Hello! I’m Meghan Hof
I take authentical + timeless photographs for wholehearted couples.
Photographer + Owner
We haven't met yet, but I most likely will cry at your wedding. . .no matter how many weddings I go to, nothing makes me shed more happy tears than all the love expressed at a wedding. I promise that I'll wipe my tears quietly and get back to work at capturing your happy tears.
I started Gathering Light Photography in 2005 after studying journalism and then mentoring with a wedding photographer in Big Sky, Montana. During the years I worked with him, I learned a lot about photography but even more about the importance of connecting with each couple and slowing down to tell this unique couple's story.
Almost 20 years and over 300 weddings later, I still get goosebumps when I capture a photograph that I know a couple will cherish because it will remind them of exactly how they felt at that special moment in time.
I've photographed weddings all over the world, published in wedding blogs and magazines, and won numerous awards but nothing means more to me than when a couple writes to me after their wedding and tells me how much they love the photos and how special I made them feel.
FEATURED IN
100%
500+
18+
300+
chance that I'll cry at your wedding
portrait sessions with amazing people
years in business
Weddings photographed
Testimonials:
"We can't say enough wonderful things about Meghan. Our engagement and wedding photographs are absolutely beautiful. She captured all of the special moments of our big day and has given photos we will treasure forever. She was so wonderful with our guests and our bridal party, especially our nervous and camera shy flower girls. They braved the cold and snow and gave up their New Years Eve for us. I've already recommended her to three of my friends getting married and will continue to spread the word about her incredible talent!"
"We could not be happier with our pictures from Gathering Light Photography! Meghan did such an amazing job taking control of my quite rowdy bridal party and made us feel so special during our first look photos. My family and friends cannot stop raving about every picture... thank you Gathering Light Photography!"
"Gathering Light Photography traveled to Aruba to shoot our destination wedding and we could not be happier! Neither of us are naturally photogenic and knew it would take someone special to help us relax and shake our natural deer in headlights reactions to a camera. They were a warm and calming presence from the time they joined us while getting ready, our first looks, throughout the ceremony and deep into the reception turned dance party. . . The photos are incredible! Meghan and Gathering Light Photography are the best!"
— Louise
— Christine
— Molly
Portland — Oregon
Portland — Oregon
Omaha— Nebraska
My Philosophy
Why I do What I do
And why it matters to you
Even as a young child I felt sentimental about time passing too quickly, didn’t want to grow up but just wanted to hold on to things, people and memories a little longer than time allowed.
When I was in 6th grade my class put on a production of Our Town (pretty ambitious of my teachers I realize now) and I got to play the lead role of Emily. The play follows a ordinary life, lived in an ordinary town by ordinary people but the play makes the point that there is nothing ordinary about that at all. It’s all the little things in life that add up to how amazing and beautiful it is to be alive.
In the 3rd act of the play Emily has died and gets the chance to look back on one day of her life. It is heart-breaking to her because everyone is so busy doing things that she can’t get her mother to even STOP and just LOOK at her. . . and she asks, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?–every, every minute?”
The Stage Manager answers (in something that has stuck with me all these years): “No. Saints and poets maybe. . . they do some.”
I promised myself to be someone who could realize life, realize the importance and possibly even share that with others. Age and tiredness and worries about mortgages and dental check-ups and missing socks (where DO they go- really? Two go into the washing machine and one comes out??). . . have dulled my 11-year-old self’s pledge to be one of these saints or poets who realizes life every minute.
But when I go to a wedding or arrive to photograph a new baby- I feel it so strongly.
These momentous occasions make us think back on all the little moments and memories that have brought them to this point. I get caught up in it and I want to show them not just how beautiful they are on that day, in this setting- but how incredibly beautiful their life and their love for each is. How there is nothing ordinary about them- and give them that gift of realizing it too.
That’s why the parents at weddings ALWAYS make me cry. They are seeing SO much more than their daughter looking beautiful, or the table settings, they are seeing time pass before their eyes.
They are seeing late nights rocking in a chair with their baby curled up in their arms, sticky grape popsicles melting into a carpet that will never be the same, awkward haircuts and braces and lazy summer days where they didn’t do much of anything and now this. . . this woman stands before them fiddling with her veil, asking if the florist has arrived yet and it hits them. . . she’s all grown up. She’s starting her own family today.
And I feel it in my bones.
And I want to capture a piece of that love, that understanding of all that beauty in all those ordinary moments, just a piece of it- with my camera. So that they can see it too- in case they were too busy with the details of the day to realize just how strong that love is.
Here's one of my favorite photos of the mother of the bride, watching her daughter dance with her father. . . remembering all the moments that led to this one.
What an honor it is to photograph these moments.
