Married at Deepwood Estate

a bride and groom stand in the sun room at the deepwood estate

I have wanted to photograph a wedding at this incredible venue for years. Therefore, when this couple told me they planned to get married at Deepwood Estate, I was ecstatic! It is now called Deepwood Museum & Gardens, and it is located in Salem, just a short drive from Portland. It was built in 1894 and has such a unique and quirky design, my ideal kind of aesthetic! The home has a pretty interesting history as well. The house mostly serves as a backdrop, as they do not host larger events indoors. However, it’s not just the amazing home that makes this venue so great, it’s the gorgeous gardens!

Married at Deepwood Estate

In fact, even the gardens have a cool history. Many of the gardens on the grounds were designed by the first female owned landscape architecture firm in the Northwest. Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver of Lord-Schryver Landscape Design made the gardens to include several “rooms”, and gave each one it’s own personality. That’s just another reason I love photographing at this venue… there is such variety for lush backgrounds. I think I could shoot here for a week straight and not get bored or run out of ideas. There were quite a few parts of the gardens I didn’t even get to explore!

I started the day with the bride in the home’s getting ready suite. Afterwards we headed outside for her first look with the groom. He was thrilled to see her, and I captured so many cute expressions from them! We walked around for some portraits of the two of them before taking family photos. The bride and groom each have 2 kids, and it was sweet that they made up the entire wedding party. One of my favorite parts of the house is the sunroom. It has a black and white tile floor, and of course, a million windows. I was excited that it was available for portrait use, so we spent quite a bit of time there as well!

Purple & Ivory Wedding Colors

The bride’s colors were purple and ivory. You guys, you know purple is my favorite color, so I was super happy. But the neat thing was that most of the natural blooms around the property that day were also purple!
The couple were married in the “Great Room” garden. The focus point of this larger lawn is a white metal gazebo from the 1905 Lewis & Clark Exposition. Afterwards we met once again in the sunroom so the couple could sign the marriage license. After which, we met everyone under the reception tent in the more wooded part of the property.

I had such a great time working this event, and especially working with all the different vendors. Everyone was so friendly, professional, and attentive! This was my first time working with Meghan & Allison of A&M Event Planning, as well as with Zach of Apogee Events (the DJ), but they were fantastic. Check them out if you’re planning your wedding anywhere in the Portland or Salem area! Meghan & Allison not only did all the planning, coordinating, and design set-up… they even did the florals for this event!