Sara Gray Photography Portland, Oregon

Flowers are arguably one of the most romantic details at any given wedding. They’re flowers, after all, and their feminine forms and gorgeous colors make for beautiful details.

I had these bright, summery bouquets made for this shoot and I love all the bright colors and blooms in the arrangement.

I loved how the ribbon wraps around the stems were different colors here. Great idea for customizing bridesmaids’ bouquets and making them unique.

I really admire florists and their ability to make beautiful arrangements. I also love the feel of a bouquet in the hand. It’s like holding one makes you walk like a bride!

I hope you enjoyed pretty pictures of flowers day on the blog! I can’t wait to see the wonderful and original bouquets at all my weddings this summer. Come back next week for another inspiration post, this time featuring cocktails!

What do you think wedding photographers do in the winter, when there isn’t a wedding every single weekend and times are a little slow? Well, when we get a little too bored and uninspired, sometimes we resort to photographing each other. Luckily, all my photographer friends are pretty people.

This is Ian and Maalaea. They are a husband-wife team who photograph weddings in Portland and beyond (as i and m photo), and they’re also my friends.

Maalaea and Ian and I got together back near the end of January on N. Mississippi Avenue for a little blast of color and energy in that gray, dreary month.

I love the energy and life on this one street — we saw chickens, fresh flowers, coffee shops, restaurants, shoppers and cyclists.

No session is complete without a little jumping around, right?

I love the way Maalaea and Ian look at each other. It’s so fun to photograph people in love!

Thanks, Maalaea and Ian, for joining me on that gray January day and for being such great photo buddies!

I never could make jewelry. I’m not very coordinated with the fine motor skills, and everything ended up a little bit marred by the end. But my friend Arwa is an inspiration, because she not only makes gorgeous handcrafted jewelry, she sells and markets it too. She’s the mastermind behind GemKitty, where you can design your own jewelry and she gets to do all the hard work.

Arwa is a little shy when it comes to the camera, but she was a great sport when I told her she’d have to be photographed to be on the blog. Isn’t she cute?

Not just cute, but stylish and super smart. Her business savvy is amazing, and she really gets what women want when it comes to jewelry. GemKitty is basically the perfect solution to the age-old question of what to get for bridesmaids. You can order from tons of raw materials and several different styles so that they all match a little, but each gives each bridesmaid her own individuality. Go to the site and check it out!

Thanks, Arwa, for being so cool and for posing patiently for me. I can’t wait until I get to photograph my first GemKitty bridal party!

If you know me personally, you probably know that I love to bake. My most proud baking moment was winning the cream pie division of the Portland Pie-Off last year (watch out, 2010!) and Eric and I had pie from Baker & Spice at our own wedding. It should come as no surprise, then, that I’m usually pretty smitten with the beautiful desserts served at weddings. I had a little fun last week with desserts and thought I’d share this as part two of my inspiration series. Enjoy!

One thing I love about couples these days is that they go out of their way to do unique, personally meaningful things on their wedding days. I’ve seen lots of cool things on the dessert front, but I’m pretty taken with the variety I’ve seen. A little something for everyone is the name of the game. These two cakes are small (the white layer cake is only 5″ around and the bundt 7″) and I love how they could be part of a larger dessert buffet for a crowd.

This is a Martha Stewart cupcake recipe that I adapted — that’s right, these aren’t just for show. It’s a lemon cake (with both fresh lemon juice and zest in the cake) and a lemon-orange glaze. I love the very homemade comforting vibe of a bundt cake, and it’s a perfect fit for people who aren’t crazy about frosting.

The other small white layer cake is also a Martha Stewart recipe — it’s a coconut layer cake and it’s also super delicious (yes, I did extensive sampling throughout the baking process).

A little DIY tip from this photo shoot: I made the tissue paper poms following this Martha Stewart tutorial. They were really easy to make and they add such a festive feel. You can hang them or set them on a table for a touch of whimsy.

Yum! Is your mouth watering? Looking over this post makes me really excited to be photographing creative desserts all summer long at the weddings I’m so lucky to be a part of. Check back next week for another thing I love to photograph: flowers!

Allison and Juan are the real deal. They’re nice, they’re successful and they both have really nice teeth. I met this fabulous Portland power couple a few weeks ago, and it was so fun to snag some photos of them together.

When you see her, you think he scored. When you see him, you think the opposite. I think they’ve both done pretty well for themselves.

These photos were taken on the roof of the new Indigo building in downtown Portland. It’s got a great view and a cool rooftop terrace that just happened to be rain-free on the day we were there.

Thanks, Allison and Juan, for being such fun to photograph and work with! And thanks to my dear friend Hannah, who introduced me to them.

Ask any of my brides: if there’s one item at a wedding that inspires me, it’s the shoes. On a wedding day, you can usually find me before all the action has started, rummaging around trying to find the bride’s shoes. I always love to get photos of them. For the next five weeks, I’m going to do an inspiration post on Thursdays that shows you my favorite single elements from weddings, starting of course with shoes (they are my favorite, after all). Hopefully they’ll help some of you brides with some ideas or if nothing else, be something fun to look at on your visit to my blog.

There’s something about bright-colored shoes that I can’t get enough of. I bought five pairs for this shoot.

I loved these yellow ones, with the teal background. Can you tell I had some fun playing with shoes?

That’s our new Le Creuset Dutch Oven, in a perfect coordinating blue. I couldn’t help but incorporate it.

I think these green shoes were my favorite of the bunch.

Yay for shoes! I seriously can’t wait for this year’s weddings and all the beautiful shoes I’m going to come across. Come back next week for another item I can’t get enough of at weddings (or in life) — desserts!

I love hanging with girls. There’s a certain vibe in a room full of girls, and it’s loads of fun.

Although I’m a wedding photographer, I get to photograph some amazing projects from time to time that are non-wedding related and I usually really enjoy these projects. Last month, I had the opportunity to photograph a bunch of the fun girls from the Northwest Girlchoir in Seattle, and it was seriously so much fun.

The Northwest Girlchoir is a really cool group with more than 200 members, ranging from age four to eighteen. We got together with about 40 of these high-energy girls at the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park and had tons of fun, even though it was raining! All the girls brought bright-colored umbrellas, which was super fun for everyone.

My connection with the Northwest Girlchoir is Kristi, the sister of one of my brides from last summer. She and I worked on putting together a set of photos that would really set this group apart in the choir world. I’m really happy with how they came out — I feel like they really capture the energy and vibrance of this fun group.

The girls were having so much fun that soon, they were actually dancing in the rain.

Thanks, ladies, for being so much fun to photograph! I can’t wait to see you all sing one of these days!

A KISS album, that is. Trust me when I tell you that you want one. I’m offering these albums in all of my wedding packages this year because I feel it’s important to have something real to hold and touch and remember with.

This one, with all its sassy hot pink leather, is mine. It’s a sample that I’ll use to show to clients this year, and it features the lovely, bright-colored wedding of Shannon and TJ, this past September.

The albums are thick and luscious, with the softest leather you can imagine. My sample album is a 10×10-inch model with lots of upgrades, like extra spreads. The entire album was designed by me, too.

Look at all those colors! These albums come in red, brown, pink, white, navy blue, lime green and black.

After all that, they come wrapped in these pretty slipcovers and they’re ready to share. I love them, and just wanted to share! Get ready, 2010 couples, for your very own!

My parents used to get Harry and David’s fruit-of-the-month club when I was a kid. It’s a cool concept. That’s why I was so psyched when my friend Arwa told me about Dress of the Month Club. It’s not really a club, but a new custom-designed dress every month from Liz and Kirsten, the minds behind this project.

Last weekend, I got together with Liz and Kirsten and their latest creation, just debuted for February: the Laura Elise dress. We took some photos of their friend and model Laura, and of course the beauty that was this dress. I think it’s gorgeous — if you want one of your own, you just have to ask (click here!)

It’s so energizing to me to work with other female business owners in this town — there is such a wealth of originality and promise. The Dress of the Month club ladies paired up with Brianna of Wallflowers Salon in NW, too — what a great team!

In case you’re wondering, brides, I did ask — and the Dress of the Month Club has done some work on bridesmaid dresses. If you’re looking for something you just can’t find, these might be your gals. If one of their custom designs isn’t the perfect thing, try their Dress-o-Matic feature!

Thanks, Kirsten and Liz (and Laura!) for being so fun to work with and for inspiring me on a Saturday morning. I can’t wait to see your next creation!