A big Happy Birthday to Wish, who is celebrating five years today.  We started out as Soiree Special Events in 2005 and have never looked back!  Over the years we’ve served over 200 couples in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.  We’re so thrilled to have such wonderful supporters who have kept us in business through this economic craziness.  Thank you to all our past and future clients — we love you all!

xoxo,

Photo via The Washington Post

We’re so very excited that same-sex couples in the District of Columbia can FINALLY apply for marriage licenses, starting today. Of course they still need to wait until May 9th to actually tie the knot but today is a big day for the LGBT community! Click here to see some photos from the Washington Post on the activities at the DC Superior Court today.

Here at Wish we love to help all kinds of couples with their wedding celebrations. If you’re not quite ready to hire a planner but are looking for some advice, here are some wonderful same-sex-friendly wedding resources:

SoYoureEngayged.com
GayWeddings.com
GayRites.com
TheKnot.com’s Real Weddings
Rainbow Wedding Network

If you participate on Twitter, here are some great folks to follow:

SoYoureEngayged, resource
Bernadette Smith, wedding planner
Rainbow Wedding Network, resource

Of course don’t forget to follow me on Twitter too!

Congratulations again!

We got some fantastic images of Anna & Mike’s wedding from photographer Elaine Studley.  I thought Elaine’s images turned out great!

It wouldn’t be a Hokie’s wedding without a Virginia Tech garter, now would it?

They exchanged vows at the Church of the Holy Rosary on 3rd Street in Washington, DC:

Isn’t this church amazing!?  I thought the grand aisle made for a fantastic entrance:

Look how sweet these guys are!

After the ceremony, Anna & Mike took their bridal party around the mall for some quintessential DC monument shots:

Elise Alexander provided this beautiful bouquet and all the flowers for the wedding:

I think the Jefferson Memorial is one of my favorite spots for wedding portraits:

The US Capitol is just about as “DC” as it gets!  This is also a good photo to point out Anna’s gorgeous wedding-day look from Elegant Hair by Giselle and BeautyMark:

The reception took place at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC.  There are two large rooms in this venue, connected by a large sliding door.  Here’s the bigger space of the two:

Martin’s Caterers did a beautiful job on the yummy cake:

Complete with orange & maroon icing flowers!  How fitting!

The big entrance:

I really love this shot…aren’t Anna & Mike cute together?  I also loved the whimsical polka dot lighting:

Musica Entertainment kept the party going all night:

Mmmm….this cake display was the perfect end to the evening.  Look how many different types there were!

….and they danced and danced and danced.

Congratulations, Anna & Mike!  I’m glad I could be a part of your day and hope you enjoyed every second of it.

Reston, VA – February 26, 2010 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced that Wish Special Events has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Wedding Planning in the Washington, DC area!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Wish Special Events is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Wish Special Events is among the very best wedding planner within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today.

I’ll be posting about Julia and Chris’ gorgeous wedding soon, but now that the newlyweds are back from their honeymoon, they’re trying to make room in their house by clearing it of all wedding stuff.  Julia got these great branches at the sadly closed Smith & Hawken, and there are two to each centerpiece.

They come with the tall vase, two branches, black sand and river rocks to hold them up, plus the candles and icicles you see in the picture.  She’s looking for $500 for everything (10 Centerpieces total) (the branches were $30 each just by themselves!) but is willing to take the best offer.  These are REALLY popular, so definitely email her soon!  Pictures (and hints to how awesome their wedding was) below:

The first two photos are from the amazing Liz Hough, the second two are from one of our awesome assistants!  As you can see, the branches were spray painted silver, but you can paint them another color if that works better for you.

You can email Julia or Rebecca (me) for more info!

Although February generally isn’t a busy month for weddings, the exception every year is the weekend of Valentine’s Day.  Since we don’t have any Valentine’s weddings at Wish this year, I thought I’d offer up some WishCandy that makes me think of the day!

A gorgeous bouquet in pink or red is a great way to give a nod to Valentine’s Day!

These red tulips from Branch Floral Design look so elegant!

Love the little hint of purple in this one, photographed by Erin Hearts Court:

I died over this bouquet in our “Pink is My Signature Color” post — these are coral peonies:

Olivia Leigh Photographie:

Love the touch of orange in this bouquet from the Flower Girls:

Real Simple:

The Knot:

Another from The Knot:

Of course, bouquets are the only place you can highlight the theme of your Valentine’s Day wedding.  Centerpieces are also a great way to incorporate color.  I LOVE this gorgeous carnation (I KNOW!  Carnations!!) centerpieces from Carolyne Roehm:

Speaking of carnations, they’ve made a big resurgence in the last couple of years as not only a money saver, but a really cute flower when you bunch a ton of them tightly together.

Oh, Martha…always with the trends…

Branch Floral Design:

Okay, last carnation one, I promise…from In Style Weddings:

Of course, there are lots of other flowers to use in your centerpieces, not just carnations, like the following two beauties from Dandelion Ranch:

Hostess with the Mostess:

Olivia Leigh Photographie:

Once Wed:

And the adorable centerpiece inspiration for Mrs. Green Tea of Wedding Bee:

There are other aspects of decor for your wedding, though.  Use pinks and reds to decorate your ceremony space, like Nancy Liu Chin:

Your guests:

Your stationery:

Or your feet!

A few more great hits of red and pink…how about these awesome pink lanterns, from Habitually Chic:

Eye Spy Photography:

You could also use one of our favorite ways to add a HUGE pop to your wedding decor, uplighting, photographed by Jeff Greenough:

Or what about adding some color to your food and drinks, like the girls at Hostess with the Mostess?!

Red Punch, on Inspired by This:

Cake, from Martha Stewart:

Macarons, photographed by Our Labor of Love (nice rings too!):

“Lollipops” make a great addition to a dessert table.  These are from Parents magazine, but the girls at Sweet Ladies Bakery in the DC area make amazing brownie, truffle and cheesecake lollipops!

Speaking of desserts…and my favorite DC vendors…I had THE MOST AMAZING Red Velvet Cake from Lara at Fluffy Thoughts.  And Red Velvet is, of course, perfect for a Valentine’s wedding!  (Note, this is not Fluffy Thoughts’ cake…Lara’s cake went WAY too fast for anyone to get a picture of it!  This is just an insanely delicious looking picture of red velvet cake that makes me want to eat my computer screen…)

How about some red drinks — red is one of the easiest colors to make a signature drink with!  (Have you tried finding inspiration for purple drinks?  Not easy!)  These are from Real Simple:

How about the amazing poppy on this gorgeous cake featured on Style Me Pretty?

And finally, some great pink and red clothing details.  For the bridesmaids:

Lara Swanson:

Dress from Etsy seller Parsimony:

The boys, photographed by Eye Spy Photography:

Or even the bride!

Joel Flory Photo:

The Sweetest Occasion:

What Junebug Loves:

Are you getting married on Valentine’s Day?  Will you be using pink and red?

What are you doing this Saturday afternoon?  Be sure to check out the DC Couture Wedding Consortium’s Luxury Bridal Show at the Decatur House!  They’ll be open from 1-3pm on February 6th.  Tickets are $25 or you can use the code “DCCWCFREE” to get in for free!

Our last wedding of 2009 was Jen & Brent’s bash at The Barns at Wolf Trap.  Although we’ve been planning weddings for over four years and even employ a former Wolf Trap employee, we’ve never had the opportunity to coordinate an event in this beautiful space.  Jen & Brent certainly had a fabulous wedding to wrap up the end of the year!

I’ll share professional images from Amir at Photo Fanatic when I get them.  For now, here’s my take on the day!

Jen & Brent wanted a candlelit ceremony so that’s what they got!  Aside from some twinkle lights on the trees rented from DaVinci’s Florist, the only other light was from dozens of floating candles down the aisle:

Unfortunately my camera’s not that great in the dark but you get the idea.  It was gorgeous!

The ceremony and reception happened in the same room so once the ceremony concluded we sent all the guests to a cocktail /bar area down the hall.  I didn’t get a photo of the built-in bar at Wolf Trap but here’s the big foyer area:

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Jen & Brent had a kelly green & gray color scheme.  Isn’t that fabulous!?  I was so excited to see how the colors came together.  Here’s her escort card table.  I loved the whole limes in the vase underneath that big hydrangea arrangement:

Meanwhile inside, we were busy setting up the reception!  Keep in mind that we had NOTHING set up for the reception during the ceremony, not even staged tables waiting in the back.  We re-used the chairs to save on the cost and flipped the room entirely:

We had three different centerpieces on the tables to break up the room and show some creativity!  DaVinci’s Florist was really flexible and rolled with all the ideas.  Here’s the tall arrangements:

See how we re-used the ceremony floating candles on the tables?  This arrangement was on the table where the bride & groom sat:

The final table arrangements, featuring submerged orchids and floating candles:

Hold on, did you see that?  The adorable table number?  Jen made these all herself!

Another cute detail was the favors, Hershey’s Kisses in tiny customized glass jars:

For such a late fall wedding, Jen and Brent wanted the room to be DARK!  I thought it was a gorgeous candlelit reception, perfectly romantic for the occasion:

I wish I had a better photo of Jen’s dress but believe me, it was stunning!  She offset the asymmetrical gown with a birdcage veil that was so perfectly vintage-inspired.  Her flowing hair was kept down and had finger waves.  How many brides do we see anymore who keep their hair down?  This girl’s got style!  Here she is dancing with her dad:

Guests enjoying their meal, catered by R&R Catering:

I have to mention the cupcake tree, which was made by Jen herself!  The cupcakes came from Hello Cupcake and fit perfectly on the kelly green stand.  Check out the way they stack up:

OK, I just wanted to rub in how delicious these things were.  Are you jealous yet?

Another lame attempt at getting a photo of Jen’s gown!  Here you can actually see Brent too (sorry for the lack of representation, Brent — we love you!):

…and they danced the night away, thanks to David from MyDeejay:

That’s all for now, folks!  Jen & Brent, I hope you had a fabulous honeymoon and are enjoying the new year together as newlyweds!

We’re a little late on this one but there’s still time to take advantage of this great deal at The Dandelion Patch!