An amazing wedding happened on Sept. 4th and The Nines Hotel in Portland, Oregon and The Crown Ball Room, were a part of it. As always I had the distinct pleasure and honor of being the wedding photographer for Jessica & Nicks wedding! I went to high school with Jessica and when she asked me to be her wedding photographer I jumped at the chance and it made it all the more fun and special. As my luck seems to be, Jessica and Nick were an absolutely fantastic couple to work with and so was their entire wedding party…I had an absolute blast with them and part of me wanted to invite myself back to the after party, but alas I had to go home and work on backing up images and being responsible, LOL. We started the day at The Nines hotel, which I had been dying to shoot at and from the images, it completely reconfirmed why I have wanted to shoot there so much. The Crown Ball room, was a very cool and hip place to shoot at, lots of stuff going on, but it all seemed to work…I do have to say that I have never seen more dancing at a wedding in my life, it was so much fun to be in the middle of it all…all kinds of love to go around and fun was had by all. I truly enjoyed myself, SO THANK YOU Jessica & Nick for allowing me to be a part of it all!

So onto the images…as always comments are loved and appreciated…so if you got 20 secs, please feel free to leave one.

portland, oregon wedding photographer | brandon@brandonperron.com | www.brandonperron.com

David Hill Winery and Vineyard was an absolutely stunning place for Erica and Luca to have their Oregon wedding. The amount of love and care that Erica and Luca have for each other is quite amazing, they are incredible friends and this oozes from every cell in their body when they interact with each other…I do think that it comes from their parents, as their parents have so much love for them and for everyone that it would be hard for it to not rub off.

The details of the day was handle by Vibrant Table, (from the flowers, to set up, to the cake) out of Portland, Oregon…This was my first time working with them and they did some amazing things…as you will be able to see in the pictures. I was excited to see what Erica had come up with as for what the wedding details would look like and I was blown away by all the cool and unique ideas that she came up with for her wedding.

Weddings are always filled with fun and emotional times and wedding speeches are usually one of those times in the day that usually never disappoints and I have to say, that the speeches at this wedding takes the cake for best speeches ever!!!!

As I am always am, I am honored and humbled to be a part of any couple’s wedding day and this was no exception…Thank you Erica and Luca for allowing me to be a part of this day and capture it!

….on to the photo tease! As always comments are loved and welcomed!

Wedding Day Details:
Venue: David Hill Winery & Vineyard
Wedding Photographer: Brandon Perron
Flowers: Vibrant Table
Cake: Lambs Thriftway
Deocr: Vibrant Table

portland, oregon wedding photographer | brandon@brandonperron.com | www.brandonperron.com

*despite my non-calibrated monitors…I had to post some of my faves from a couple of my closest friends wedding…

Jessica and Josh…tied the knot in a very small, close immediate family only wedding (I snuck in on a technicality…being the photog). It was an honor and a pleasure to be a part of their special day, it was full of emotion all around!

I have known Jessica as Jessica R. and now she is Jessica L., super crazy but awesome all at the same time!!!!!! Now as with her and Josh, I need to get used to saying it.

Hope you enjoy the images and as always comments are always loved!

portland, oregon wedding photographer | brandon@brandonperron.com | www.brandonperron.com

Everyone says we have a first for everything right? Well, I had another one of those times on Sat., two awesome couple’s that are great friends, wanted to their engagement sessions together at the same time…there weddings are exactly one week apart (thank god no real life “Bride Wars” movie). As with all my couple’s I always have a blast and just having a good time shooting…and this was no different, but it did stretch my creative juices a bit, trying to utilize the same are, but make it so it was not exactly the same…but still awesome non the less. We did do some walking and the couple’s were troopers…its apparently a thing for me, to do a lot of walking on my shoots…I guess it allows me to keep moving onto different locations, which IMO keeps the images more interesting.

I am super excited to be shooting both of these couple’s weddings, both are going to be a ton of fun!

There will be a lot of pictures in this post, two couples…double the images right? Comments are always loved!

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As a photographer who is hired on to capture a couple’s day, I am charged with the extremely important task of capturing the couples looking their best on their wedding day…and that comes with an immense responsibility that I get the shots which sometimes limits my creativity, which is fine and well but I owe it to my clients to continually be stretching my creative muscles. So, I knew that I could not be the only vendor that wants to flex their creative muscles, so I got in touch with other vendors who wanted to stretch those muscles and put together a mock-wedding of sorts. I then decided, I should probably invite some other photogs who could really benefit from this and the results were amazing!

The details of everything were so far from what I could have imagined, it is a huge reminder of why I encourage all brides to hire a coordinator and really let their vendors roll with the ideas of the clients and let them create something, because it turns out so amazing!

You will see from the images that the details are simply stunning and that is thanks to Mandi and Danielle from ChampagneNW , Jordan from Blum, Design in Flowers, Garda from West Coast Event Productions, and Stuio Olivine …

The were others involved that made this happen as well…the dress on the Bride was loaned from Ania Collections and the tux was provided by Men’s Warehouse, both looked perfect on the couple!

The cake from White Rose Bakery was just as awesome and the broaches were a really cool touch!

I can also not forget to mention how extremely cool Hotel Monaco was to shoot at for a wedding! I recommend any couple should have their wedding there and then invite me to shoot the wedding in Hotel Monaco I wanted more time to shoot around in there!

Here are the images…

We are are getting back to that time of year now…when couples are booking their wedding photographer and getting their engagement photos done.

Everyone meet, Emily & Sam…absolutely fun couple to spend a couple of hours shooting with! They have never had professional pictures taken and were a bit hesitant, but as you can see, they had no trouble…in fact, they were awesome in front the camera! They were troopers, as with all of my shoots, I do a ton of walking…just to see what inspires me along the way and we did that and personally I think it was worth it!

Due to our fairly good weather here in the great state of Oregon, that cherry blossoms at the water front were already in full bloom…umm…so how could we not take advantage of them and do some shooting there!? Totally worth the walk!!!!

This couple is really, in LOVE…they were constantly joking around and having fun and being a cute couple…which is so much fun to be part of and photograph!

Like a lot of couples, they thought about not doing an engagement session…but as I always do, I strongly encouraged that they do it…and by the time we were done, they agreed as well. Being able to get used to me and how I work and getting comfortable with a gigantic camera in their face, lol…prepared them for the wedding day and will not be quite as a shock when the day is here.

Thanks Emily and Sam…looking forward to the wedding…

I am a firm believer in practicing, practicing and practicing some more…this does not change with my photography…I am always wanting to practice, but part of my practicing is to fail and be creative to see the results that I come up with. So I am usually setting up small shoots to be able to fail and practice…but that is fine and dandy for portrait shoots, but what about the entire wedding day…bride and groom getting ready, shooting the details, the portraits, the reception, etc.  So I have decided to put together a mock wedding from start to finish…

WHEN: Thursday March 25th!

(I am calling this a workshop, as there will be learning going on, but its not a full workshop at all in the traditional sense…but since there will be learning going on, I see it as a mini-shop…)

This will be the major parts of the day for us photogs to learn and be creative, with out the added responsibility of the client on the wedding day.

Parts of the day that will be able to be shot…(shooting will probably last for 6-8 hours)
-Getting ready (both bride and groom)
-The details we usually see with the bride and groom getting ready (dress, shoes, rings, flowers, rings, cufflinks, tie, etc.)
-Bride portraits
-Groom portraits
-Couple portraits
-Reception details (tables, invites, etc.)
-Cake shots
-Dancing shots while experimenting with lighting…
-Working with flash for the portraits

The entire day will be styled by the Fabulous Mandi Downs from Champagne NW and will take place at Hotel Monaco in beautiful downtown Oregon…

This will be extremely limited in the amount of people who will be there…I am capping it at 9 people (including myself), this will allow us to be in 3 groups of 3 so, we are not shooting over each other and getting in each other’s way…which is a very common thing at most shoots like this.

This will be amazing for not only being able to be creative for us, but the other vendors are able to stretch their creative muscles and we will end up with some amazing stuff, that you do not get to see very often at weddings and will be awesome images for ports.

If you pay for this before March 5th, I will make the price only $175,  but after the 5th…the cost will be…$250 for 6-8 hours of shooting some awesome, awesome stuff…

Please email brandon@brandonperron.com to get signed up or for any questions at all…I really believe that this is going to be a super great thing for photogs to be a part of to learn and get some great shots!

Here is the 2nd shoot at Hotel Deluxe in Portland…again an amazing hotel with super cool rooms and theme! The suite with the round bed, was so awesome!!!!!! I think I might want a round bed now!

My buddy Wayne came along to see what it was like shooting with a model and got roped into helping out, LOL…thanks Wayne…you were  life saver!

Hoping to wrap up this project, in the next month or so…fingers crossed.

As always comments are loved!

I tweeted that I was at Hotel Modera doing the first of many shoots for a big project that is a secret and people became really curious, so I said I’d put up a photo tease of a few of the images…and people agreed I should…so here they are. I can not give any details out, until all the shoots are completed and ready to be rolled…but at least you can see a few shots Once all the photography is done, I will of course release all details of what the shoot is about and who it is for, the details of location, etc., etc. But for now you only get images and super vague details…

As always comments are loved!

This chapter talks about giving information to your clients and allowing them to be more informed about your services and products.

I have spoken on this before…but I believe that more information you can give your clients the better your chance of them hiring you. Giving information I believe leads to trust of you to your clients. Of course the information needs to be accurate and truthful,  but when people understand things, they tend to be more comfortable and when people are more comfortable they tend to be willing to part with their money more easily. When I say give them information, I mean everything you can think of, that lets them know exactly who you are and what your business is all about.

Lets look at buying car…what happens if you went to two car lots looking for the exact same car…

1st  car lot - Tells you nothing you…they tell you nothing about the car…they just say its top of the line and you should buy it. They also tell you nothing about them, they have no pictures of happy customers right after they bought a car, they have no testimonials, etc. (but this is a car dealer that does honest business and people will have good things to say about them)

2nd car lot - Tells you everything! They tell you why the car is top of the line, why its better then its competitors, where its competitors might have a slight advantage, let you put it through the paces, they let you take the car on your own for a test drive (yup you heard me, no salesman goes with you…I’m not making it up), the salesman knows everything there is to know about the car and things that many people do not know, they have all kinds of fact sheets from different sources to show you. They have lots and lots of pictures of happy customers right after buying the car, they have all kinds of testimonials, they have bios displayed on the wall of all the employees, they have all their excellence awards very nicely hung, etc.

So which car dealer would you buy from? My guess is most would buy from the second one, because they were informed about not only the car, but the experience they will have after purchasing the car…They became comfortable with the salesman and the dealer, thus more willing to part with their money there.

Do you give your clients lots of wonderful info. to allow them to understand you and your business and make them extremely comfortable with giving you money?

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson(Author)

Paperback: 384 pagesPublisher: Mariner Books; 4 Upd Exp edition (May 22, 2007)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618785914
ISBN-13: 978-0618785919

(again please read my disclaimer on this, that I AM NOT AN EXPERT and the reason for me doing this…if you have not already)

Portland Wedding Photographer | Wedding photography Tips | brandon@brandonperron.com