Sara Gray Photography Portland, Oregon

When our inspiration post went live on Style Me Pretty a couple of weeks ago, there was a flurry of comments about these yellow shoes. The commenters loved them and wanted to know where to get them. I bought this pair at Nordstrom Rack, but it turns out they’re no longer available in any Nordstrom stores. Today, though, I’m going to make one very lucky 9.5 happy and give her my pair — worn once, for about ten minutes, during this inspiration shoot.

If you’d like to win them (whether you’re a bride-to-be or not), just comment on this post and tell me where you’d like to wear them. To your wedding, to someone else’s wedding, out to dinner on your anniversary or just to the office. Let’s have it!

I’ll be drawing a winner next Monday, April 5 and sending the shoes to that lucky winner. Good luck!

PS: In order to win, you’ll need to comment here on the actual blog, not on the Facebook post that aggregates from here. Thanks!

This is Erica and Nick’s bench. They sat here on their first date. In July, they’ll be getting married. I’d say that means it’s a lucky bench.

I love that Nick and Erica chose to go back to this special spot for their engagement session, which we did a little over a week ago. We walked around Summer Lake Park on a gorgeous sunny day and I loved getting to hear some of their story.

Erica and I went to middle school together, and it’s also been really fun to catch up with her through this, after all these years.

Aren’t they a great-looking couple? I love the chemistry they have together.

I loved how Erica and Nick loosened up throughout the session, until at the end, they were dancing! I can’t wait for the wedding.

Thanks, Erica and Nick, for being so fun to photograph and hang out with! I can’t wait for July and getting to watch you two celebrate at your wedding.

As a photographer, I see lots of beautiful things. I go to weddings where people have poured their hearts into each decoration. This shoot made me really appreciate all the work it takes to style a beautiful event. With the help of my dear friend Liz at Elizabeth Ann Events, this one came off without a hitch.

The wedding bands featured in this shoot were provided by John Rink, who is a gold and platinum-smith based in SW Portland. He’s not huge on this whole Internet thing, but I do have his information, if you’ve just got to have it. Drop me a line and I’ll get it to you.

Jason’s boutonniere is actually a brooch I got from Bumble Alley Boutique.

The flowers came from the fabulous Annie Chen at Floral Sunshine. We met while working on a wedding together last July, and I love her flowers!

That stunning necklace (and matching earrings) were on loan from Grayling.

Now, Jennifer is always a really gorgeous girl, but the totally inspiring Jennifer Walker of Face Body Beauty really put some time into making her hair and makeup perfect for the occasion. Thank you, Jennifer, for making time in an already busy day to make her look totally stunning!

The gorgeous wedding gown that Jennifer is wearing was on loan from the English Dept. (it’s a Coren Moore gown) and Jennifer kept saying how “cozy” it was — it even has pockets!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this project, including my aunt and uncle for providing their home for the shoot and my mom, who came along to help out and ended up doing some major heavy lifting. I hope this shoot has been inspiring and fun to look at, and it’s something I’m working on doing again soon!

I’ve pretty much been plastering the Internet with these photos for a solid week now, so I realize many of you have seen them already. But I wanted to share my favorites from the collection that came out of my inspiration shoot that was published on Style Me Pretty last week. I also wanted to have a chance to pass on the names of the stellar vendors who helped with this project. If you are planning a wedding, every last one of these people will do a fantastic job.

These shoes made quite a ruckus on the SMP post — they’re from Boutique Nordstrom and I found them at the Rack (they’re no longer available in Nordstrom stores). Since everybody wanted a pair, I’m thinking about giving mine away on the blog to a lucky bride. What do you think?

These invitations (and the little menus, and table numbers, etc.) were designed by Shona Lepis of Eye Design Studio. She is super handy with the design and paper craft.

I’ve got the world’s largest sweet tooth, so of course I couldn’t get enough of the desserts, prepared by Amber Darrington of Le Cookie Monkey. Liz and I met Amber for the first time at the Art of Weddings and we’ve been smitten with her stuff ever since. Those lemon cookies, by the way, really tasted lemony.

These beautiful creatures are our dear friends Jennifer and Jason. I’ve known Jennifer since were were in elementary school, and she met Jason in high school (that’s right, they’re high-school sweethearts!) They’ve been married more than three years now.

Without the help of The Party Place, we wouldn’t have been able to pull any of this off. They provided tables and chairs and linens and glassware to set a stage for this inspiration shoot. Not only that, but they were prompt and everything was so professional and nice.

This little item got lots of attention, too: I spotted that yellow LOVE print on Etsy when we were planning this shoot and I knew it’d be perfect. Now it’s hanging next to my desk. Jen Ramos from MadebyGirl makes such cute prints, and she just got married herself!

Don’t worry, there will be more photos on Friday! Hope you’re enjoying the eye candy!

I love getting to dream. When I planned my own wedding, I dreamed about colors, dresses and details like a lot of girls do. But a week ago, I had the opportunity to dream out loud with a group of amazing wedding vendors who worked together to breathe life into a wedding inspiration shoot.

It went so well that the photos from our inspiration shoot were published only a couple of days later on Style Me Pretty, which is a fantastic wedding blog that brings me lots of inspiration. It was a dream to be counted among the ranks there of inspiring photographers and other vendors.

For the rest of the week, I’ll be sharing that inspiration shoot in lots of detail, but in order to kick that off, I’d like to share this video I put together, which shows a few glances behind the scenes as we created this beautiful setup. I hope it’s inspiring to you!

Spring Inspiration Shoot from Sara Gray on Vimeo.

Like any wedding, this took a small army to pull off. So thank you to all (listed below) who worked hard to make it all happen!

Special thanks to: Elizabeth Ann Events (styling and coordination), Eye Design Studio (menu and invitation design), Floral Sunshine (flowers), The English Dept. (for loaning us the stunning Coren Moore gown), Face Body Beauty (for our model’s stunning makeup and hair), Grayling (for the bride’s jewelry), John Rink (for the wedding bands), Made by Girl (for the yellow LOVE print), Le Cookie Monkey (for the cake and adorable lemon cookies), The Party Place (for our tables, chairs, linens and other rentals), The Petersons, my wonderful aunt and uncle (for letting us use their lovely home) and the fantastic Jennifer and Jason, our models, who are one of the most willing and friendly couples I know. The music in this video was kindly provided by Marianna and the Baby Vamps.

I really do love wedding days. They never get old for me. This one was no exception. I photographed this wedding with my dear friend Melissa Tomeoni of Soul Mates Photo last month, and it was a beautiful celebration of the start of a new life together for Ryan & Olivia.

Olivia got ready at the Hotel Deluxe, and I’d never been inside before. Well, it’s gorgeous. There was enough room for everyone to get ready and beautiful light streaming in through the windows. You can’t ask for much more.

Then, Ryan & Olivia’s celebration took place at the Crystal Ballroom. I’m a big fan of this venue, but I was amazed at how beautifully they do weddings.

Olivia was a study in effortlessness, with her cool faux-hawk wedding hairstyle.

I loved the cake, too — draped with vintage postage stamps. Olivia and Ryan brought the DIY touches in spades to their wedding, and it made things so fun to photograph.

Not to mention these two are dancing fools!

Congratulations, Ryan and Olivia! I had such fun helping to photograph your wedding.

I don’t know what it’s like to have kids of my own — I don’t even have a dog. But the closest thing to it in my life are my two nephews and my niece. I was there when all three of them were born and I’ve watched them grow up over the last 15 years. It’s pretty crazy watching someone morph from helpless baby into, say, fierce water polo player who is taller than my husband (that would be my oldest nephew, Forrest). I recently snapped their yearly photos and I thought I’d share, since I can’t believe how big they’re getting.

This is Forrest. He’ll be 15 next week. That blows my mind, since I vividly remember taking him to school as my show-and-tell item in the fifth grade (yes, my sister actually let me do that).

Kailan is sort of like my soul mate — we are both middle children, but also sort of oldest since our older sibling is much older. We’re a little on the sensitive side and I love that about this guy. At eight years old now, he’s also a smart one, and he wants to be an electrical engineer when he grows up.

Draven is the wild card of the bunch. She’s six, going on thirty. She’s sassy all the time and no one can figure out where she gets it from. Neither of her parents have any idea either. In any case, she’s pretty cute.

Thanks, my lovelies, for letting me photograph you (agaaaaaaaaaain). You’d think having an aunt as a photographer would be a bonus. But you’d be wrong.

That might have been a bit of a lyric stretch, but I got a kick out of it. I’m so excited to share with you some photos that I recently shot for GemKitty — where you can design your own necklace. It’s such a fun site, and I love being able to watch their business grow.

We had loads of fun doing this shoot, running around in the South Waterfront with two amazing models (Maalaea and Stephanie) and a whole ton of necklaces.

Above, Maalaea is wearing “The Dash” — a GemKitty classic design. You can go make your own with whatever material you want.

I love including the Portland Streetcar in shoots — it’s such a local touch!

The team at GemKitty are so good at pairing multiple necklaces together in a way that looks cool.

Stephanie is a total yogi — so we went for it here. I love how part of her personality shines through.

Thanks to Arwa & Todd from GemKitty and Stephanie and Maalaea for making this such a fun day!

I’m talking about Mandi Downs and Rachelle Bell of Champagne NW. They’re full-service wedding coordinators that I’ve become friends with over the last year and I wanted to share a little info from them, plus some fun pictures.

This is Rachelle. She loves what she does for a living. Both she and Mandi were on separate paths toward becoming teachers when they found the wonderful world of weddings. They’ve both been working as wedding coordinators for several years, but their company (Champagne NW) is a newcomer on the scene.

One myth that Mandi and Rachelle want to dispel is that having a wedding coordinator is only for the rich. “The amount of money you are spending on your wedding, whether it be $5,000 or $500,000, is  a lot of money. You’ve put anywhere from 6 months to 2 years into planning and waiting for your wedding day. When it comes to the day of, do you really want your parents, best friend or family to be taking care of all of the details?”

The women at Champagne offer lots of levels of service, from the total planning and coordination level down to “day-of” coordination, which basically means they come in more or less at the last minute and make sure everything goes smoothly.

One thing Mandi and Rachelle recommend when shopping for a wedding coordinator is (surprise, surprise!) to find someone you click with. “Your coordinator will be at your wedding all day long and if you don’t have a personality match, it will be a long day!” Mandi said. I love that they mention this, since I believe this to be true about most wedding vendors, especially photographers.

One thing I love about the women at Champagne is the personality they bring to their jobs — look at them work it above! They’ve got style and character and they’re willing to buckle down and do the work, because they love weddings, they told me. If any of you reading are interested in checking out what Mandi and Rachelle have to offer, check out their Web site (click here) and give them a call.

Thanks, Rachelle and Mandi, for being so much fun to hang out with and for coming out on a freezing cold day to take some photos with me!

I’m a little bit in love with cute postcard save-the-dates these days. Last month, I met up with Liz and Eric (one of my fabulous October wedding couples) so we could snag a few cute photos for their save-the-dates.

The weather has been so nice in Portland and I love that Liz and Eric walked down to meet me at the park with their dog, Chester. They have such a great laid-back vibe and I can’t wait to photograph their wedding!

With engagement photos, we can make some really fun save-the-date cards. If you’re interested in getting some of these, let me know and we’ll make it happen!

Thanks, Liz and Eric, for being so laid back and fun to photograph! I can’t wait to do it again.