Columbia Gorge Hotel and Spa Gallery Installation
I was invited to curate and install a gallery wall for the Columbia Gorge Hotel.
Hello friend! I’m Kate, a PNW-based wedding photographer.
I’ve been working in the Portland area as a wedding photographer since 2019. Over time, I’ve learned that my favorite venues to work at are historic buildings.
It is so interesting to work in a space filled with history. I love the interesting architecture, the old stories, and seeing the new story of a wedding take place all in the same venue.
Over the years, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work in a lot of different spaces. My favorite venue, for quite some time, has been the Columbia Gorge Hotel. The building is over 100 years old and is situated on the edge of a cliff in Hood River, Oregon. The grounds include stone bridges, the second-tallest waterfall in Oregon, flowering trees, and a flock of ducks. When people ask me what the hotel feels like, I often describe it as “Old Hollywood inside the hotel, and the outside is everything amazing about the Gorge”.
When the staff at the hotel asked me to put together a new permanent wedding gallery wall for their spiral staircase, I was THRILLED. This is the story of building the gallery, and then the open house where it was on display for the first time.
Article Overview
The Prep
We will take a quick look at the behind-the-scenes process of printing, editing, framing, and building the gallery.
The Open House
We will get to see the final product! The open house day was so fun. It was a joy to work together with such an amazing team.
The space we had to work with in the hotel was huge.
I quickly enlisted my mom’s help.
She has a background in commercial art and has put together gallery displays and art shows before. With the scope of this project, and my full-time day job (in addition to the photo business), it was going to be a challenge to finish the gallery in time.
I toured the space on December 3rd. The hotel needed the gallery to be ready by February 22nd.
The space we had to work with was fascinating! The hotel has a square spiral staircase that goes down to the ballroom and up to the upper floors of the hotel. The space that we had to work with was the flights of stairs between the main lobby floor and the lower ballroom floor. We had 3 full-sized walls to hang art on, but there we areas with banisters, and the ceiling heights varied. We would likely need 40-50 prints to fill the space well.
Mom and I started scouring thrift stores for gold frames. The stairwell had teal and gold wallpaper, and we thought a collection of ornate, vintage frames would perfectly complement the space.
We went to SO. MANY. thrift stores. Our collection of frames slowly started growing. We were looking for a variety of shapes, tones, and aspect ratios to create a cohesive collection. By the end of January, we had a solid collection.
I ordered a pair of large format printers, and Mom and I worked to repurpose our thrifted frames. I would spend late nights printing, and she would frame the pieces while I was at work. It was so fun to see the frames, many with art that was 30+ years old, be given new life as we filled them with new pictures.
Most of the frames were the traditional wood frames + glass, but we had a small handful that were designed to have open art. Were used spray adhesive to adhere the new images, and then used a mod-podge top coat to give them an “oil painting” look.
The Tuesday before the hotel’s open house, I delivered the first 40 prints.
Somehow we crammed all of them into my car in one trip. I don’t think I’ve ever had that many breakable pieces in my car at once. We stacked them up with bath and hand towels between them, and I drove off to Hood River. Some of the open art prints were still drying as I headed off.
When I arrived, Cheyanna, the venue event and wedding coordinator, and I worked on unloading everything into the hotel. None of the frames broke! After we extracted everything from my car, I ran to Dutch bros to get us drinks while she gathered the tools to hang the art in its new home.
When I got back… we got to work! About 90 minutes later, the coffee was drunk, the gallery was hung, and the stairwell had some new life breathed into it.
While selecting the images for the new gallery, there were a lot of pieces to work through. I had two goals: to show every portion of a wedding day and to show every major space at the venue. I had four wedding galleries to work with, so I was also trying to balance how many images to choose from each wedding to build a balanced collection.
One thing that was nice, is 3/4 of the weddings were from different times of the year. One was May when the flowering trees were blooming, one was July when it is best to use the hotel’s outdoor reception space, and two were in October when the Gorge looks moody and the fall colors start to creep in. Enjoy the pictures that we decided to print and hang!
It was time for everyone to see the new art.
I was NERVOUS.
I think I went through about 5 different outfits as I figured out what to wear. In addition to the gallery opening, the Hotel was having a giant open house for engaged couples. I was going to have the opportunity to give different couples tours of the hotel, and one of my past couples, who had images from their wedding in the gallery, were going to come.
The big day was here.
We had a few details to finish up.
We had about seven more frames to hang. Our biggest print had shipped from out of state, and hadn’t arrived in time. My mom came with me to the hotel, several hours before guests started arriving, and framed the final print. I hung the last few pieces that we had printed at home. The gallery was complete!
My great-grandma (a Hood River native) and mom were able to walk through the hotel with me, and see the final gallery. It was such a special moment to be able to experience together. :))
It was time for people to start arriving.
Meet Megan
Megan is a Portland-based photographer who specializes in weddings. She uses a combo of fine art and film photography.
Megan was a fellow vendor at this open house, and graciously shared the following photos of the event.
Huge thank you to Megan for sharing her amazing work! Enjoy this insider-peak into our day.
The rain started to fall outside, and the final guests finished up their tours.
It felt surreal that a day which had taken so much prep-work was coming to an end. Working with the team at the hotel to put together such a special gallery wall was an absolute joy.
It was also incredible to work alongside so many vendors to put on such a cohesive event for so many couples. A huge thank you to:
- Megan! For your amazing pictures š
- Cheyanna: for giving me the opportunity to build and install such a fun art collection
- Tom: for sharing your picture-hanging supplies with me on event day. Thank you!
- My mom, for helping so much. Thank you. I couldn’t have done this without you.
- God, for blessing me with this as a career. It is such a joy.
And without further ado… enjoy this video of the final gallery installation.
About the Author
Iām Kate
A Portland-based wedding photographer
Hey there! Thanks for stopping by! I’m a Portland-based wedding photographer who enjoys making resources (like this!) to help with the wedding planning process. I am so glad that you’re here.
When Iām not behind my camera, you can often find me drinking tea, learning new business skills, hanging out with my family and friends and church community, listening to a random conglomeration of music, and designing websites.
I look forward to connecting with you!
Kate has spent the past 5+ years honing her craft as a Portland Wedding Photographer. She has documented over 100 love stories, and finds great joy in helping her clients feel beautiful on camera and documenting memories that will last a lifetime. Her goal is to create lasting art by documenting memories in an authentic manner.
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