The ceremony took place inside of Portland’s City Hall with the backdrop of a spiraled staircase, historic vault, and city employees who peeked from around the corners of their office doors to catch a glance as we strolled the marbled interior halls and staircase before and after the ceremony.

After the guests have left and the couple’s gone home, I and the reception vendors spend at least an hour cleaning up. A typical wedding takes me a half-dozen industrial-sized trash bags.

Given all of the pressure from family, friends, and society to have a “perfect” wedding, saying goodbye to these traditions is easier said than done. That’s why it is so important to find wedding vendors who will share your values and help you take the patriarchal, sexist, and racist ideas about weddings and throw them squarely in the trash. Zig Metzler of Ziggy Shoots is ready to be that wedding photographer for you!

As we were talking about doing an engagement party in the meantime, the idea came up that if we were already bringing our people together to celebrate our commitment at an engagement party, why not just do a small ceremony instead?

What a horrible situation this puts engaged couples in, especially women. What should be a joyous occasion becomes so much work that you can't even enjoy it. It becomes yet another thing you have to do.

Portland was just recently named one of the best cities to be single in. While Portlanders are split on whether to agree or disagree — the truth is that it’s one of the best cities to get married in, too! The average wedding spend here is lower, at just $26,473. Living here, I might be biased. But what other city has its own wedding llamas?!

We are so in love with the new Choose Your Own Wedding planning subscription from queer wedding planner Cindy Savage of Aisle Less Traveled. Her new subscription allows engaged couples to take full advantage of Cindy’s expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring a traditional wedding planner.

We met at Dore Alley, Folsom Street fair's smaller, gayer, and more local equivalent. I was experimenting with my exhibitionist side, walking around naked and being the social butterfly that I am. Eugene and I passed by each other from afar a couple times, but we didn't talk until the end when he saw me putting my clothes back on and talking to a friend. He came up to me and asked me a little about myself and asked for my number. We took a selfie together for his contact in my phone, and a couple weeks later, I hit him up for our first date.

I decided to do a boudoir session for one reason: radical self love.

A few events sparked my motivation to begin this journey, however. I'd just come out of an emotionally abusive relationship that left me feeling unlovable, ugly, and with the lowest self esteem I've ever had. I was frustrated that I wasn't feeling the way I knew I deserved to feel about myself.

Weddings have not fundamentally changed for hundreds of years. Truth is, you can do whatever you want! Here are some ideas to remove that monotone sexism from your own wedding and still keep with an upbeat tone celebrating your relationship and partner.

Jeremy and I thoroughly enjoyed our Native American themed photo shoot because we were able to incorporate our culture into the details. Both being Native, we have family heirlooms, traditional beadwork, and items that are important to us. I was very clear up front that the only way this photo shoot would work is if I had approval capabilities throughout the process. I did not want anything stereotypical or anything Jeremy and I wouldn't really have at our real wedding. Our culture is very important to us, so we wanted our heritage to be portrayed in an accurate fashion. Yes, Jeremy and I are a real engaged couple! It was important for me to wear my grandmother's turquoise bracelet and for Jeremy, his grandfathers bolo tie. I am a professional beadwork artist; therefore I wanted elements of my work incorporated into the shoot as well. Modern Native Americans get married in all types of ways. Some have very traditional weddings, others your average American wedding, but for us, we always wanted to mix elements of both. We get to throw our own Native wedding this September. It was fun to do this photo shoot and practice for the real thing!

While wedding websites and blogs are a great destination for inspiration, wedding photographers are the original sources for beautiful wedding images, most of which are never published on blogs, in magazines, or on websites. If you are looking for original, nontraditional, and diverse wedding inspiration — or just a daily dose of love — then do yourself a favor and follow these talented artists:

Vivian Chen considers herself a "rainy day photographer" because she loves the unexpected delights and the sense of adventure that rain brings on a wedding day. If you think you may have rain on your wedding day, find tips, encouragement, photo inspiration, and advice from three couples who have been there below.

Born in Oregon and raised in the Northwest and in the Midwest, I never saw much diversity. As a result, I always saw my skin color and hair as something to be ashamed of—something I should try to hide, cover up, straighten, or make to align more with the American standard of beauty. As I’ve grown up, I’ve slowly started to embrace who I am, kinky hair and all. In a classically modern wedding setting, I wanted to showcase that journey of self discovery with a sleek, elegant, and beautifully natural bride of color.

Theresa and Brenda are examples of strong, modern individuals who do great work in the world: Theresa has a PhD in Child Psychology and is a university professor, and Brenda is an MD who practices medicine. This couple lives in Portland (OR) but traveled back home to Minneapolis to get married and celebrate amidst their loved ones. They are the kind of couple that is not only so happy and in love, but they are also incredibly deserving of the happiness and love they have found. They are kind and gentle, and their joy is truly contagious.

Mikhail and Whitney had been together for precisely seven and a half years when they married on August 29, 2015. Having already done the moving in together seven years earlier and the getting a dog five years earlier, they wanted their wedding to be a celebration of the friends and family who loved them. With no enthusiasm for wedding planning between them, Mikhail and Whitney turned to a wedding planner to make their vision of a homey, camp-like retreat in the woods a reality.

As Joe's and my lips met for the first time in the middle of the most magical and dusty place called Burning Man, we knew we had found something very unique in each other. Our hearts recognized their equal, and our minds were intrigued by our compassion for our kids, family, community and Mother Earth. Our hearts filled with deep conversations about living simply and experiencing everything! The universe conspired for us and less than a year later, my son, Trent, and I moved up to Bend, Oregon to move in with Joe, his kids, Josiah, Faith, and Grace, his parents, and Nana. Joe, the creative artist and builder that he his, had recently found a 1959 International Harvester School Bus, gutted her and created a Gypsy palace for him and me to live in on his parents' property. We named her Primrose. Älska Art (Love Art in Swedish), is our business, filled with Joe’s unique one-of-a-kind jewelry, sculptures, and circus/fire props that allow us to work together and travel to events.