the year, hasn't it?
When Corinne and Nathan began planning their wedding, they never anticipated getting married in the middle of a global pandemic amidst statewide shutdowns, but that's exactly what happened. I'd had the privilege of photographing their engagement earlier this year (which was its own adventure), and shot Corinne's senior photos waaaaaaay back during my first year of college in 2011. So when she asked me to photograph their wedding, to say I was excited is an understatement.
Due to the pandemic, they planned an intimate micro wedding with just their immediate family and a small handful of very close friends at the Sentinel Hotel in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, November 21st. On Friday, November 13th due to a sharp rise in Covid cases, Oregon governor Kate Brown announced stricter limits on social gatherings which limited group sizes to no larger than six individuals. These restrictions would go into effect on Wednesday, November 18th (three days before their wedding). While Corinne and Nathan were planning a tiny micro wedding, they were still a few people over the six individuals limit. So they did what any sane people would do. With only four days notice, they moved their wedding up to Tuesday, November 17th - only hours before the new restrictions went into effect.
The Sentinel Hotel was originally built in 1909, and has stunningly breathtaking architecture (you can read more about the Sentinel Hotel's history here), with a beautifully eclectic mix of magnificent ballrooms and cozy meeting spaces. If I were to describe the Sentinel's style, I would describe it as grand floor-to-ceiling white Greek columns meets classical art meets intimate fireplaces and dimly-lit libraries.
Speaking of dimly-lit, almost the entire venue has some combination of very dim, very flat, and very yellow lighting. That combined with the fact that the wedding took place in the evening and there was very little light to work with made this the most technically challenging wedding I've shot and edited. I debated between using a flash or just relying on my trusty new (literally arrived the day before after being backordered for two months) Canon EOS R5 and its impressively good low-light capabilities. Ultimately I decided that because the wedding was so small and the venue was so intimate, the flash would be more distracting that I was comfortable with, so I chose to rely solely on my camera's low light capabilities. A good portion of the wedding was lit by little more than candlelight, but I was extremely impressed by how well the R5 performed in these conditions.
Because Corinne and Nathan's wedding was the only event happening at the hotel that evening, the hotel staff were kind enough to unlock all of the event spaces in the building for us to use for photography. It was a really special to experience the wide range of spaces in the hotel, each one with its own personality and unique style.
The ceremony and reception were beautifully intimate with their close family and friends surrounding them and celebrating together by candlelight.
One of my favorite parts of every wedding is dessert, and one of my favorite moments of the entire evening was the grandmas eyeing the cakes and discussing them in depth with an infectious sense of excitement. They are truly women after my own heart.
As the evening came to an end, the caterers began to clear the decorations from tables, and their families and friends began to slowly head home, I asked them for one final portrait in front of the fireplace. I think it perfectly captures the essence of the evening. You can see more of their wedding here.
