We recently blogged about Nicole & Matt’s wedding but didn’t have the professional photos to share.  Well, their photographer, Jimmy Ryan, came through and sent me some images from the event!  I thought he did a great job capturing the day and wanted to share.  Without further ado, here’s Nicole & Matt’s big day:

I loved Nicole’s gold flats.  The flowers on top matched the garden theme perfectly!

Didn’t Nicole make a beautiful bride??  I loved how she had her hair only half up instead of a super-hairsprayed ‘do.  She was beaming but still looked like herself:

I loved this shot of the processional:

The adorable flower girl basket.  Can you believe they got the flowers from Wegman’s grocery store??

Our happy couple:

Meadowlark makes the perfect backdrop for portraits:

Nicole & her sister Amy, one of our 2007 brides:

The flower girl, looking over the edge of the balcony at Meadowlark:

Meanwhile inside, the reception gets under way!

To fit with the garden theme, Nicole named her dinner tables after flowers.  She framed seed packets to help guests find their tables.  Here’s the head table with a mini wedding cake as the centerpiece:

More Wegman’s bouquets:

I really loved the mini cake centerpieces.  Check out how adorable these little guys are!

The wedding guests really loved cutting their own mini cakes.  What a perfect conversation piece!

Congratulations again, Nicole & Matt!!

A few months ago, Nicole & Matt tied the knot!  Sorry I didn’t post photos sooner — while I don’t have a lot of pictures from the day I just came across these and thought I’d share them.  I believe their pictures are online somewhere so I’ll try to get the pro ones to share too!

Nicole is the younger sister of Amy, one of our 2007 brides.  It’s always so lovely when families know we’ll do a great job on the wedding day and call us again for younger siblings.  It was really a pleasure to work with these ladies again.

While I don’t have photos of the ceremony, Nicole & Matt exchanged vows at St. John Neumann’s in Reston.  St. John’s is a very big, modern, and airy church that lets in plenty of sunlight.  It was really a beautiful and touching ceremony.

Once at Meadowlark, Nicole & Matt wanted to use the beautiful natural scenery for their bridal party photos.  Here’s photographer Jimmy Ryan doing his thing:

I really thought these bridesmaids dresses were fabulous!  When’s the last time you’ve seen a patterned gown like these?  They were perfectly summery and looked great on the girls.  Nicole’s sister, Amy, is the second one from the right:

Inside, the reception’s in full swing!  The Reston Hyatt’s Regency Caterers did a wonderful job with the food & service.  I really liked the gold linens in the room — it looked really elegant and understated:

One of my favorite details of this wedding were the mini cakes!  Each table had a glass cake plate with a small cake instead of a centerpiece.  They went perfectly with the wedding’s garden theme.  Pastries by Randolph did a great job on these:

After Nicole & Matt cut their own little wedding cake, they invited guests to slice & serve each cake at their table.  Everyone had a blast with that!

The first dance:

Congratulations again, Nicole & Matt!  Talk to you soon!

Sarah and Adam were married at one of our favorite venues, Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna.   Sadly, their wedding ended my streak of good weather karma, but they were still able to have a beautiful, candlelit ceremony followed by a rockin reception!

Hope Reynolds took some great shots outside before the rain came!

Sarah has SUCH a great smile, and I absolutely love her dress from David’s Bridal. I love how the straps are all twisty (I know…I’m really good with the fashion terms, huh?)

The flowers were provided by the sweetest ladies from Village Flowers in Warrenton.  In fact, Sarah’s dad works there part time, helping to deliver flowers.  He was a little busy this day, though!

The fans were supposed to be for the hot ceremony outside.  Instead, I handed them out for guests to fan themselves during the reception!  Next to the fans are recipe cards, which were placed at each place setting as a gift from the bride and groom.

Sarah and Adam had not one, but two amazing cakes!  The delicious bride’s cake was provided by Cakes by Marida, who also did the cake for Rama and Neel’s wedding last year.

The Groom’s cake was made by the bride’s brother in law!  I wish I had a brother in law that was this talented!

Hmm, let’s see…Orange and Burgundy ribbons on the fans? VT cake?  Do you think Sarah and Adam might be Hokies? Sarah even incorporated her Hokie pride into her outfit for the day.

LOVE the orange shoes!!!

A few more details of the day…

Congratulations, Sarah and Adam!  I hope we can meet at the VI soon for some chili dogs!

Remember Kristan and Steve, one of our recent Meadowlark couples?  I just got professional images from Justine Ungaro and think they’re amazing!  I wanted to share since Kristan and Steve had such a beautiful day.

They chose to see each other before the ceremony.  I love the ‘reveal’ moment when the bride and groom see each other for the first time:

Seeing each other beforehand also allows plenty of time for formal photographs.  I think this portrait is really classic but edgy in it’s own way:

Off to the ceremony!  Daddy’s face is just priceless here.  Justine captured a lot of different emotions in this image:

Ceremonies at Meadowlark are always so idyllic:

This really, truly, sums up Kristan’s personality in one photo.  She was like this the whole day:

Maryam Flowers made these pretty bouquets for the bridesmaids.  Since the girls were wearing different colors, they had alternating bouquets to complement the dresses:

In my last post you can see the ‘behind the scenes’ view.  Here’s what Justine was getting:

The girls had so much fun with these paper parasols:

Great Blue Heron, the in-house caterer at Meadowlark, did a great job setting the tables.  I love these tall martini glasses that Maryam uses for centerpieces:

Norm at The Sweet Life brought this phenomenal suitcase cake.  Don’t you love it!?

I mentioned that Steve is a member of the great local band Gonzo’s Nose.  Hence, a lot of their friends are musicians!  Kristan and Steve were treated to a number of amazing acoustic live performances during the reception:

They had a DJ on hand, too, to really get the party going:

Once the sun went down the party moved outside!  The patio was the perfect place to mix and mingle under the stars:

I love this final shot that Justine took:

Congrats again, Kristan & Steve!

Last week we had the pleasure of coordinating Maggie & Tim’s big day!  Maggie and Tim are a special pair because they’re both pilots in the Navy.  Now that they’re hitched they’ll finally be stationed together!

Since our bride lives on an aircraft carrier most of the time, I worked with her mom Janet to pull the last details together.  Luckily we had an all-star cast of vendors so my job wasn’t too hard.  Meadowlark was the venue of choice.  Here’s Main Event setting up the beautiful ivory and gold linens we selected:

Alison, their sales manager, is there on the right.  I love that Main Event’s ‘corporate’ people get hands-on with the setup.  Working with Alison was a breeze and I will definitely be recommending her to more clients!

Here’s the gorgeous ceremony, held outside.  Eugene and his Signature String Quartet provided great live music for the ceremony and cocktail hour:

Photographer Anne Lord doing her thing during cocktail hour.  I’ll share more professional photographs later if she sends me some!  Can you believe Maggie flies helicopters and lives on an aircraft carrier?  She looks so dainty and girly in person but this girl must be a force to be reckoned with when you get her in a pilot’s seat.  Awesome!

The combination of the natural wood chivari chairs, the white and gold linen, and the hot pink flowers all came together really nicely.  Cute!

I really like the way Main Event sets up their buffets.  It’s a non-traditional twist on the standard ‘row of chafing dishes’ you see at most hotels and banquet facilities.  We reused the ceremony flowers from Karin’s Florist as a HUGE centerpiece on the buffet:

Wedding cake by the Alexandria Pastry Shoppe:

Eddie Grant from Davis Deejays kept the dance floor full all night long.  If you decide to book with Davis, please recommend Eddie!

Cutting the wedding cake:

Congratulations again, Maggie & Tim!  I hope you’re having a fabulous time on your honeymoon and that you stationed somewhere wonderful together.  Thank you for serving our country!

Kristan and Steve got hitched last weekend at Meadowlark!  It rained ALL week and then on Saturday the skies broke, the sun came out, and we had a beautifully perfect day for a wedding.  I’ll share photos from Justine Ungaro when I get them but for now here’s the few that I took (thanks Felicia!):

The backside of the Atrium at Meadowlark Gardens.  You can sort of see the porch area where they hold wedding ceremonies and cocktail hours:

Looking through the reception area you can see the ceremony taking place on the other side of the windows.  This was the first time I’d worked with Meadowlark’s in-house caterers, Great Blue Heron Catering.  Scott Boger is the sales manager and did a fantastic job on this wedding:

Maryam Flowers brought these pretty purple arrangements:

We are such STICKLERS about making sure the escort cards are set in straight lines.  This is a simple detail that often goes overlooked but can be very obvious if it looks messy:

Kristan & Steve displayed portraits of their parents and grandparents (check out that vintage wedding photo in the back!):

Room Service set up this beautiful lounge for us.  Heidi is so easy to work with and this combination only came to about $1,000!  I love the rattan pieces in this room….it was just the right style for the Atrium:

Kristan and her bridesmaids used paper parasols as props for photographs.  I especially loved that her ladies wore two different colors and different style dresses:

Justine Ungaro and the guys from Monachetti working hard to get a group photo:

One of the coolest features of this wedding was their wedding cake!  They chose a fun suitcase-themed cake instead of a traditional stacked white cake.  Norman from The Sweet Life came up with this beautiful piece of art:

I’m really excited to see Kristan and Steve’s wedding video since they had a lot of live music performances from their friends!  Steve is the drummer for Gonzo’s Nose, a local favorite cover band, and several of the couple’s friends are very talented.  It made for a wonderful personalized touch to the day!

Kristan and Steve, it was wonderful working with you guys!  I loved every minute of your big day and was glad to be a part of it.  I hope you’re enjoying your romantic Parisian honeymoon!

Sunday was a beautiful day for a wedding. Danielle and Steve were so lucky to not only have great weather but to enjoy the view from the gardens at the Meadowlark Atrium.

Martha Fitzsimon Photographers took fabulous pictures so here is our sneak peek…

Hope you are enjoying Antigua, Danielle and Steve!!

Cheers,

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the photo of Laurie & Rod at Taco Bell?  There was also a link to the slideshow created by photographer Lara Swanson.  In case you missed it, I just got a full set of images!  Here’s my favorites:

Wasn’t Laurie such a pretty bride?  She didn’t let the rain bother her at all:

Okay, Rod looked pretty sharp too:

Laurie & I finalizing a few last-minute details:

A gorgeous indoor Meadowlark ceremony:

All set up for the reception after the room flip:

Maryam did such a great job.  Here’s a centerpiece up close:

Meadowlark after the sun has gone down:

The cherry blossom wedding cake with amazing detailed sugar flowers:

If that weren’t enough sugar for you, check out the rockin’ candy buffet:

And a whole lot of personalized M&Ms:

Laurie is one of my husband’s former coworkers.  Here’s the four of us during the reception.  I love how both the boys have the same odd expression on their faces:

As part of her services, Lara is now offering a photobooth!  It prints on-site in just a few seconds and is really a lot of fun.  Even though there was a seasonal martini bar (pumpkin pie martinis!), an extensive candy buffet, an awesome DJ, and a wonderful bride and groom, I think this photobooth was the life of the party:

I think the best part about the photobooth is that you get all the images included with your regular wedding photos.  Here’s a couple of fun shots it captured:

Like I mentioned above, these newlyweds and their bridal party decided to take a limousine to Taco Bell after the reception.  I’m a fan whenever couples stop in their favorite places (my husband and I did this at Ben & Jerry’s).  I love the vibrant images from their adventure:

Can you see what that hot sauce packet says?

For more information on the vendors at this wedding, check out the original blog post.  Thanks again Lara, for being so quick!

We barely got home from Laurie & Rod’s wedding when photographer Lara Swanson already had their slideshow up.  Wow!  She even incorporated their adorable first dance song.  Thanks Lara, for being so quick!

The ceremony and reception were held at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.  The ceremony was performed by Rev. Julie Price, catering by Marco Polo, floral decor by Maryam Flowers, cake by Fluffy Thoughts, photo booth by Lara Swanson, and entertainment by Evan at MyDeejay.com.

Here’s one of my favorite shots from the day.  The newlyweds and their bridal party decided to go for Taco Bell the end of the night:

Click here to check out their amazing slideshow

Last week I mentioned that we visited The Atrium at Meadowlark for a walkthrough.  Well, our first Meadowlark bride of the year tied the knot!  Our big hearty congratulations go to Kirsten & Daniel who celebrated their nuptials among close family and friends.  I’m holding out for professional photographs from Heather Z but for now my own images will do.

Since guests had to walk past the reception area on their way to the ceremony, we tied a ribbon across the bridge.  This prevented guests from leaving their jackets, purses, and other personal belongings at the tables before the photographer took room photos:

The ceremony from a sneaky ‘inside the atrium’ viewpoint:

After the ceremony, Heather Z was tasked with taking a lot of family portraits.  This is typical at a lot of weddings but you never see the ‘behind the scenes’!  Here’s Heather hard at work, making sure everyone’s face gets in the image:

Here’s Kirsten and her bridesmaids taking in the reception.  This is also a great shot of their bouquets from Maryam Flowers.  Can you guess which one is her sister?

Kirsten and me:

Here’s the Atrium, all set up!  Isn’t it gorgeous?

Kirsten’s friend Stephanie owns Soiree Papier, a stationery company.   Look at these adorable escort cards she made for the wedding:

Kirsten & Daniel also chose to donate to a handful of charities instead of giving favors to their guests.  Here’s a terrible photo of the cute cards that explain the charities:

Stephanie also made these great table numbers and the Mr. & Mrs. card for the sweetheart table:

Maryam did a great job on the centerpieces and bouquets!  Gorgeous!

Danielle at Windows Catering went above and beyond.  It’s the little things that make big differences.  Have you ever seen a buffet at a wedding?  Most have those unsightly chafing dishes that look like they’d be more suited for a school cafeteria.  These two small chafing dishes were decorative and unassuming.  The other foods were presented on gorgeous platters in smaller portions so everyone’s meal was hot and fresh from the kitchen:

Windows provided the cake too.  Yummy!

A shot of the party at night with all the twinkly lights in the trees:

Congratulations again, Kirsten & Daniel!  I really enjoyed working with you both and will miss our regular meetings at La Madeleine.  Say hello to your kitties for me!