Wedding | Michelle & Daniel

3 hours ago
4 min read

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Hello! Michelle and Daniel here! We both grew up in the Pacific Northwest around Portland, Oregon. We have been together for over 8 years, our love story started as all good ones do, in the back of a car. We were traveling up to Vancouver, Canada with a small group of friends. You get to know a lot about a person when you are squished into the back seat for hours with nothing to do but talk.

Since then our love has blossomed. We got engaged at the Portland Japanese Garden in the winter of 2025 and spent the next year and a half excitedly looking forward to our wedding day.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

Hood River holds a special place in our hearts growing up in the Pacific Northwest. It has become a staple of our relationship to drive out to the many farms and orchards around Mt. Hood every fall to pick apples and enjoy a peaceful drive through the beautiful countryside.

The Griffin House sits nestled on a cliff overlooking the Columbia River, encapsulating the beauty of the landscape that we hold so dear. It was the perfect venue for the intimate wedding that we were planning.

How many guests did you have?

We had 32 of our closest friends and family celebrating the day with us.

What was your budget?

$50,000.

Tell us about your outfits.

Michelle wore the Salomé dress by Saint Bridal Couture. She knew she wanted a fashion forward wedding dress and fell in love with the pleated organza and asymmetric skirt. To her this was the perfect fusion of art and fashion. Her choker was made from the train of her dress. She also wore two custom opera gloves made by C’est Jeanne Bridal with silk butterflies sewn into the sleeves to pay homage to her Romanian heritage.

Daniel wore a custom Loro Piana wool green suit designed and made by The House of Rose with an asymmetric lapel to capture the organic theme of the wedding.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

We wanted to make sure that our guests had the most amazing time, we wanted to make sure everyone knew how much they meant to us. Just gathering our closest people together to celebrate not just our love but the love we share with all of them.

When we first started talking about the wedding we knew that we wanted to treat it like an intimate dinner party with friends, so food was one of our top priorities. We also made sure that whatever we did we did because we wanted to do it rather than to fulfill any traditional wedding expectations.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

We wanted to incorporate themes from Howl’s Moving Castle, one of our favorite movies, and the Japanese Garden, as it is somewhere that brings us peace and joy to visit.

We also wanted to get personalized gifts in the form of chopstick holders for each of our guests. We spent many weekends scouring local Japanese stores to find each one.

It was very important for us to work with local and sustainable businesses as much as possible. Almost all of what went into the wedding, the invitations, signage, wedding bands, entertainment, was all provided by local businesses.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Life moves so quickly, it can feel like the big day is so far away but it can suddenly just arrive. Try to enjoy the planning process while it lasts. Some of our favorite memories are going to G-Love, our caterer, to try the food for the first time, Oblation Papers and Press to pick out our invitations and learn about the letter-pressing process.

On the day of, remember to sneak small moments together alone whenever possible. You’ll be surrounded by friends and family and it can be hard to just sit and have a quiet moment with your new spouse.

One thing we did that made the ceremony feel much more natural was saying our vows to each other privately once before the ceremony. Then repeating the vows during the ceremony, it got rid of so much of the nervousness, jitters and the pressure to deliver that we know we would have felt doing it for the first time in front of everyone.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

Alesia Films, our photographer, was an absolute rockstar. Even though we were running a little behind she kept everything organized and streamlined and still managed to get all of the shots that we were looking for. She has the most incredible eye for detail and really captured the look we were going for.

Chas from Wildflower Portland, our florist, is the reason we found our caterer, and she had the most perfect and unique floral designs to really set the tone for the aesthetic of our wedding. She is willing to go the extra mile, coming with us to help design the table scape as well. Every bloom she chose was intentional and she designs every single one of her flower arrangements as if that’s the only one you’ll see. She somehow manages to let each bloom be shown off without changing the essence of the flower but at the same time creates nothing short of art.

And of course our caterer, G-Love, which has quickly become one of our favorite restaurants in Portland. They created a unique menu just for us, tying in with the Japanese Garden theme that we were going for, and the food itself was amazing and really helped make our dream wedding come true.

Photographer: Alesia Films @alesiafilms | Planning: Event Cracker @eventcrackerpdx | Flora:Wildflower

Portland @wildflower_portland | Videographer: Alesia Films @alesiafilms | Ceremony & Reception Location: The Griffin House @thegriffinhouse | Hire: Arden Event Collective @ardeneventcollective | MUA: Lisa Boehm Beauty @lisaboehmbeauty | Hair: Lisa Boehm Beauty @lisaboehmbeauty | Catering & Beverages: G-Love @g.lovepdx | Cake: Big Squig @thebigsquig | Stationery: Oblation Letterpress @oblationletterpress | Entertainment: Gorge Dj | Live Artist: Bowtie and Brush @bowtieandbrush | Dance Instructor: PNW Wedding Dance @pnwweddingdance | Draping: Bowerbird Events @bower

burch; Coach @coach | Locket: Catbird NYC @catbirdnyc