Oregon Bride: Autumn 2005

October 9th 2005

JoEllen Skonberg & Jason Carothers

Serena's business card first caught Jason's eye
at a cafe in North Portland. Right from the start,
we were impressed with Serena's ability to capture
the mood of an event, and the vast array of her
portfolio assured us that Serena would be perfect
for the job of capturing our wedding. We felt good
about hiring a local independent business owner and
are so happy with the final pictures and prints.  

When we look at the pictures, it brings back
all of the wonderful memories of our special day!

There were some very special people who were not
able to be at the wedding in person and we wanted
to honor them in our ceremony - Jason's mom who died
when he was in high school, our grandparents who all
played a significant role in our lives as we were
growing up, and my best friends from Chicago
who were unable to make the trip.

We lit candles for each of them,
which remained lit during the entire ceremony.

The tea ceremony was the result
of a brainstorm between Jason and I.

We wanted to incorporate a ritual that
symbolized what we mean to each other.

The tea ceremony demonstrated so
many of our values - using the
abundant fruit of the earth
(that is to say that tea is
not somethingthat is going
to run out of supply);
it provides nourishment and so
represents taking care of our
bodies and staying in good health;
when we made the tea, we alternated tasks
to show how we work together - as a team,
but by doing complementary tasks,
not the same task at the same time;
and finally, one of the activities we
really enjoy doing together is sharing meals.

Officiated by the brides Uncle - a Unitarian Minister

Bride is the woman behind the recorded
voice you hear when you call REI.

They met while employed designing bicycle parts.

They found the band who played at
the wedding one night while out dancing.

 Reggie Houston's Box of Chocolates
with Turtle Vandemarr on guitar & vocals,
Tim Acott on acoustic bass & vocals
http://www.reggiehouston.com

It was very important to us to give our families
and friends a sense of what Portland is all about and
to help them understand why we drawn to this very special
town & region. All of our guests were from Chicago, with the
exception of my uncle and his family. We chose locally
owned/operated vendors, bought supplies from local shops,
chose musicians and a venue that capture the essence of the city.

The Overlook House is not far from our home, it overlooks
the river and industrial park (the Willamette is a beautiful working river),
it feels like an oasis in the middle of the city (there are so many places
like that in Portland!), and it is run by the Overlook neighborhood
association and all of the money goes right back into upkeep
and improvements to the house and the grounds!

AND, we got engaged in the backyard at the Overlook House! ; )

We chose Elephant's Deli to cater the wedding
because they allowed us to customize every little
detail and made adjustments to their recipes to accommodate
my gluten sensitivity. Their server was absolutely fantastic .
They are also a locally-owned business that does not use
preservatives or chemicals in their foods and have a
community-friendly business practice.

We selected Black Sheep Bakery (Amanda Felt)
because Amanda was\able to make an excellent, beautiful,
tasty and affordable gluten-free cheesecake! Black Sheep 
uses real food - no preservatives or fake stuff is
 locally owned by a very charismatic and entertaining 
woman and they make awesome stuff.  Amanda used my
favorite product of theirs, the gluten-free macaroon,
as the crust for the cheesecake.

Yum!

We recommended that our guests stay at the
Inn at Northup Station to really give them a
unique Portland experience.  We also spent our
wedding night there, which was so much fun!
Oh, and we went to the Portland Grill after the 
wedding was over (this wasn't planned ahead of time, 
but it worked out perfectly!) We got to overlook the
 city while spending the last few moments with our
 family and friends before they left the next day.

For our honeymoon, we decided early on that we wanted to drive to our destination because
of Portland's location in the middle of, well, pretty much anything you could want to do. We set
off in our Passat TDI with a full tank of B99 Biodiesel and headed for the Olympic peninsula to
indulge in the relaxing and scenic retreats found up and down the west coast. We made it as far
north as Victoria, B.C. before heading back to Portland.

Our favorite places to stay were
The Meadows Inn of Port Angeles, WA
&
The Swans hotel in Victoria, B.C.

serena@serenadavidson.com