Hood River Oregon Elopement

Meg + Alex’s Elopement day among the Oregon mountains

Meg and Alex decided to elope because they felt as though traditional weddings are more performative and impersonal, and invite a lot of unnecessary stress into what should be a happy and memorable event. It was important to them to be able to enjoy their day together and intimately celebrate their promises to each other. Keeping this in mind when planning how they envisioned their day and things they wanted in incorporate from their lives together, they did just that – shared a personal and calm day together celebrating their relationship. They traveled across the United States to Portland, Oregon where they would start the most epic week for their elopement!

Getting Ready + First Look in Welches, Oregon

Megan + Alex rented the cutest A Frame cabin you have ever seen tucked in the forest of a nearby town to Mt Hood. It was the perfect nook to spend the morning relaxing together, getting ready for the adventure and for sharing their first look. While they spent the morning together, the two brides got ready separately so they could still share that special, and emotional moment, of seeing each other for the first time as brides. It was just them two, in the privacy of the front yard of the cabin. All was still and quiet. It was a perfect moment filled with so much love to start off their elopement adventure together. There were tears shed of joy, laughter and smiles. During the first look Megan gifted Alex a beautiful bracelet. Once they were ready, we went back into the house to grab everything we needed for the day and headed out to explore everything Oregon has to offer!

Mt Hood Elopement Adventures

When I asked these two how they envisioned their elopement day being they said “We would love for our day to be a representation of the way we would spend a day together on a weekend getaway, just extra special. Peaceful, relaxing, low-key, Honeymoon vibes.” So we went with this idea and ran with it. They visited Portland before coming to the mountain trying all the amazing food and sight seeing. Once they got to the Mt Hood area for their elopement, we knew we still wanted to treat it as all the things you would do on an epic get away together, including all of their favorite things. So first we stopped at a great view point of Mt Hood where they got to check out the glaciers on the mountain, soak up some wonderful sunshine and check out the glacier river running off the mountain.

Our next stop was a beautiful waterfall! They got to walk around on a bridge to check out the bigger falls and smaller falls with no one else around, it was a prefect day of enjoying all the mountain had to offer like it was all theirs. Having never been to Oregon before Meg and Alex got to share all of these new places and new experiences together on such a special day, creating profound memories.

Mt View Brewing + Ice Cream in Hood River

After some sight seeing and exploring we started making our way towards Hood River. The thing with summer elopements in the Pacific Northwest is that sunset is pretty late and the small town dining options typically close pretty early. So our solution was an early dinner and snack, which worked out perfectly for their elopement day vision. We stopped at Mt View Brewing first to grab dinner and a couple of beers. This was super fun and special, because Meg and Alex’s first date was brewery hopping in Florida! It was a great first date that lasted longer than expected and kicked off their relationship. They enjoyed pizza and hummus as Mt Hood towered behind them and the vineyard bloomed with flowers. It was also just great to sit down together and soak in the day so far since elopement days can go so fast.

After the brewery we stopped in the cute small town of Hood River for Ice Cream at Mike’s Ice Cream. The cutest Ice Cream shop with it’s very own castle tree house which served as a fun and romantic spot for Meg and Alex to enjoy their cones. The town was having an event this day, so across the way they even got live music to listen to as they ate.

Hood River Elopement Ceremony

While Meg and Alex’s elopement day was filled with a lot of things that they usually do together when exploring a new place or even things they do back home, there were also lots of new things. For example, in order to get to their elopement ceremony location they would go on their first hike together! It was a beautiful trail passing another water fall, hiking through the tall golden grasses and wild flowers. It was like having the mountain all to ourselves as we did not pass a single soul on our way up, or down the hike. They hiked out to the edge together and started getting ready for their ceremony. Bill officiated for them, but they also shared their own personally hand written vows. Their ceremony was so beautiful, true and emotional. You could feel their love for each other and how present they were in this moment with each other as the sun was starting to set behind the mountain peaks surrounding the river. After their vows, they held a hand fasting and sealed the deal with a kiss. After their elopement ceremony was simply a true moment of bliss and taking it all in. After exploring more of the area up top and taking in the view Megan and Alex sat down together on a cool blanket they picked up at the REI in Portland showcasing many of the National Parks and pretty locations in the area. They sat and setup their doughnut picnic which they also got in Portland to enjoy instead of cake in celebration of their marriage. The top donut of the night was the pool boy from Mikiko Mochi Donuts. It was a fun way to end the evening after the ceremony. Once the sun was gone we packed up and started out hike back out. On our drive back to Welches we stopped at a very popular Mt Hood viewing location in hopes that we could see the milky way. Sure enough, there was the Milky Way in all of her beauty passing right over Mt Hood. Meg and Alex stood near the edge of the lake water holding each other as we took photos of them with the stars, it was the most relaxing way to end their elopement. Just them, the mountain and the stars. Surreal.