Tropical Hawaii Vibes in Oregon Wedding

Want to go to Hawaii or someplace tropical but can’t travel? How about styling yourself a tropical inspired stay-cation wedding right where you are? That’s what today’s feature aims to do – and we love the results!

from the planner: “Covid-19 has brought many changes for couples when it comes to having a large wedding. This shoot is highlighting how to have a Micro- Wedding / Elopement Staycation.My design inspiration for this shoot was to bring a tropical vibe to a modern all white theme for a wedding by adding touches of a Tropical Theme wedding that could happen in Hawaii to a Modern Blank Space at Jupiter NEXT in Portland Oregon with using white as an accent shade to the Tropical Greenery.

The florals were all about highlighting white floral arrangements with tropical greenery. Maruwa Design and I worked together in highlighting the tropical greenery with commonly used white florals for weddings and pairing it with the Plant Rentals that Vintage Meets Modern provided for the shoot. Besides highlighting the tropical greenery with white florals we also wanted to create a WOW piece to really make others look closely at the arrangements and view each floral piece. The ceremony was to use the rooftop garden patio plants to highlight a relaxed ceremony with some fun acrylic signs provided by The Fresh Hues and then the reception piece was to do something out of the box and new in creating a hanging arrangement and using a square table setup. With the tablescape setup working with Setting the Table Rentals we were able to draw in some vintage and modern elements with the plates, flatware and glassware to really help tie the tropical vibes of Hawaii and the Clean Modern vibes of Portland together. We used just simple white Table Linens from Peter Corvallis to tie in the look.

The cake was all about keeping it simple and clean with little florals added. Working with Banquette I shared a vision of a modern clean white cake, the cake being all white and modern was to let the cake stand out with a unique fun Balloon Wall and Chain look from Balloons By Twisted Sisters. With the cake being not too grand and simple it pulled the look of a modern tropical wedding all together. Now Balloons are not typically used in weddings but I personally thought it would be a fun way to add extra wow and decor to show it can be a fun set up for a cake table or as a photo booth backdrop or even ceremony backdrop as well.

The attire I wanted to highlight modern styles that could also be worn again. The dress is one you can purchase off of Amazon while the suit is a basic one that can be rented but also purchased and in this case rented one from Mr. Formal here in Portland. It was important for me to highlight the use of the attire being something you can wear again because many of my own couples like to repurpose their wedding attire for anniversary portraits and to wear to other special events. Makeup and Hair provided by Blushing Bride PDX really helped tie in the looks all together with the soft beachy look. We also included 2 custom veils created by Tailored Tulle to give more drama to the dress and overall look since veils are making a fun and creative comeback for weddings.

The stationery was something that I created for this shoot in wanting something simple but yet had character. I wanted to highlight how you can create something elegant and simple but still have a modern flare to it. I created a simple invitation suite with a program for guest and vow letters for the couple to read to each other.

Overall this shoot was amazing and the way Kendra Cates Photography was able to capture everything really stood out by capturing it in Film and in Digital files. Her editing brought the soft romantic side of this shoot and she was able to really capture the story of the shoot and the true love between our models Kristine and Rafa.”

from the couple: “On July 4th, 2007, I was hanging out with some friends and we got bored with fireworks so decided to go play video games at a house belonging to a family that was on vacation at the time. One of my friends was dating the girl that lived there, but I had no idea whose house I was actually “breaking into”. A few weeks later, another friend asked me to meet up with him and his friend at an abandoned hospital and that is where I officially met Rafa (even though we had just graduated from the same high school that summer) right before someone called the police on us for hanging out on a street corner at 10PM. Shortly after that, I found out that the house I “broke into” was Rafa’s. A few weeks after that on August 11, 2007, Rafa asked me to be his girlfriend in the makeup aisle at Walmart and that is where our love story officially began. Throughout the next few years, we’d come to learn that we had family members who were good friends with each other, which was so great because it can be hard to blend different cultures and so that existing connection really helped. 12+ years later, Rafa and his mom asked my parents for my hand in marriage by giving them fruits, flowers and Remy Martin. A few days after that on Christmas morning, I woke up to my promise ring being swapped out with my engagement ring, but only realizing that after I saw an empty ring box and thought he had played a cruel joke on me. He had replaced it on my finger while I was dead asleep the night before.

We had plans to elope in Iceland on our 13 year anniversary on August 11, 2020, but the pandemic hit so we postponed it to August 11, 2021 since that date is so special to us and it’s one less date to remember. Iceland is currently closed to US citizens and it seems unlikely that they will open up by this summer, so we plan to elope in the Pacific Northwest where we can find Iceland vibes. Once we’re able to, we’ll be hosting a post-elopement dinner party for our families to meet and celebrate our new adventure before moving on to the next one!”