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!

If making the “Best Wedding Vendor” list wasn’t enough, we also had one of our weddings published in the most recent issue of Washingtonian Bride & Groom!

Arienne & Rahman had a gorgeous wedding at the Galleria at Lafayette Center last year.  I was so thrilled when I turned the page of the magazine and saw THIS:

To learn more about this wedding, visit our first blog post and the second one with professional images.  Special thanks goes to photographer Greg Gibson who submitted his images to the magazine.

Congrats, Arienne & Rahman!

For all of you ladies and gents out there who love swooning over all things wedding, I have a late holiday gift for you!  DC DailyCandy – the area’s source for the hippest, latest, coolest pop culture trends in the area – has come out with a new daily e-mail feature just for brides!  Welcome, Bride Buzz!

I’m a big fan of DC Daily Candy so I immediately signed up for Bride Buzz when it was announced a few months back.    I had completely forgotten about it and was pleasantly surprised to receive my first dose of Bridal Buzz  Monday morning, featuring an oh-so-cute cake topper!

Unlike Daily Candy, Bride Buzz is not specific to the DC area (yet!?!?), but rather features vendors, items and ideas from across the country.   DailyCandy started out as a New York City-based newsletter to share pop-culture trends and tidbits with its e-readers.   It soon expanded to a national site and has since started sites (with free subscriptions available!) to several major cities in the U.S., including Washington DC.   The daily e-mails include everything from trend features to coupons…which have helped with my sugar intake at places such as Red Velvet Cupcakery down by DC’s Verizon Center (LOVE their salted Peanut Butter Cupcakes!).

While Bride Buzz is just getting its legs, I’m hoping it will be as informative, entertaining and inspiring as DailyCandy has been!    If you subscribe to Bride Buzz, you’ll receive a daily dose of bridal eye candy in your e-mail box.  You can also check them out online for past daily features, including my favorite feature of all bridal websites:  real weddings.

For all of you newly-engaged folks out there, welcome!  I hope our site and places like Bride Buzz will inspire you to create a wedding day that is perfectly charming, personal and swoon-worthy!  And for our regular blog followers, I hope none of you made a New Year’s Resolution to “stop-surfing-the-web-for-all-things-wedding.”  If you did, I apologize in advance because this certainly isn’t going to help to that end!

I thought I knew from the get-go what my wedding colors would be.    A whimsical wedding at Glen Echo Park calls for an equally fun color palette.   I initially thought our colors would be light blue, red and white.  But we switched it from light blue to more of an aqua/teal and I’m really happy with the choice!    I’ve always loved aqua.  It’s calming yet bright and reminds me of water, which I love.  My little VW convertible bug is even aqua blue!  I joke that when I’m working with a couple, I automatically arrive with “something blue.”

The choice of red came from one of my not-so-secret indulgences:  red shoes.   I have a somewhat embarrassing number of red shoes.   I love them.  I can’t say no to them.  And I feel my prettiest in them.   Since every bride should feel her prettiest on her wedding day, I decided long ago that my wedding day shoes would be red.    Even if it does make my mother raise her eyebrows a bit… OK, a lot.  And since I want my bridesmaids to be just as sassy and gorgeous, they will each be wearing red shoes as well!  I picked a candy-apple red to match the vibrant reds found all over Glen Echo Park.

So there you have it…..  aqua (more of a blue-ish teal), bright red and a neutral white… maybe with some light blush pink as an accent where necessary.   I’m in love with the scheme and am having a blast building off of it.   Here’s a look at the combination.

This one’s from The Budget Savvy Bride

A fellow Knottie wedding with teal dresses and red shoes (sorry, don’t have a credit!):

Another collection of red and aqua: Couple photo by Jonathan Canlas, Invitation from Bella Bliss Design, Bride and Bridal Party photo by Art of Light, Candy Cones from Brides.com, Tablescape from Gentlandhyers, Cake and candy and centerpiece photo by Jonathan Canlas, Escort card by Rebecca Thuss, Ceremony Program by Martha Stewart, Shoes photo by White Box Wedding

My neice (who will only be 17 months old for our wedding) will actually be carrying a big teal and white lollipop just like this (instead of flowers).   Seeing as she likes to eat everything in sight these days, we figure this will be yummier than flowers…and it fits our theme perfectly!  Photo by Jamie Hammond.

This Indian wedding in California was shot by Lisa Lefkowitz.

This cherry blossom stationery set is by RSVP Stationary. Red and teal is perfectly whimsical for my vintage amusement park wedding… but this would also be a great option for any of you brides using DC’s cherry blossoms as inspiration!  It puts a contemporary spin on a very traditional (and common) inspiration for weddings in the DC area.

This adorable clutch by knitty bitties on Etsy would be a great bridesmaid gift!

These poppy escort cards are by Etsy seller Michelle Brusegaard, who has a lot of red and teal items with both poppies and tulips.

This Mexico destination wedding was shot by DC’s Lara Swanson.  The red and aqua colors were inspired by the colored spaces on a Scrabble board, which played a big part in their engagement!

This table setting is by Martha Stewart, who did a whole feature on this color combo a while back.  While I’m not usually a fan of carnations, I must admit that I L-O-V-E this look.   Since carnations are budget-friendly and will fit perfectly with my 1950’s vintage wedding theme, I have a feeling I’ll be using them.  If done right (such as these tightly-packed red carnations), they can be really gorgeous.  And, after consulting my gramma and grampa’s wedding photos over break, I discovered that their 1956 wedding used only one flower… carnations.   Perfect!

Speaking of red carnations, check out the tightly packed red carnations on the pomanders for this red and teal wedding, Pure7Studios.  Bee-yoo-ti-ful!

While red and aqua/teal are a great spring or summer combo, the weather outside is frigid so I thought I’d leave you with an inspiration board for a winter wedding.   The icy blues are reminiscent of snowflakes, but are warmed up by holiday reds.   The ladies at Masterpiece Weddings in Florida put this inspiration board together and I couldn’t have done it better myself!

So… what do you think?  It’s a vibrant and bold color combination for sure.   And while it can work with a lot of different wedding themes, it’s not for everyone.  With the holidays over and lots of couples newly engaged, we are officially in “Engagement Season!”  Would any of you newly-engaged couples out there consider this color combo? Do you have any color palettes of your own that you’d like to share?