- Can you get married at Cathedral Park?
- Yes, you can. The amphitheater has been bookable the whole time, and small ceremonies are still welcome at the staircase.
- What about the famous staircase under the arches?
- It has been closed to permitted weddings since October 2022 while the bridge is repaired. Full wedding permits come back in 2027, and they are reserved on a single morning in January.
- Can we get married under the bridge before then?
- Yes. An elopement with a picnic reception afterward is the way to do it, and that is exactly what Married Under the Bridge was built for. It starts at $2,500 and everything is included.
- What will a 2027 staircase permit cost?
- Around $817 once all the fees are added up, and you have to apply in person on the day reservations open.
I'm Kylie, and I founded Higher Love Event Co. I live in St. Johns, and Cathedral Park is two miles from my front door, so I am there often enough to have opinions about it. Below is everything I think is worth knowing if you are hoping to get married there, including the parts the city does not explain very well.
The staircase closure, and what changes in 2027
When people picture a Cathedral Park wedding, they are almost always picturing the stone staircase directly beneath the bridge arches. It is the image that sells the place. It has also been unavailable for permitted weddings since October 1, 2022, while ODOT repairs the concrete on the pier columns, and that has been a disappointment for a lot of couples.
The good news is that full wedding permits return in 2027, for the first time in about five years. Reservations for those dates open on a single morning in January 2027.
One caveat is worth holding onto. ODOT will be working near N. Crawford St. through December 2026, and site restoration in the park is scheduled to continue into 2027. So the park will still be finding its way back to normal while the first permitted weddings are happening in it. That is not a reason to avoid 2027, but it is worth knowing if you are planning early in the year.
If you have your heart set on the staircase in 2027, start planning now. Five years of demand has been building up, and all of it releases on one morning in January. The couples who have been waiting are going to move quickly, so the earlier you decide, the better your chances.
What you can book right now
The deck and staircase at Cathedral Park · St. Johns, Portland, OR
Married Under the Bridge
This is an all-inclusive elopement package I built together with Weddinglandia, the studio four blocks from mine. We designed it around what Cathedral Park actually allows today, which means it is something you can book now rather than something you have to wait for. Here is how the afternoon runs.
- At 3:00 PM you have your legal ceremony, with an ordained officiant, a recording, and your marriage license filed for you afterward. You choose where it happens. The staircase allows a simple ceremony of five people, or we can reserve a spot elsewhere in the park so that your whole guest list can be there to watch.
- At 3:30 PM you and your photographer walk the park for portraits while we set the reception. That hour belongs to just the two of you.
- At 4:30 PM your guests arrive to a styled picnic with linens, florals, candles, a grazing spread, desserts, and Oregon wine and North Portland beer already waiting. You walk up married and sit down to a table that is already laid.
Every tier covers the ceremony, the officiant, your license filing, photography, florals, food, desserts, beverages, permit fees, and all of the setup and styling. Nearly every vendor on the team is based in St. Johns or North Portland, and they are people we know by name. If it rains, Weddinglandia's chapel is two blocks from the park and the reception simply moves indoors, so the day is covered either way.
If you are looking at a 2027 date, here is the honest picture. Portland Parks publishes its park availability calendar each January, which means a 2027 date cannot be locked in until January 2027. You have two good options. You can put a deposit down now, which holds the team and your pricing, and then we choose your date together when the calendar comes out. Or you can wait and book in January once you can see it for yourself. If nothing on the calendar ends up working for you, you can withdraw and I refund your deposit in full.
One thing I want to be upfront about: from 2027 I cannot guarantee the staircase, because another couple may have reserved it for your date. What I can guarantee is a ceremony and picnic in Cathedral Park with the bridge above you and in your photographs. And July 16 to 18, 2027 is out entirely, because the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival takes over the whole park that weekend.
See the dates and book under the bridge.
All-inclusive Cathedral Park elopements starting at $2,500. The pricing is published, the dates are bookable on the spot, and there is no inquiry form standing in your way.
The Cathedral Park Amphitheater
The amphitheater holds up to 500 people, it has been fully available through Portland Parks the entire time, and unlike the staircase it is ADA accessible. If you are planning something larger and you would rather not wait for 2027, this is the option I would point you toward. You still get the arches as your backdrop.
How 2027 permits will work
Portland Parks opens wedding reservations in early January each year for that year's dates, and for the popular venues it is a genuine line-up. People show up in person and wait.
In 2026, in-person reservations ran on Monday January 5 at 1120 SW 5th Avenue, and phone, online and mail requests opened at 8 AM the following morning. Couples and planners queue before the doors open, because a lot of the good Saturdays are gone by the second day. I would expect 2027 to look much the same, and I would plan for it to be busier than usual given how long these permits have been unavailable.
Here are the practical details that are easy to miss:
- The staircase and deck costs $683.75 for up to 100 people, and there is a non-refundable application fee on top of that. It is $133.50 if you book more than 45 days ahead, which brings the real total to roughly $817. That fee climbs to $200.25 inside 45 days and $266.75 inside 15, so booking early genuinely saves you money.
- Electricity requires a Z75 key with a $110 refundable deposit, and it is a single outlet roughly 150 feet from the ceremony space. I would plan on battery backup rather than relying on it.
- Portable restrooms are worth the money, because the permanent ones sit lower in the park and are a walk away.
- You may be asked for proof of liability insurance, so check before you get close to the date.
- The staircase and deck is not ADA accessible, which matters if anyone in your group uses a wheelchair or finds stairs difficult.
- Dates in January, February and March can usually be booked by phone ahead of the January rush, so an early-in-the-year wedding lets you skip the queue entirely.
All of these fees are set by Portland Parks and they do change, so please confirm the current numbers with them directly at portland.gov/parks/wedding.
I am keeping a 2027 waitlist. I will be at the Portland Building on permit day with my couples, standing in that queue myself. If you would like to be on the list, reach out here and I will keep you posted as the date is confirmed.
I should be clear that a waitlist spot is not a held date, because Portland Parks does not release those until January. If you want a Cathedral Park wedding you can actually book today, Married Under the Bridge is the one that is available right now.
About the park
Cathedral Park sits in St. Johns, North Portland, directly under the eastern end of the St. Johns Bridge. The bridge opened in 1931, designed by David B. Steinman, and at 400 feet it is still Portland's tallest and the only suspension bridge in the Willamette Valley. The gothic arched towers give the park its name.
It is twenty-one acres of riverfront, free to visit and open year-round. The park faces west, so late afternoon is when the light is at its best, and that is the window I would build a ceremony around. The bridge also provides partial rain cover, which makes Cathedral Park more forgiving than most outdoor ceremony spots in Portland.
St. Johns, North Portland
N Edison St & Pittsburg Ave
15 min from downtown · 30 min from PDX
Staircase & Deck: up to 100 guests
Amphitheater: up to 500 guests
Elsewhere, no permit: 5 people
Elsewhere, special use permit: 30
Staircase & Deck: $683.75 usage fee
Plus $133.50 application fee
Subject to change for 2027
Staircase & Deck: not ADA accessible
Amphitheater: ADA accessible
Paved paths & accessible restrooms
Why a local planner matters here
Photo: Lindsay Blair Photography
I will say this plainly, because I think it matters more here than at a traditional venue. I know where the electricity access is, how far the restrooms really are from the staircase, where the light falls at five o'clock in October, and which local vendors are comfortable working in a public park. I know the permit process because I have been through it myself, not because I read about it on a website. And I run weddings in this park with a team of St. Johns vendors I have built up around it, which is the part that takes years rather than a phone call.
If you are planning a full wedding here in 2027, my packages are fixed in scope and published in price. They start at $4,500 for ceremony and reception, include two coordinators onsite for up to 12 hours, and decor is priced per table from one of eight pre-designed collections, so there is no design fee and far fewer decisions to make. You can see the full details and work out your total here.
Real Cathedral Park wedding photos
Because I would rather you see this place through other people's weddings than take my word for it, here are a handful of galleries from Portland photographers who have shot at Cathedral Park. They give you a real sense of the range, from full weddings on the staircase to quiet elopements. Each one opens in a new tab.