Whew…I feel better now   When you read as many blogs as I do, little things start to drive you slightly insane. 

MOVING ON…Happy St. PADDY’S DAY!!!!!!!!!  I love this holiday.  I mean, you get to wear bright kelly green, which I love, and you get to drink a lot.  What more could a girl ask for?!  How about some great green wedding ideas (with some Irish traditions thrown in for good measure!)

It’s an Irish custom for the bride to carry a horseshoe down the aisle for good luck.  She must carry it facing up, so the good luck doesn’t run out.  There are tons of little horseshoe charms out there for bouquets, like this one from Nordstrom:

But I like the larger ones, like this one which, sadly, I can’t remember where it came from (Etsy?)  It would also be cute to display in your home after the wedding:

You can also use horseshoe touches in other parts of your wedding, like in these traditional Jordan Almond favors from Martha Stewart:

The claddagh ring is another Irish tradition (I meant to take a picture of mine, which I love, and bought at The Silver Parrot in Old Town Alexandria, but I just moved and can’t find it!)  Here is another gorgeous one.

A great way to honor the day, though, is to, of course, include green in your wedding!  You can do this a number of ways, like these bridesmaids dresses:

Photo: Chris Baltazar

Kimberly Gray Photography:

LOVE these J. Crew dresses, photographed by Root Photography:

Or these darker green Jim Hjelm dresses, photographed by Sarah Bastille:

Accessories are a great way to add color too (and then the bride can get involved with the wearin o’ the green!)

Franco Sarto shoes, photographed by Sarah Q Photography:

Or how about this beautiful shamrock necklace (great bridesmaid’s gift!) from Etsy seller Sammi84:

Speaking of bridesmaids gifts, how about these cute clutches from Etsy Seller JenniferLadd:

And don’t forget the guys…they can wear green too!

Amy Carroll Photography:

How awesome is this boutonniere from Design Sponge?!

Kristin Spencer Photography:

Bouquets are an easy way to add green as well.  There are so many great green flowers as well as things like succulents (and especially four-leaf clovers!) that make a gorgeous green bouquet.  Touches like beautiful green ribbon add some great color too.

I love this bouquet from Brilliant Blooms in Denver:

Chris Baltazar Photography:

LOVE these green bouquets, photographed by our friend Heather Z:

Speaking of green flowers, how about the ceremony decor and centerpieces?

Photo by The Wiebners:

Laurel McConnell Photography:

Allyson Magda Photography:

How much do I love those green vases?!?!  Of course, flowers aren’t the only way to color your wedding.  There are also cute escort card ideas:

Non-floral decor:

Love Life Images:

Martha Stewart Weddings:

Or favors, like these cute shamrock lollipops, photographed by Blue World Studios:

Of course, we Irish love our drink, so add a little festive touch into your drinks (and food!)

Anne Constance Photography:

Mmm…cake bites…oh, Bakerella, how I love you. (That’s Red Velvet cake…dyed green!)

I admit it…I love corned beef and cabbage…

How pretty is this cupcake stand photographed by local Dolphindance Photography:

I love that candy buffets are still popular, like this green one photographed by Eleise Theuer:

And of course, you can’t have a St. Patrick’s Day wedding without Guinness:

How cute would it be to have a group of Irish Dancers perform at your reception?  (Locally, the O’Neill-James School of Irish Dancing and Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance would be good places to check)

So for all of you Irish out there (and those who are Irish just for today) HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!!!!!!!!

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,

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!