Sheila and Erik…

So much I could say about Sheila and Erik… they are such a fun and sweet couple! They were referred to me by Sheila’s maid of honor Suzie (and husband Patrick!) whose wedding I photographed last September. I knew when Sheila and Erik said who they were referred by that it would be a fun wedding… and when I heard that it was at a winery I was even more excited… and then the winery was near Hood River, Oregon. I was sold.

It was a very hot day at the Mt. Hood Winery… and I’m not sure I’ve ever photographed more family portraits! With Sheila’s family in town from Chicago, and many other family and friends from around the country, there were a lot of memories to capture. Thanks to Sheila’s grandma, we were able to organize the troops and get through the groups before too many people melted in the sun. After that we went across the parking lot to a “rad fruit farm” (as said Sheila in an email) to do the wedding party photos. In addition to Erik and Sheila, there were 29 people in the wedding party… Thankfully we had plenty of space to work with!

One of the things I loved so much about this wedding is that Sheila and Erik did so many of the details themselves and  had so many fun treats and snacks, made by a friend of theirs, for their guests to snack on through the day. The weather couldn’t have been nicer… it would have been nice if the fires in the Mt. Hood National Forest hadn’t blocked Mt. Hood, but it did give me some nice hazy sky to photograph.

Thank you for the wonderful weekend in Mt Hood. It was the first time I had really felt like I had time off in many many months. I hope you guys are doing well in Germany!

The haze in the sky is actually smoke from the fires at the Mt. Hood National Forest…

So many laughs that day…Just some of the treats and snacks for their guests…Yep, 29+2 = 31…Here is the “main” wedding party…Did I mention how hot it was?Sheila and one of her brothers… you can just tell how funny it must have been growing up in this family…I wish that fruit farm was local!Love these guys…Sheila’s parents…The Mt. Hood Winery is such a beautiful setting for a wedding…Their programs doubled as Mad Libs…Fake mustaches made fun photo booth props…Six happy kids out of seven is pretty good  in my book…You can just barely see Mt. Hood showing through the smoke to the left of the green tree…There’s Suzie and Patrick on the right…I ran out to my car to grab some equipment and saw this guest… check out those crazy shoes!I took them out for some yummy light portraits before dinner…Sheila decorated the cake herself…A helicopter returns to the Columbia River for water to drop on the nearby fires…Erik’s brother and Sheila’s dad…