Sara Gray Photography Portland, Oregon

Hi friends! I’m reporting live from my 28th birthday here, and thought I’d take a minute to reflect a little. Thank you in advance for indulging me.

I really enjoy having a birthday each year, for multiple reasons (happy Facebook posts + cake, to name a couple). But I also appreciate the chance to reflect on the past year. This one has been a great one. My business has grown in a real, meaningful way and continues to make me really happy, I have a great husband and fantastic family surrounding me and much of the last year has been just downright fun. I’m so lucky! Here’s a little birthday retrospective for your enjoyment:

The top left is my 11th birthday (I’m on the right) — I share my birthday with my sister Emily (she’ll be 26 tomorrow!) so lots of our birthday photos happen together. On the top right, my 22nd birthday (Notice how mom’s ruffly cake stand stood the test of time — it’s still around). The bottom left is my 20th, and the bottom right was my 19th birthday, just after I started college (with Emily and my dear friend Julie).

Here’s some more recent birthdays: The top left and bottom right are my 21st birthday, first celebrating with Eric and my friend Patrick, and then with Eric and our friend Erika. The top right is us celebrating my 26th birthday in Copenhagen, and the bottom left is my 25th birthday in Buenos Aires in 2008.

Finally, here’s a few current photos from this, my 28th year. The top left was taken in Chicago in May, the top right in Washington, D.C. (obviously) back in March, the bottom left at Emily’s wedding a few weeks ago in Maui and the bottom right with my friends Deyla, Melissa, Annie and Christy in Portland this year.

It’s been a great one and I expect nothing less of the year to come. Thanks for all your birthday wishes, and I hope everyone has a great day!

I got the chance a couple of weeks ago to get away to a favorite place of mine — Pacific City, Oregon. It’s always a relaxing place for me to recharge my batteries, and this time we went with good friends, which makes it even better. Here are a few photos from the getaway.

I hope you’re all getting a chance to get away and relax this summer!

I’ve been partying like it’s 1999 lately, between the Seattle Bride party and the Oregon Bride party. I wanted to share some photos from the Oregon Bride party because it was a really fun one to attend this year and so many great vendors were there.

It’s not a party without sweets, and my friend Liz from The Candy Buffet teamed up with Cupcake Jones this year to make an amazing spread.

I loved the loungy area the party had this year, outside on the patio on a gorgeous night. I also got to meet Hailey from Zest Floral, who did all these great little floral arrangements for the party.

The cake above is from Allison at AK Cake Design — she’s amazing and this cake was featured on a recent Oregon Bride cover!

Thanks, Oregon Bride, for a fun night out and a great fashion show and chance to connect with other vendors. I had a blast!

Earlier this week I had the extra-fun pleasure of attending the Seattle Bride Magazine Best of Bride party. This is an annual party that is hosted by the Seattle magazine (and Oregon Bride has one too — that’s where I’ll be tonight!) It was a blast mingling with some Seattle-area vendors (since I photograph a handful of Seattle weddings each year) and I really enjoyed the celebration.

The party was held at 415 Westlake, a great venue in South Lake Union. The flowers, cocktails and little appetizers were all fun and pretty.

Below is my date to the party, Erin Brooks (of Serephine fame, on the right) with Kimberly Persons from Style Unveiled.

Thanks, Erin, and all the other Seattle vendors, who made this a fun evening out in Seattle!

Hi friends! I’m writing this post from Chicago, where I’ve just spent a fabulous long weekend spending time with friends, doing a really beautiful photo shoot and enjoying the Windy City. Here’s a few photos to tide you over until my return!

Holy cow! Who has their bar mitzvah at Wrigley Field? Andrew Wayne, you’re a lucky kid.

Yummy Chicago treat: Garrett’s Popcorn “Chicago Mix,” which is cheese popcorn mixed with caramel corn. Ultimate sweet and salty treat!

This spread above to the left was one of the most fantastic meals I’ve had in awhile. It was an Italian small plates place, and every last bite was delicious. The photo on the right was taken from a boat during our Chicago river architecture tour.

One of my favorite finds in Chicago this trip? This adorable little stationery shop called Orange Beautiful (check out their card bar, above right). They’re on Etsy, check them out!

Below is my friend Amy — she’s a good friend of mine from college and she also works with me as the Executive Editor of MarryThis! — we have had a blast together this trip.

I hope you liked this collection of travel photos! This is a big travel month for me, so look out for more travel photos from (drumroll, please) Las Vegas — coming soon! Have a great Tuesday, everyone. And also, thanks to my sidekick Amy for taking the photos of me.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Please allow me to introduce you to my new space! It’s my new home, the most relaxing little room in my life at the moment and the official world headquarters of Sara Gray Photography and MarryThis!

As you can see above, my office is in a building with a few other great businesses. It’s right in the heart of Multnomah Village, which I love because it’s walking distance from my house and such a great little community. So far, I love my neighbors.

Below, you can see my very zen workstation. I love it. It features my new favorite Etsy find, the Cake print from Sweet Dee on Etsy next to a photo of Eric and I taken on our last trip to Copenhagen.

I’d love to have visitors anytime, so if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and check out the new space! And if you’re a client (or a potential client), I’m looking forward to meeting with you here! Have a great weekend, everyone.

I have been dragging my feet to post about my new office because I have a few finishing touches I want to put in there before I really share it with everyone. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this video I made — throughout the process of painting and furnishing the office, I made a time lapse so we could watch the progress. Here’s something to tide you over until next week when I share the official unveiling of my new space.

My new office is located at 7739 SW Capitol Hwy., Suite 240, upstairs from the Starbucks in Multnomah Village. Drop by if you’re in the neighborhood!

It’s been such an exciting year for me and for my business. My wedding photography and business portraits business are expanding super fast, then I added a new business, then a fun new project and now I’ve got a new space to do it all in. I’m located in Multnomah Village now, just upstairs from the Starbucks (danger!) — if you’re in the neighborhood, you’ll have to stop by and say hello!

I’m still in the process of decorating the space, so I don’t want to show it off totally yet, but here’s a little sneak peek to tide you over. The print (which is just so me — I’m a bit of a dessert fiend) is from SweetDee on Etsy.

Back to decorating! See you all soon.

I have had such a crazy month! Since I have loads to share, I’ll continue the travel-fest here on the blog with a selection of my photos from Boise. I spent a long weekend there shooting a dear friend’s wedding and hanging out with Eric’s brother Jamie (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAM JAM!) — we ate, we drank, we enjoyed the city. Boise rocks. It’s sort of like a little Portland — great food, lots of local businesses and active people, loads of bike trails, hiking trails etc. I sound like I got a job working for the Chamber of Commerce while I was there, but seriously — if you don’t believe me, ask Sunset Magazine, who has been raving about how hip Boise is for awhile. Anyway, on to the photos!

Boise has a Basque tradition — as someone who keeps the Iberian Peninsula close to her heart, that was extremely exciting. I can’t wait to go back for loads of Basque food and celebration in May with Eric — we’ll be celebrating Jamie’s graduation.

Thanks for having me, Jamie! And thanks to Allison and Matt for having an amazing wedding. The day I took these photos was a bit overcast, but the day of the wedding was beautiful and sunny, and felt a bit like Palm Springs. More from the wedding soon!

For the second part of my recent trip to the East Coast, we headed north on the train from DC to NYC, which is one of my favorite places on the planet. It’s been a few years since I’d been back, so I was excited to go again and to show Eric for the first time. Here’s a little selection of some of the things we saw.

In my opinion, the observation tower on top of Rockefeller Center trumps the Empire State Building any day.

My parents again, near the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.

We had a great time on our trip and it was the perfect springtime break before I gear up for a crazy and amazing wedding season. Get ready for loads of weddings this year!