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!!

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!

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!

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!

If you’re planning a DC wedding, chances are you’ve heard about and possibly considered The Atrium at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.  This gorgeous space in Vienna, Virginia is one of the area’s most popular wedding venues and I’m sure you’ll be able to see why.  Here’s some photos I took on a recent walkthrough.

Arriving at The Atrium you’re greeted by huge urns of exotic flowers.  It’s a real botanic garden, after all:

Through the doors there are a couple of steps that lead you through a short hallway:

To the right we have a great room for the bride to dress and hang out with her bridesmaids.  Check out that awesome wall-o-mirror for last minute lipstick touch ups:

Once you pass by the built-in coat rack and restrooms, The Atrium greets you:

Looking up, there is a 2000-square-foot skylight letting amazing natural sunlight into the space.  This is so rare among DC-area venues:

Will you believe there is a stream running through the building?  It starts at a pond OUTSIDE, runs under the glass wall of the building, through the space, supplies a small fountain, then runs back outside!

I also love all the live trees and potted plants inside.  Here’s the view from the opposite side of the room:

Off of the Atrium is an extra room.  This is perfectly-sized for a cocktail hour, a dinner buffet, or maybe even a lounge area:

How amazing is this space?  There’s even an outdoor terrace that’s perfect for ceremonies:

Here’s the back side of the building, from inside the gardens.  Check out how large the skylight is as part of the roof:

Looking out over the many lakes, fountains, and manicured pathways in the gardens:

If you’re planning a wedding but still need a venue, please go visit Wayne or Bernadette at The Atrium.  The main section of the building will fit about 120 guests comfortably with a dance floor.  Due to the popularity of the building you may find dates limited but believe me — this place is worth the wait.

I’m excited to work not once, but twice at Meadowlark in October!  The first is Kirsten & Daniel who just got hitched this past weekend.  Then in a few short weeks my friends Laurie & Rod are tying the knot.  Stay tuned for some photos from Real Weddings at Meadowlark!