Portland's a known haven for free spirits, and fittingly, it's full of beautiful open spaces. It's the greenest city in America - literally and ecologically - and there's no better place to hold an outdoor wedding or engagement photo session. A good Portland wedding photographer will know exactly how to best use the city's natural beauty as a backdrop in your engagement or wedding photos. Whether you're new to Portland or you just need a refresher course on our great city, we're here to provide a comprehensive list of the places that make Portland the destination for romantic, all-natural engagement or wedding photography.
Portland is known as "The City of Roses" for a reason. Get your Portland wedding photographer to take you and your betrothed outside - you'll figure out what to do from there. If you're not sure where to begin, why not start with the International Rose Test Garden, located in Washington Park? It's America's oldest rose test garden and features about 550 varieties of roses. Couples seeking a larger and (even more) peaceful open space may be interested in The Grotto, a botanical garden and Catholic shrine. With 62 acres of dramatic foliage, it's a beautiful place to shoot engagement photos - let your Portland wedding photographer snap shots of you and your fiancé as you explore the grounds. The location's name comes from its dramatic centerpiece, Our Lady's Grotto, a rock cave carved into the base of a 110-foot cliff with a life-sized marble reproduction of Michelangelo's Pietà at its center. The influence of Portland's large Asian-American community is evident in two of the city's most noteworthy attractions, Lan Su Chinese Garden, which features acres of plants native to China and a traditional Chinese tea room, and the Portland Japanese Garden, noted for its beauty and pitch-perfect replication of a real Japanese garden.
If you find yourself needing to shake off some of the solemnity, hop aboard the Outrageous Jet Boat. This 35-passenger boat offers speedy trips down the Willamette and Columbia Rivers - what better way to celebrate the exhilaration of love? If you aren't seasick afterwards, you and your wedding or engagement party might want to board the city's premier yacht, the Portland Spirit, and enjoy a sumptuous meal (and photo session) under the stars. Our city has always encouraged the anarchic, so your Portland wedding photographer will understand if you and your wedding party want to book a date with the Portland Underground Walking Tours, billed at the attraction's website as a tour "certainly not for the faint of heart" where you'll explore the "illicit, naughty, bawdy and corrupt and shady activities" of Portland past.
The Pacific Northwest gets grey and rainy - luckily, there's Portland fun to be had indoors. Historic Pittock Mansion, built in Portland's salad days as an 1800's lumber town, rises to a dramatic peak 1,000 feet over the city's skyline. Its extravagantly furnished interior - preserved since the early 1900's - is an interesting glimpse into a bygone era, and your Portland wedding photographer will know how to utilize the grounds for a romantic photo shoot. If you're willing to take a short trip, you'll find that the Maryhill Museum of Art (located in Goldendale, WA)is another building whose land is as breathtaking as its interior. In addition to hosting traveling and permanent collections of European and American art, the Museum is set on 5,300 acres and features a Stonehenge replica (!) nearby - which, as your Portland wedding photographer will agree, is the perfect illustration of the natural beauty and the eccentric spirit of the Pacific Northwest.