Jillian and Desi had a Turkish themed rooftop wedding at the On Deck Sports Bar in Portland on a beautiful summer day. I had the pleasure of photographing their Istanbul engagement pictures. Their wedding planner Mandi of Champagne Events helped them with some beautiful details and thanks to her, everything ran beautifully. They also had a great idea - instead of wedding cake, serve baklava! Of course, I knew where best Baklava in Portland was, so I steered them to 7 Hills Turkish Food Cart on 48th and Division (check it out!).
The flowers were by Floral Designs by Alicia, who is very talented as well. The wedding favors were Nazar Boncugu, or Turkish Evil Eyes, beautiful glass pieces that help ward off evil! The DJ was one of the top DJ’s in Portland: http://www.djalicious.com
You can see the full set of pictures here. Please ask for the password from the couple.
She has a strictly no boys policy!
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Idil, a high school classmate of mine from Robert College got married to Greg in a New York wedding ceremony and reception. They had elements of Turkish and Jewish traditions. The ceremony was at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, and the reception was Pera Mediterranean Brasserie (which is run by another high school classmate of mine, Burak Karacam). Idil specializes in social media and has a new book coming out. Greg is a very talented abstract painter. They make a lovely couple.
Quite a few Turkish relatives and friends also made the trip from Turkey. One touching moment was when Idil’s father saw a relative he has not seen for over 3 decades. There was no shortage of belly dancing as well!
You can see the full set of pictures here. Please ask for the password from the couple.
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Ozgur and Vanessa met at a snowboarding trip and they got married at Timberline Lodge. How perfect! Ozgur’s family came all the way from Turkey to attend this beautiful reception with some Turkish wedding touches. The ceremony featured mixing of the sands - originally the sand was going to be coming in from Turkish beach but due to some customs mishap, they used beautifully colored sand instead. They passed bags of Turkish candy (similar to akide sekeri) as their wedding favors and attached a “nazar boncugu” (evil eye), a traditional Turkish symbol.
Mt. Hood was a gorgeous backdrop to their wedding ceremony. For their romantic shots, I also used the other side of the mountain as a backdrop, using the forests and the reflection lake, and also Mt. Bachelor.
Enjoy!
Nazar boncugu with Akide Sekeri
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Here are couple quick ones from Vanessa and Ozgur’s Turkish style wedding at Timberline Lodge. David, Vanessa’s father, walked her down the aisle with Mt. Hood as the backdrop. Vanessa speaks Turkish quite fluently and was leading the belly dances on the dance floor while Ozgur did a great job dancing to Michael Jackson. More pictures coming soon when we finish editing the whole wedding.
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Basak and Cem had a fun Turkish wedding at the Arista Ballroom! There was a lot of halay - or - Turkish line dancing, and great energy. Check out the photos! Arista Ballroom is a beautiful location as well and was a perfect fit for this fun wedding!
(You can see the full set of photos here - you can get the password from Basak and Cem).
To see more pictures, click on the link below!
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