There’s something really beautiful about a smaller guest list. It gives you room to breathe. To feel. To think about how the day unfolds. A micro wedding isn’t about what fits in the schedule; it’s about what fills your heart and lights you up. 

Say it with me: small celebrations still deserve big scenery. But more than that, they deserve creative vendors, beautiful touches and details, and of course, venues that look like they were built from a blueprint straight from your dreams.  

You’ve probably seen it. You stumble upon a photo, and there’s just something about it – it stops you in your tracks, softens your gaze, and floods you with emotions. 

It’s usually soft – a glowing image with just the right grain. It doesn’t look edited or altered, it just looks different. It looks like a memory feels. The second you see it – the light, the color – something inside your soul exhales slowly. 

That’s the magic of film wedding photography.

There’s no right or wrong way to plan a wedding, but the ultimate goal is always for it to feel like grounded exhilaration. It’s one of the greatest days of your life, but it feels aligned – like you couldn’t have dreamed up a more fitting experience if you tried. 

In between the elaborate 300-person wedding inspo on Pinterest and the adventurous two-person elopements that dot our Instagram stories, there’s a sweet little section of weddings that glimmer just enough to catch our eyes.

Weddings – big or small – are a deeply personal reflection of who we are, how we love, and what we’ve envisioned for ourselves. Because, when you think about it, a wedding isn’t just a party or a celebration ( although it is that, of course, to some degree). 

A wedding is a symbol of the life we’ve imagined for ourselves with our partner – the start of something truly beautiful, reflecting and refracting the glimmers of what we love about our relationship.

We’ve all heard it time and time again – the average cost of a wedding is around $30,000. I’ve been part of the wedding industry for years as an elopement and small wedding photographer, and in that time, I’ve noticed that so many of us hold wild misconceptions about weddings, our wedding budgets, and what the real cost of a wedding (of any size) truly is.

Snow-capped mountains in the distance, high desert, vast forests, serene rivers – Bend, Oregon, is truly a one-of-a-kind place. I’m biased, of course. As a Bend elopement and wedding photographer who lives smack dab in the center of it all, I know first-hand

There’s something otherworldly about the Oregon Coast. Maybe it’s the way the mist clings to the cliffs in the morning or how the waves carve infinite patterns in the sand…

On the day you get married, every moment should feel just right–from the foods you eat and the guest list you create to the microwedding photographer who captures every moment in the wedding venue you choose. 

When Whitney and Levi envisioned their eventual small wedding day, they both dreamed of something that felt like stepping into another world—a dreamy, mythical forest where love and spring collided. 

From the moment you get engaged–and sometimes even long before–you’re surrounded by a whirlwind of wedding content. Nowadays, we have unlimited access to inside peeks at weddings of all kinds–from luxury celebrity weddings to the ultimate compilation of DIY weddings.

With so many talented wedding and elopement photographers out there, I’ll be the first to say it can feel hard for soon-to-be-married couples to choose their perfect-fit wedding photographer and the right micro wedding or elopement photography package for them.

When it comes to planning a micro-wedding–especially in a scenic spot like Oregon–the venue can make or break how you experience and soak in your day. 

I know what you’re thinking–Isn’t a micro-wedding or small wedding venue just the location where you have your wedding?

A few years back, a woman named Piper caught a glimpse of the cover photo in a Seattle Brides Magazine. In the photo, a bride and groom stood on opposite floats of a float plane in full wedding attire, bobbing up and down in a remote lake in the North Cascades.

If you’re a soon-to-be-married couple out there eager to plan your wedding, you’ve probably already run into several conversations about the type of wedding you’ll have. Will it be a big wedding with a large guest list? A smaller, more intimate event? What about something just for you two–maybe a secluded elopement only including a few guests to stand by your side? 

The blunt truth about the word “wedding venue” is that it usually throws people (couples included) for a loop. For most people, when they hear “venue,” it conjures up images of traditional weddings–great halls, large churches, or event spaces created to fit hundreds of people inside.

When couples choose to include creative wedding vendors and professionals on their wedding day, it elevates their experience. I know—I started this blog with a bold claim. But after ten years as a micro wedding photographer, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to watch wedding days unfold.

Every wedding day, every feeling, and every experience I’ve captured for soon-to-be-married couples has been beautifully unique. But for as different as these days and experiences are, the best ones have all had something specific in common: for their day, the couple chose their priorities and unapologetically stuck to them.

If you found yourself swooning over the stunning Oregon Crook Point wedding between “Dancing with the Stars” pro Koko Iwasaki and choreographer Kiki Nyemchek, know you’re not alone. 

Koko and Kiki Iwasaki shared their vows in late July in front of 100 guests in a dreamy, forested spot right on the Oregon coastline.