A Rainy Wedding Day at Summit Grove Lodge

Evan & Kaylin

June 10, 2023

The forecast for Evan & Kaylin’s wedding at Summit Grove Lodge said rain— it was May in the Pacific Northwest, so we knew that the chances of a bit of a sprinkle were pretty high. But Hunter and I keep three clear umbrellas in our wedding kits for specifically this reason. And the most wonderful thing about the venue— Summit Grove Lodge, located five minutes away from La Center Washington and Ridgefield Washington, and an easy 15 minutes away from downtown Vancouver and Portland proper, is that it is 1.4 miles away from our house. Our commute the morning of the wedding was about four minutes!

Summit Grove Lodge has tons of beautiful backdrops and rock wall water fountains for wedding photos, and lush greenery around the whole place. And it has some gorgeous indoor and outdoor locations for first looks between the happy couple, family portraits, getting ready shots, and flat lays in case of less-than-favorable weather. We have been rained out a couple times, so sometimes it’s good to plan for worst-case scenarios!

The first thing that Hunter and I do when we arrive at a venue is scout around to find places that hadn’t been affected by the torrential amount of rain: Kaylin did NOT need us drag her all over in her gorgeous wedding gown with a super long and beautiful train and veil and get it muddy before walking down the isle towards Evan.

After Evan met us in the parking lot we got right into it: gathering all of the wedding details like rings, invitations, shoes, perfumes, vow books, to get all the lay flats done (and so Evan could get his shoes back on). Then it was scouting for a place to hang Kaylin’s gorgeous (and did I mention long?) wedding dress for her detail shots. Summit Grove has a very log-cabin vibe while at the same time has tons of natural light coming indoors, which is every photographer’s dream.

Evan & Kaylin are just the sweetest couple, and Evan was the best wedding planner they could have asked for: he had everything on the timeline down to 15 minute increments on a spreadsheet. We’ve seen multiple weddings with wedding planners go wrong due to unforeseen circumstances, but everything went according to Evan’s Plan! The weather cooperated, the ceremony was beautiful (I did have to jump over a fence to get the altar kiss shot but that comes with the job!)

Their reception was gorgeous and their first dance on the dance floor was beautiful. At the end of the night all of their guests waved them off as a newly married couple!