Chelsea and Evan planned their Portland wedding to look one way, and like so many 2020 couples had to make adjustments. They moved their date. They shrunk their guest list. They adjusted and adjusted and preplanned and just when they thought they knew what to expect, half the state caught on fire. Just days before their wedding, their venue was placed on a level 2 evacuation notice from the nearby wildfires and they had to adjust yet again. Thankfully their wedding venue, The Abernethy Center had a back up option for them to escape the dense smoke and hold their ceremony and reception inside and their wedding could still happen. And despite the poor air quality and the yellow haze that hung over everything, their day was incredibly special and full of laughter, singing songs from Hamilton at the top of their lungs and sweet happy tears. It was an honor to photograph this intimate wedding with this lovely family. It’s a wedding day I will never forget.

And at the very end of the night, I asked Chelsea and Evan if they’d let me take just a few last photos of them outside. I had my lights set up and I wanted to capture the uniqueness of the smokey wedding day and I was thrilled with how these portraits turned out.