Gerry at Petal’s Edge Floral Design sent over some information on classes they offer. What a great way to learn about flowers! We’ve worked with Petal’s Edge many many times and they always do a wonderful job. If you haven’t checked out their cute shop in Old Town Alexandria, this is your opportunity:
Bridal Bootcamp. Want to save money but feel insecure about your ability to provide a professional look to your wedding flowers? Join this intense one-day, weekend workshop and learn how to arrange flowers with industry experts. Course covers flower selection and care, design tips, and common mistakes. $150 per person, which includes the cost of flowers and box lunch. Saturday, December 5 or December 12. 10 am – 2 pm.
Flower School. Love flowers and want more experience? This series of classes takes place over three evenings and is appropriate to the person who wants to learn about how to buy, care for, and arrange flowers. Several methods of flower arranging will be covered. Classes are hands-on with flowers that students take home after class. $250 per person.
Wednesday – Friday, December 2 – 4 or December 9 – 11. 6 – 9 pm.
Winter Workshop. Join us for holiday-inspired flower arranging projects. Take one class or both. Course includes the cost of flowers, all supplies, and a holiday masterpiece to take home. $100 per session or $150 for two.
Floral Topiary: November 30, 6 pm. Use an uninterrupted mass of carnations to create a festive tabletop tree.
Dining table centerpiece: December 7, 6 pm. Winter fruits and vegetables add a conversation piece to this unusual pairing of flowers and holiday greens.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of coordinating Sarah & Abs’ wedding at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center. What a gorgeous day! We’ve worked at the Torpedo Factory several times over the years and it’s one of our favorite spots. Sarah & Abs were really one of the most fun couples we’ve had this year. I broke into a smile countless times just being around them and their friends. What a great crew!
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.
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:
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!
Kara & Art were our international couple of the year! These two have lived all over the world, from Austria to Argentina to South Africa. They chose Collingwood Library for their wedding this past weekend and their international guests enjoyed the gorgeous setting there.
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!
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:
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!
Today I have photos from Melissa and TJ’s Memorial Day weekend wedding! Wish had FIVE weddings that Saturday so several of our coordinators were busy bees. We have lots of “Real Weddings” lined up for you in the next couple weeks.
Melissa and I first met at the Washington Bridal Showcase. Right away I could immediately tell that this energetic bride would have a great wedding! She proved me right and I enjoyed every second of their big day.
This couple chose Leesburg’s Raspberry Plain as their wedding venue. If you’re not familiar, Raspberry Plain is a big, gorgeous mansion just north of historic downtown Leesburg. Unfortunately over the past few years there have been a few subdivisions built nearby which means it’s not as remote and isolated as it once was. However, it’s still a FANTASTIC spot for a wedding! Unlike other historic venues, there is a large room built on the side of the mansion which means you can enjoy the beautiful architecture of the house but can still seat all your guests in one large space.
R&R Catering is the exclusive food provider at Raspberry Plain and they’ve really gotten it down to a science. Working with Megan there was a pleasure as it always is. Congratulations in advance to her and her husband on their upcoming little one!
Andrea Marie Photography was on hand the whole day to capture the images you see below. She was on her toes the entire time and came up with some really beautiful and creative shots! ::My photos are mixed in here and there…I’ll bet you’ll be able to figure out which ones aren’t professional::
I especially loved the big wreath Linda made for the front door:
Melissa got dressed at Raspberry Plain so there was plenty of time for photographs and sentimental time with Mom and Dad. Her parents were the cutest:
Look how adorable the flower girl was! Here she is in her pretty Tiffany Blue dress, holding one of the bridesmaid bouquets. I love that the flowers are bigger than her head!
Raspberry Plain has two perfect spots for outdoor ceremonies. This is the garden to the side of the house. Melissa’s colors were obviously hot pink and Tiffany Blue. I loved the combination…the hot pink rose petals just set off the aisle:
Melissa had so many adorable details:
R&R Catering set up a small lemonade stand so guests could get a refreshing drink before being seated for the ceremony. Good thing they did — it was HOT outside!
The ceremony, in progress. In the foreground you can see the Cherry Blossom String Quartet. They always do such a beautiful job at weddings:
The gardens are a perfect spot for formal photographs too:
Inside, R&R was busy setting up the reception in the Atrium. Raspberry Plain is large enough to hold about 200 guests, I’d estimate:
Melissa’s table numbers each featured a different photo of the newlyweds through their relationship:
The escort cards were displayed on these big boards. I suspect they were large poster frames wrapped in black fabric but I couldn’t really tell! Melissa wrapped blue ribbons around each of them and secured the cards alphabetically:
More and more we’re seeing non-traditional guestbooks at weddings. Gone are the “sign a line” books that will sit on a bookshelf for the rest of their lives. Melissa & TJ chose a “Make a Wish, Take a Kiss” station. Guests filled in cards with their wish for the newlyweds. In exchange, they could take a Hershey’s Kiss. I always like seeing what advice gets passed on:
Debbie at Cakes by Design brought this gorgeous four-layer cake with Tiffany Blue ribbon. Unfortunately the cake got bumped and had a slight frosting problem during transit. Debbie fixed it right up on-site and it looked flawless before the reception began. I snagged a small piece and it was DELISH!
When cocktail hour was over, the bridal party was introduced into the reception like at most weddings. However, each couple got to pick ktheir own song! Jake from Dream Day DJs (who was awesome, by the way), mixed this especially for the wedding and I thought it turned out great:
Now for the highlight of the day! Melissa and TJ spent HOURS practicing their first dance which was quite impressive. It started as a fairly traditional ’stand and sway’ to an oldies love song then broke out into a series of hilarious dance numbers. Even better? This was a COMPLETE SURPRISE to EVERYONE! Not even their bridal party or parents knew what to expect. Here’s some photos from the big moment:
And we even have a video! This was taken by my assistant, Nicole, who unfortunately had a less-than-perfect vantage point. You get the idea:
Then later, Melissa and her dad switched it up again! Their sappy dance turned into the Chicken Dance:
I even got a short video of the newlyweds cutting their wedding cake:
Melissa & TJ, I really had a great time working with you on this wedding. Your families were wonderful and you have so many folks who truly love you. I hope you had a wonderful honeymoon and I’m looking forward to catching up when you return!
I recently attended an open house hosted by Partyland Flowers & Event Decor at the Ritz Carlton Tyson’s Corner. The lead designer at Partyland, Sachi Sood, showcased some of her beautiful linens, floral designs, event props, and mandaps. Take a look at her gorgeous work:
Partyland is one of the few vendors in the area that offers mandaps. These are just a few of their designs:
Sachi showed off several beautiful centerpieces:
This gold tree accented with clusters of peach roses was simply stunning:
I especially loved the extraordinary beaded detail on the edges of her linens:
This beautiful peacock blue wedding cake was on display:
Even if you’re not planning an Indian wedding, Sachi’s floral designs and decor pieces can work for any style event! Give her a call today & schedule your appointment!
