Northwest Wedding Professionals | January Meeting | Oregon

NW Wed Pro January Networking Meeting

Topic: Getting your business in order for 2020!

It was an honor to be asked to be the Portland Wedding Photographer highlighted at the January 2020 Northwest Wedding Professionals meeting! I love networking, highlighting and working with other great Oregon wedding vendors!

I love NW Wed Pro because they are about community over competition. NW Wed Pro is an all inclusive networking group of local wedding professionals brought together by a common goal to learn, grow and support each other. They hold in-person networking meetings at different venues each month to showcase all the venue options in the area. They also recently announced their new blog that is going to be for wedding vendors and engaged couples.

This meeting was held at the affordable and elegant Tumwater Ballroom. The of course offer space for meetings like ours but they also are a perfect venue for weddings or any special occasion. Located at The Museum Of The Oregon Territory, in Oregon City, it is a unique venue, highlight include tall cathedral windows through which you will see sweeping views of the Willamette River.

The Tumwater Ballroom partners with Sugar Street Bakery & Bistro to provide deliciously yummy catering for any event. Tonight was Taco Tuesday! In my opinion you can never go wrong with tacos, no matter what night of the week it is.

Tres Belle Desserts was on the scene and we were not disappointed! She brought an amazing array of her cakes, cookies and desserts. Not only are her dessert tables beautiful, but she only uses the best ingredients, including a little extra love. She handles small events like ours as well as weddings and corporate events.

(Pictured above Bryon with Carver Event Center and Alana with Flowers by Alana)

I love taking photos for networking and corporate events. Really it is just like photographing a wedding reception. Of course tonight I got to hear some great education for my industry, but when I am doing corporate photography for other groups it is always a cool learning experience to hear what other business care about.

NW Wed Pro is run by good friends and fellow photographers Amber and Eric.

I love the variety of Oregon and Washington wedding vendors I see at this meeting, including planners, venues, caters, bakers, photographers, DJ's, Videographers, florists and more. So many people go into making an awesome wedding. Just some of the vendors pictured here include Jenny with Daisy May Events (upper left), Diane and Grady with East Fork Country Estate (upper left), Kevin with NW Mobile DJ Service (lower right), and Dane with Casperson Productions (lower left).

Our speaker for the night was Michael Jonas. He is the Attorney and Owner of Rational Unicorn Legal Services LLC. Gotta love an attorney that has a unicorn in his name and logo. They are a community based business law firm that offers pay as you go legal services for a verity of legal needs. The firm is an Oregon Benefit Company and strongly believes in and practices the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profits).

Also impressively, in addition to running his own practice, he is the volunteer Co-Director of New Leaders Council-Portland, a nonprofit organization that trains community leaders from every industry on how to use policy, fundraising, education, and advocacy in order to elevate their community project and life goals

Tonight he came to speak to all of us Oregon wedding vendors about getting our businesses in order for the coming year. He had some great suggestions and I look forward to implementing them. Anytime I can find ways to improve things for myself and my clients I will. He also offers a free 30-minute initial consultation to find out just what your business needs, it is always worth having a professional take a look.