The day started out with the ladies getting ready at the Metropolitan Club, where the reception was to be held later.  Maddy and Dana are young members of the Met Club, which offers great events like wine and beer dinners, which the couple regularly attends!

After the ladies finished primping, Alexander Morozov, the amazing and HILARIOUS photographer, arrived to take photos of the girls before they left for the ceremony.

LOVE this picture of Maddy coming down the main staircase at the Met Club.

The ladies then hopped into the limo provided by ING Limo company.  These guys were GREAT.  One of the shuttle buses was in a very minor fender bender, and the company immediately sent out another bus.  Luckily, the first bus was relatively unharmed, and showed up a few minutes later — meaning we had two buses for the price of one!  Not only that, but the drivers were WONDERFUL, and one of them ran to the store and picked up a bottle of champagne for Maddy and Dana to enjoy on the ride back to the club after the ceremony!  Talk about customer service!!!

As guests arrived at the ceremony, they were greeted by bagpipes, played by one of Dana’s fraternity brothers.  (How handy is it to have a fraternity brother who plays the bagpipes?!  Also, do you think they would get drunk in college and make him play the bagpipes at parties?  I need to know this information)

The ceremony was held at the absolutely adorable Little Sanctuary at St. Albans.  (Photo from the St. Albans School web site)

HOW CUTE IS THAT??!?!  Dana went to school here at St. Albans, so he and his family have known the minister and the organist for years!

After the ceremony, we walked over to the AMAZING Bishop’s Garden behind the National Cathedral for photos.  St. Albans, in case you didn’t know, is on the grounds of the National Cathedral…very handy for awesome wedding photos, but you don’t have to get married on the grounds to use this stunning space!

This is maybe my favorite mother/daughter picture ever.  I teased Maddy all day, saying she had been practicing her Tyra…little did I know, she had been learning those poses for a LONG time…like mother, like daughter

After the photos, Maddy and Dana rode in the limo to enjoy their champagne and head back to the Met Club to start the party!

The flowers were provided with one of my FAVORITE florists, Growing Wild.  I think I recommended Barbara to Maddy and Dana at our very first meeting, before they had even booked me!

The peonies are from her farm!  She told Maddy she had used pretty much every last peony she had available on the farm, and the result was AMAZING!

After being treated to a wonderful dinner, the bride danced with her dad while the groom danced with his mom — I love this cute image Alexander took.

This was the least crowded the dance floor was the rest of the night, though!  Hang the DJ ROCKED the dance floor!

Do they look familiar?  You might also know them as Juniper Lane, a popular DC/MD/VA (and Dewey Beach!) band.  LOVE these guys, and the guests did too!

Dana and Maddy had a LOT of college friends at the wedding, so we had to be sure to take a big group photo of the Hamilton crew!

(I told you there were a lot of them!)

Alexander also got some great photos of Dana with his fraternity brothers:

Even with all of these group photos, Dana and Maddy were able to sneak away to the beautiful library of the Met Club for some bride and groom photos:

This next one was my idea…I call it the naughty librarian

I LOVE it when photographers get a picture of me with my couples!

Of course, Alexander had to get in on the action too!

And he also got a cute picture of me with Linsey, the Event Coordinator at the Met Club:

Not only did the Met Club provide a beautiful and delicious cake:

But they provided these amazing truffles, along with this gorgeous sugar sculpture for the bride and groom.  Look at the look on Maddy’s face — this might be my favorite photo of the night!

Congratulations, Maddy and Dana!  We need to hang out in Arlington sometime!!!

Julia planned every last detail but Chris, a graphic designer, designed all of the paper pieces, including the menus, invitations, and programs!

I absolutely LOVE this photo of the couple, just after they were married, at the church’s entrance.  How gorgeous is that vintage fur stole, compliments of the bride’s grandmother?

After the ceremony, everyone headed to the Fairfax Marriott at Fair Oaks to start the party.  This Marriott has a GORGEOUS cocktail area, made even more beautiful by the lighting from Swank Audio Visuals:

Throughout the planning, Julia kept talking about the “wow” factor in the ballroom.  Well, she definitely got it!  With a combination of the already beautiful ballroom:

Linens from DC Rental:

More lighting from Swank:

…and my favorite part, the centerpieces!  Chris and Julia had three different centerpieces.  Two of them were provided by a Wish favorite, Barbara Von Elm at Growing Wild:

And the third was designed by Julia and put together by my beautiful assistants and me! (and which you’ve seen before, as they’re for sale!)

(The small bride’s cake was based on Chris’ design from the invitations!)

As if that wasn’t enough sugar, Julia’s mom baked mini breads for guests to take home, sealed with the couple’s custom monogram (again, created by the groom) and gave them the recipe for the bread to bake at home!

A few more gorgeous pictures of the day:

Let’s kick off with some pictures!  The professional images you see are from the very talented Kristen Leigh Photography.  Kristen is such a doll to work with.  Check her out if you’re looking for a photographer!  Images without her cute “K” watermark are ones I took with my iPhone.

Barbara at Growing Wild did a phenomenal job with Sarah’s bouquet:

Sarah’s green shoes pretty much sum up her personality.  Fun, vibrant, energetic, elegant, and unique!

Sarah and her ladies took some time before the ceremony to take portraits.  I loved this one:

Inside, the ceremony’s all set to go.  If you’re been in the Torpedo Factory during the daytime it looks totally different!  John Farr Lighting Design does an incredible job in making this building transform for events:

Sarah and her dad make it down the aisle:

A gorgeous wedding ceremony at the Torpedo Factory.  Sarah & Abs had a friend, Pastor Dave Saville, perform the service.  He was really wonderful!  It was light, touching, and heartfelt.  I really enjoyed working with Pastor Dave and happily recommend him to anyone who’s looking for a young and modern officiant.  It was a nice departure from the typical wedding officiants I see:

During cocktails, Kristen took photographs of the bridal party in Alexandria.  This cute spot is just around the corner from the Torpedo Factory:

Here’s what Kristen saw:

Kristen got some great shots of our newlyweds along the Old Town Alexandria waterfront.  This is near and dear to me since my husband and I took similar photos over three years ago!  I thought this particular one was so elegant….just a beautiful moment frozen in time while the rest of the world buzzes around them:

Couldn’t this easily be the front cover of a magazine?

Back inside, the party was in full swing!  To start, guests found their escort cards in these cute wheat grass boxes (provided by Growing Wild):

The other half of the Torpedo Factory (opposite from the ceremony) was set up for dinner even before guests arrived.  All we needed were chairs!  Once the ceremony ended and guests moved upstairs for cocktails, Windows Catering set the chairs in place around the tables.  I love this image because it shows a little bit of the wonderful lighting and centerpiece pinspots:

A few more shots of the reception area.  Nicole at Windows Catering is a doll to work with and her staff was phenomenal:

Look familiar?  Once the chairs were out of the way we used the ceremony spot as the dance floor!  Ray from Chris Laich Music Services did a great job keeping folks on the dance floor the entire night.  Doesn’t the space look totally transformed with funky lighting?

Windows’ accomplished pastry chef made the gorgeous and tasty cake.  Sarah & Abs chose to forgo the traditional cake cutting ceremony so this baby was just dislayed then sliced up by the caterer:

On a final note, I wanted to share a video of their incredible first dance!  Sarah and Abs must have practiced this for MONTHS.  Their guests were totally shocked at the last move…watch it and see what I mean!

Thanks, Melissa & TJ, for referring this wedding to me!  I’m honored you thought of me for your friends and am glad I got to see you at the wedding.

For more photos from this wedding, check out Kristen Leigh’s Blog.

Congratulations again, Sarah & Abs!

What’s even better?  He got this done just a few days after the wedding!

Click here to see Kara & Art’s wedding slideshow!

It’ll be a while until we get professional images from photographer Rob Holley but I thought I’d share mine in the meantime.  We got very lucky that another couple left this cute sign behind:

Barbara at Growing Wild did a marvelous job on the ceremony decoration.  We had shepherd’s hooks lining the aisle, a huge arch at the front of the aisle, and two more altar pieces to mark each end.  She also decorated the gazebo with a big beautiful garland…I wish I had a photo of it but it was all really pretty!  We always enjoy working with Barbara and you can see why brides like her too:

If you’re not familiar with Collingwood (you should be!  It’s open to the public most of the time!), you must know that the best ceremony spot is ALL the way down the hill and far, far away.  I would estimate it’s at least 150 yards?  Luckily they have a golf cart to help elderly guests and the bride also gets a ride down the hill:

If you’re into long aisles, this is probably the LONGEST aisle in town!  It makes for tricky processionals since we have to time the music for different groups of people.  But, that’s why you hire a wedding day coordinator, right?  Here’s the bride and her uncle, on their way:

It’s all worth it in the end, though, when you have a picture-perfect riverfront ceremony.  Bialek’s Music provided a wonderful guitar/violin duo that was just the right touch.  Rev. John Hoffmann created a customized ceremony that included a fun reading from a Dr. Seuss book.  The big beautiful Potomac River makes this wedding spot simply unbeatable:

While guests gathered back on the porch after the reception, we put the finishing touches on the reception room.  Collingwood built this venue about a year ago and we’re glad to finally have it open.  The room doesn’t have much character on it’s own but with a little lighting and some fun colors, it really comes to life!

Here’s the ‘before:’

And after!  Andrew Cissna Lighting Design did a fabulous job for us, including stringing the bulb lights, providing a ceiling wash with a fun pattern, and also doing a monogram on the dance floor to define the space.  I couldn’t have been more pleased with how things turned out:

A close-up of the custom monogram that Andrew designed:

Susan at Federal City Caterers was a rockstar to work with through the entire process.  She was flexible, accomodating, friendly, welcoming, and all-around a joy to work with.  She even worked with their chef to recreate a Finnish recipe for the bride’s family!  I will be recommending them a lot more in the future.  I thought the way they set the tables was really pretty:

Another cool thing to note was their wedding cake!  Stephanie the Baker provided this fun international-themed cake.  She’s a former White House pastry chef and really knows her stuff.  What’s even cooler?  The fondant ’stickers’ all feature a place the bride or groom have lived:

The room looked even better when guests came in for dinner:

Kara’s mom lives here in Arlington and was our liasion for most of the wedding decisions.  Kara dedicated a special song to her mom and it was really a touching moment.  I’ve become so jaded that I rarely cry at weddings anymore…this one brought a tear to my eye:

Cutting the wedding cake.  It was tasty!

Andrew even lit the outside of the building to give it some pop.  I thought the Tiffany blue color looked really great:

Congratulations again, Art & Kara!  I hope you both enjoyed every minute of your day and are traveling safely to Mexico today.  Best of luck with your future lives in South Africa and wherever else your international travel bug takes you!

(Photo by the outstanding Jake Holt …more of his photos to come!)

Lori from Windows Catering came up with the awesome table set up for this wedding, which I loved!  It was perfect for the space and the number of people we had, and the DJ (Ron Gray of Kirkabees) remarked that he had been to the venue dozens of times, and had never seen it set up like that!

Isn’t it awesome?!  The dance floor was inside the tables and the chairs were both outside and inside of the square with openings at each end.  It made for great conversation at the tables, too!  Here’s another picture of the set up.  (Above picture, and those below, taken by one of our assistants that day.  I had to hand off my camera because of all of the running around!)  Note the gorgeous blue pintuck linens provided by Windows.  Meredith picked these out, along with the orange linen napkins not only to go with the Mexican theme of the wedding, but also as a nod to the fact that she and Howard are both UVA grads.  Go Hoos!

This was my first time at the Thomas Birkby House, but I hope it won’t be my last!  Wish does a lot of weddings there, which we love, thanks to the beautiful venue and the lovely on-site coordinator, Mary Louise.

Photo by Jake Holt Photography

This venue has it all — adorable historic house (complete with lots of hidden nooks, a GORGEOUS bride’s room, and even cute porches to hang out on), a beautiful courtyard, a big permanent tent, and the most gorgeous gardens!  The little gazebo is where their cake shows up later (although in this picture it was still living inside, in the air conditioning):

See the little banner hanging inside the gazebo?  Meredith special ordered it in orange and blue.  Here is the blue one, which was inside the tent:

We also set up a few tables inside in case people wanted to escape from the heat.  Once the sun set, though, it was absolutely lovely outside, so these didn’t get used much:

Also inside the house was the escort card table.  Although the couple had place cards at each seat, Meredith’s dad came up with a cute “icebreaker” game that also served as an escort card.  Each guest had the name of one half of a couple on each side of their escort card.  When they found their match, that’s who they were sitting next to at dinner!

Photo by Jake Holt Photography

The staff at the Birkby House hung the lanterns Meredith and Howard purchased inside the tent (which you can see in the photos of the tent set up above), and one of our assistants hung a few in the trees as well.  I love the orange stars!

The florist, Barbara Von Elm of Growing Wild, joked to me in an email that we’re dating.  That’s how much we’re seeing each other these days!  You’ll be seeing her handy work for another one of my weddings in just a few weeks, not to mention several other Wish weddings!  She brought in her own Mexican pottery that she had in her house to decorate the cocktail tables in the theme of the wedding…how sweet is that!

Of course, the flowers didn’t stop there.  The tables inside the tent were lined with dozens of small vases filled with different flowers, and the arbor for the ceremony was decorated beautifully as well:

Instead of clinking glasses or ringing bells, the guests shook the maracas that the couple provided as favors at each place setting:

A lemonade stand was set up by the Windows staff at the entrance to the courtyard.  It came in awfully handy when the sun was out!

Instead of a traditional guest book, Meredith and Howard had a friend design a poster for them to have signed:

Photo by Jake Holt Photography

Lori and I had never heard of the company that provided the cake, Terracocoa, but holy moly, you better believe I know them now!  Not only was this cake GORGEOUS but it was one of the most delicious wedding cakes I’ve ever had.  I normally am not a fondant fan but this cake was chocolate with a Burnt Sugar Fondant.  The cake tasted almost like fudge, that’s how rich and decadent it was.  It was I.N.S.A.N.E.  And I know me some wedding cake, kids.  Baker/decorator/owner Marilyn Mueller did an amazing job.  So yummy:

The only teeny, tiny issue with the cake was, well, fondant is fairly thick.  As such, it’s not always easy to cut into.  In spite of my instructions on how to daintily and beautifully cut their cake, by Meredith gently and lovingly resting her hand on Howard’s, preserving their gorgeous photo for years to come, Meredith decided to take a…different approach:

Photo by Jake Holt Photography

That girl cracks me up.

I also want to give a special shout out to K.C. Felton of The Elegant Artisan and Aisha Alves of Picture Perfect Makeup (whose web site I just went to in order to link to it and saw a good friend of mine, whose makeup they did for her wedding, on the home page!).  Meredith and her bridesmaids looked GORGEOUS!  Meredith is, much like me, a very low key kind of gal who doesn’t wear much makeup.  Aisha and KC did an amazing job of making her look gorgeous but natural.  You’ll see what I mean in the photos below.

Which brings me to Jake Holt.  Ah, Jake Holt.  I have such a crush on this adorable Texan.  See, Meredith and Howard live in Texas and were originally planning to get married there.  However, you know, stuff happens, and the wedding got moved to Leesburg instead.  The couple had fallen so in love with their photographer that they asked him if he might be willing to travel to Virginia to do their wedding.  He even brought an assistant with him on their ROAD TRIP from Texas! (yes, these boys DROVE from Austin.  Crazy.)  Below are just a few pictures from his blog but I hope to have even more once he’s finished editing.  This guy was SO amazing to work with, and his pictures are…well, just see for yourself:

Ooh, I forgot to talk about the bouquets.  The bouquets were great!  Meredith had specifically asked Barbara for a fragrant bouquet, since she doesn’t wear perfume.  Barbara accomplished this in spades!  I could smell that baby all the way down the hall and I swooned.  Gardenias and peonies will do that to a girl

Jake really took advantage of the downtown area of Leesburg (so much so that I had to go chase him down a few blocks and tell him it was time for them to come back!)

To any Loudoun County Police that happen to read wedding blogs…those are totally fake margaritas that were being carried around the streets of Leesburg.  Right, guys?

Howard’s brother is tall, but not THAT tall.  So I couldn’t understand why this happened to his tie:

I saw someone trying to fix it, but we just gave up and told him to keep his coat buttoned.

Jake even set up a little “photo studio” outside after dark, to take some great little portraits and candid shots:

(Oh yeah, the couple supplied the pillows for the benches too…they seriously thought of EVERYTHING!)

This is probably my favorite shot of the entire day:

And now, we must talk about the pinata.  Oh yes, there was a pinata.  Actually, there were two, which was a good thing since the first one broke free from it’s string.  Unfortunately, it broke free from it’s string right over a bar and broke about 20 glasses.  ::Note to future couples considering having a pinata at their wedding.  Over the bar = bad idea::  The second pinata we got right:

Walk softly and carry a big stick.  This is what I tell my brides.

Meredith and Howard’s wedding was an amazing day, filled with an adorable bride and groom, and awesome vendors.  And, at the end of the day, after the broken glasses and pinata parts are cleaned up, your gifts and liquor are all packed up, and all that are left are your wedding coordinator and catering manager, we’re still smiling.  (No, Jake Holt did NOT take this photo, how could you tell?)

Thanks Meredith and Howard for an amazing day!!!  Hope you had a great time in Hawaii!