Bloomin love
THE COURTNEY RUDAT AND KEVIN BERRY WEDDING
STORY BY DWIGHT CASWELL
C
hampoeg State Park,
on the Willamette
River near Newberg,
is a place of wildlife,
natural
beauty
and
historical interest. It is also
the site of the wedding of Kevin and
Courtney Berry of Astoria, on Aug. 21, 2016.
The couple met through a mutual friend in
10
RIVER & SEA WEDDINGS 2017
2012 and in the words of the bride, “we
formed a bond, a great relationship. We
always knew we were the kind of people we
wanted to marry.” In June 2015, Kevin
proposed atop Saddle Mountain.
They were living in Newberg at the time,
and when Courtney and her mother visited
Champoeg with a wedding in mind, they
decided it was the perfect spot. The next day
PHOTOS BY JENNIFER LEMON
Kevin visited the park and came to the same
conclusion.
The couple wanted their wedding to be
both personal and traditional, so they didn’t
enlist the aid of a wedding coordinator. “We
didn’t want to use outside resources,”
Courtney said, so they called on family and
friends. “Both families worked really hard on
the decorations,” Courtney remembered, with
an overall design by the bride and the two
mothers, and input by Kevin.
Flowers were the first decision and that
was easy. Kevin’s mother, Diane Berry, owns
Bloomin Crazy Floral in Astoria (“She did an
amazing job,” says her new daughter-in-law).
Next they hired a local caterer to preside over
a chicken barbecue and Courtney’s mother
made jars of strawberry jam as favors. >>