Mt. Vernon by Candle Light

Congratulations to Diane and Jeff!

I have to thank Breathe Events for this referral as Lauren was having herself a smashing event on the same date :)

Kathy, Diane's mom, contacted me because her wedding planner had some family issues and basically deserted her. Luckily, I had wored with some of her vendors so that made life easier. Diane, outside of choosing the venue, let Kathy planned her whole wedding! Talk about delegating!

Another beautiful wedding at Mt. Vernon Inn. I was there earlier this year in April. It's really a lovely venue but it's on the small size. We had about 200 people for dinner inside with dancing out on the back patio. If it had rain, it would have been a logistical nightmare. I would sugges that if anyone is looking to have an even there, the guest list should be no more than 120. Thumbs up to the kitchen for a great buffet (especially the crabcakes) and they serve my favorite beer (Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout)!!

Erik Svensson was their photographer. Lace Music provided the strings ensemble for the ceremony, the jazz pianist for the cocktail hour, and Tony was our DJ. Growing Wild provided the floral designs and tent decor. Check out some of Barbara's work below.



Sorry for the blurry picture (tried the slower shutter speed on my digital camera but my hands were shaky.) Barbara von Elm went above and beyond the call of duty in the back patio. She strung lights along the stairwell banisters and along the inside of the tent, as well as the bags along terraces.


Beautiful and delicious cake by Rocio Diaz. Also in the photo is the toss bouquet by Growing Wild and the linen from Party Cloths in a gold leaf motif.


Don't waste your ceremony flowers! We brought the pew posies (the white hydrangeas) from the church and used them as decor on the guestbook table along with a memorial arrangement to the father of the groom.

Melissa & Brian Are Married!!!

The one word I would use for this wedding is BEAUTIFUL.

Melissa is a gorgeous girl and she has the cutest dog named Barry. Melissa and Brian are such a cute couple. Good luck to Brian on his BAR exam.

This wedding wins for the most number of personalized items. Melissa's Mom, Nan, is one crafty woman. The one design element that she repeated was a monogram - a very modern one, along with the color theme of brown, creams and green. She used it on the programs, the aisle runner, the napkin rings, the menu cards, the signage, etc. Nan also made the bathroom baskets, candy jars for each table, tied brown ribbons around a bunch of hurricane candles, table numbers ... Can you say lots of setup?! The coolest thing had to be the apple 'escort cards.' She ordered them dipped in chocolate and caramel and already wrapped in cellophane. All she had to do was put name tags on them.

Another excellent event at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. It is such a great venue for outdoor photos. Luckily, we had beautiful weather even though it was really hot that day.

We had a great team of vendors: We had a wonderful band, Onyx (through Washington Talent) which apparently played at Brian's sister's bat mitzvah years ago!! Go figure! They had great energy. Nicole and Brad from SOTA Dzine have such an interesting perspective for wedding photography - it's more along the style of magazine/ads photography. I can't wait to see the photos! I saw Nicole portfolio and it is amazing! Kirby from Dolce Video was great to work with as well.

Special mention goes to Petals Edge Floral Design. It's been almost 2 years since I've had the pleasure of working with Gerry and Rebecca. Their designs are totally unique, very creative and that set themselves apart from other floral designers. Melissa had poppy pods trailing off her bouquets and poppy pods were used as boutonnieres also. Some of the taller arrangements were filled with brussel sprouts! Melissa and Brian got married under a beautiful, natural, organic looking chuppah, perfect for this setting. I heard so many compliments about their work and I hope they got a lot of business that night! They are worth every penny and their designs will MAKE your event! :)

Another special note goes to Fusions Cuisine. They had very creative and delicious food and their presentations were very artistic. This catering company is owned by James and Blaise Thompson. James, the executive chef, had worked at RSVP Catering. Blaise manages the events. They were excellent to work with. They just seemed to really care about the event and it wasn't 'just another wedding' to them.

The only things is that I never have time nor remember to take pictures at the wedding so here are some of the different design elements that I got before the wedding:


The handmade napkin rings!


The programs ...


The ladies bathroom basket ...


The display cake ...


The directional signs for outside ....


Chocolate dipped spoons made by Nan ...



Centerpiece for the escort card table ... this is later on in the night when the apples had been taken.


The mini cheesecakes instead of wedding cake for each guest with a monogramed flag (sorry for the blurry photo, one of the waiters was holding the plate :)

Congratulations Anita & Greg

I would say that Anita and Greg win for having the most unique venues. Their ceremony was held at the Woodrow Wilson House near Embassy Row and their reception was held at the Circle Bistro at the One Washington Circle Hotel. It was definitely the 'urban' wedding that they wanted.

The Woodrow Wilson House has a beautiful garden in the back and you would never know it was there unless you have been to the house. The staff was wonderful to work with and gave the guests a quick tour of the house when they arrived early. You do need to rent your own chairs and tent, if necessary.

The Circle Bistro is the restaurant at the One Washington Circle Hotel in Foggy Bottom. Anita and Greg had many of their infamous happy hours here. The food is excellent with very creative presentation. Anita and Greg chose a very sophisticated menu for their heavy hors d'oeuvres reception.

Barbara Von Elm from Growing Wild provided the floral designs and Shannon Bishop of Documentary Associates was our photographer.

Double Your Pleasure Part 2 of 2

Congratulations Melissa & Michael! This wraps up double weddings weekends of 2006!

These two have so much energy! They are both from Georgia to the point that I'm surprised that they didn't do a Georgia themed wedding.

The wedding was held at the Hendry House in Arlington. The food was provided by R&R Catering. Flowers by Heaven and Earth - Linda did another wonderful job that I thought was light and airy. I actually got to sit down and chat with Kelley Epps of Face Mode as she applied makeup to the bride. Kelley was so speedy the day before at the Omni that she had left before I had a chance to chat with her. Since this was an afternoon wedding for only 3 hours, we just used Melissa and Michael's IPod and hooked it up to the house sound system. It worked really well! It was just such an intimate event.

My new favorite has to be the photographer, Casey Templeton. He is about to start an internship at National Geographics. Not only is he talented, he is extremely kind and was always offering to help me. Super laid back and very creative - the pictures have a sense of happiness to them and lightness. You just feel happy looking at the pictures. Here are preview photos:


Yours truly busy setting up the cake table while the guests are enjoying themselves outside. We never get to have any fun! :)


What's a DC wedding without a stroll downtown for photo ops as the tourists go by!

Double Your Pleasure Part 1 of 2

Congratulations Richa and Deb!

This was my first Hindu wedding and so it was a huge learning process for me. It was great fun though!

Richa and Deb are both so smart. He went to MIT (and apparently part of an a capella group) and she got her JD from U. Chicago. Sometimes I feel so stupid :)

The wedding was at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Woodley Park. This is a huge hotel - did I say huge? It felt like I was always running down the hallways or riding the elevators. This was also the first time I am working with a unionized hotel. I was all prepared for a lot of hassle but was pleasantly surprised at how accommodating the staff was!

So the one bad thing about summer weddings is that my assistants go on vacation. Whereas me, I have no life :) So I had resigned myself to doing this wedding by myself. It would have been OK but it probably would have meant that I would start setting up at 9am for a 6pm reception. No biggie. But last minute, I found a new assistant who will also be helping me in late September and a HUGE lifesaver from a fellow event planner (I owe you one LF!)

First off, the hotel gave Richa and Deb the presidential suite - yes, that's right - the palatial 5-room suite. Huge is an understatement. There was another Indian reception at the other end of the hotel and several other wedding parties staying there. It was nuts. Anyway, I was prepared to lay out the tablecloths ourselves as I was told that the staff would not touch them until 5pm. Nevermind that. They were helping throughout. It made setup so much faster.

On to the ceremony ... Richa was so nervous. Her maid of honor said that she might have puked! Oh no! I've never had a bride puke and I wasn't about to start! Hindu ceremonies are notoriously long. We had planned for 2 hours. The stage was decorated with a chuppah-like structure with tons of flowers and ceremonial items. Aradhana from As U Wish was the brilliant decorator. There were snacks and drinks available for the guests. It took nearly 20 minutes plus to get all the guests to stop eatting and drinking and chitchatting so that we could start the processional. From what I gathered, the ceremonies vary quite as nobody really knows the precise way they should be done. Much depends on the priest performing the ceremony and/or what the families want. What was really strange was that while the ceremony was going on, guests would routinely get up and get food and drinks and mill about the rear of the ceremony hall. Talk about polar opposites from a church wedding! The priest finished in record time, an hour and 20 minutes.

This was Labor Day Saturday and it had been pouring rain. But by the time they were ready for photos, the rain had stopped so that they could shoot some photos out on the back garden area! So pretty!

DJ Hawk played a mix of Indian and popular music. We had a blast working with Roman Grinev, the photographer. It was great help that he was well versed in Indian weddings. I had been really looking forward to working with him as I had heard wonderful comments about his work. Ms. Kelley Epps of Face Mode did a fabulous job making our girls pretty. The delicious Indian buffet was provided by Indique/Bombay Bistro.