Mukta and James wanted their guests to have a wonderful time at a wedding that reflected the two of them as individuals and as a couple. Menu planning was of the utmost importance to the couple, given James’ Midwest roots and Mukta’s Indian heritage. Their stationed dinner offered steak and potatoes, sushi, Indian “street food” and a vegetarian salad station. The famous Georgetown Cupcake provided the post-dinner sweets – yum!

Mukta and James paid homage to Mukta’s culture with their color palette as well as the use of an elephant motif – ooo I love!

The fabulous vendor team:

Photography: Amie Otto Photography

Wedding Planner: Janice Carnevale of Bellwether Events

Venue: Hotel Monaco

Officiant: Ed Ingebretsen

Cupcakes: Georgetown Cupcake

Florals: Growing Wild Floral Design

Hair and Make Up Styling: Wendy Rae

Videography: Blue Sky Films

Photobooth: Reliable Photobooths

Rentals: DaVinci’s Florist

DJ and Lighting: DJ Angie D

The couple incorporated her family’s Caribbean culture by having a steel pan player during the ceremony and cocktail hour.  The favors were boxed pieces of “black cake”, a traditional home-made rum cake in Guyana, South America.  Here is a whole bunch of pretty to get your week started!

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: The Mandarin Oriental, Washington, DC

Planner: Leslie Manning Events

Cake: Maggie Austin Cake

Photographer:  Andrew Morrell Photography

The fabulous vendor team:

Photography: Red Shoes Photography
Venue: Strong Mansion
Flowers: Fiore Florists
Band: The Real Geniuses
Catering: R&R Catering

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Now, to continue this week’s start, on to today’s Real Wedding…

Kyle and John were married last spring at Longview Gallery. Their wedding is really their own and I am thrilled that Garrett Hubbard has shared the pictures of the day with us!

The fabulous vendor team:

Photographer: Garrett Hubbard

Caterer: Occasions Caterers

Makeup: Makeup by Brooke 

Event Coordinator: RSVP Event Planning

Venue: Longview Gallery

This past November, at Sixth and I Synagogue, they were married by Rabbi Steve Greenberg surrounded by family and friends from the D.C. Minyan where the are members. Ron and Yoni took the better part of a year to create the ceremony, adapting the traditional Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony to be acceptable for a gay couple. Very special!

The fabulous vendor team:

Photographer: Michael Temchine Photography

Venue: Hotel Monaco

Lighting: Washington Talent 

Videography: Blue Sky Films

Band: Kol Chayim Orchestra

DJ: Marc Wilmer via Washington Talent 

Wedding Coordinator: Susan Massin of Concierge America   

The fabulous vendor team:

The hotel’s garden, which was in full bloom this past April, provided the perfect, elegant backdrop for this outdoor spring wedding.  The couple’s fun and laid-back attitude set the mood for the whole day – thanks to Eli Turner Studios for sharing the pretty pics!

The fabulous vendor team:

Photographer:  Eli Turner Studios

Venue: Omni Shoreham Hotel

Bride’s Dress: Judd Waddell

Shoes: Matt Bernson

Band: Doctor’s Orders

Planner:  Sara Franklin

Flowers: John Duffy – Yellow Door

Cupcakes:  Just Cakes

Today, I am back to share Casey and Cory’s drop-dead lovely wedding from this past summer at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.  It has that understated elegant D.C. feel that is traditional and timeless.  The warm red color palette against the neutrals is just so pretty!  Thanks to Rothwell Photography for sharing their work!

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

Photography: Rothwell Photography

Ceremony Music: Cherry Blossom String Quartet

DJ: Derek Tobler

Cake: Hollin Hall Pastry Shop

Florist: Karin’s Florist

Dress: Claudine for Alyce Designs at Moni’s Bridal Boutique

Stationery: Yourhappilyeverafter on Etsy; Wedding Paper Divas

Today, we have Ellen and David’s wedding that Abby shot this past summer at the William Paca House. The wedding was on one of the hottest days of the year – over 120 degrees – but they didn’t let that ruin their day. The couple was married at St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis and then went to the historic William Paca House for their reception.

The bride grew up in Annapolis and wanted it to have that Annapolitan feel. Ellen chose preppy chic nautical decor complete with striped table cloths with navy and pops of bright pink.  Favors were customized mallets with a packet of Old Bay Seasoning. Yummy and cute!

The fabulous vendor team:

Caterer and Cake: Palate Pleasers

Make up Artist: Meghan Dorsey

Band: Nightlife

Wedding Dress: Adrienne’s (Custom design in Manhattan)

Bridesmaid Dresses: Aria Dress

Bride’s Shoes: Kate Spade

Photography: Abby Jiu Photography

Venue:  The William Paca House & Garden

The beautiful bride has shared a little bit about her day with us…first up, her inspiration and favorite wedding detail…

I always knew that I wanted a traditional, classic black tie wedding but I also wanted it to be a reflection of both Branden and I. We instantly feel in love with the St. Regis in Washington DC, it is known for its timeless elegance and that is how we wanted out wedding to feel. The ballroom is not overwhelmingly big which allowed us to capture that feeling of being at an intimate dinner party with the people we love the most in the world. The beautiful terrace outside allowed us to be a little whimsical and unexpected with tables covered in a beautiful black and white flower toile which created the illusion of being at a romantic garden party. We didn’t want our wedding to feel stuffy so we took inspiration from one of my favorite designers, Kate Spade. We wanted to use color in an unexpected way which she does often, so I chose rich Kelly Green Bridesmaid Dresses by LulaKate to bring in a pop of color and bright and light pink flowers for my bridesmaids flowers and centerpieces which added a sweet preppy feel.

My dress, Christos by Amsale, really captured the feeling we wanted for our wedding which was timeless and classic. The lace lent itself to the traditional black tie affair, but by adding a black sash that tied into a large double black bow in the back not only subtly reinforced the theme of our wedding but was a true reflection of me, for anyone that knows me, knows how much I love bows and that I can almost always be found in black.

For our wedding stationary we incorporated the pop of color with the front of the card in Kelly Green with the phrase “Debby and Branden are getting Married…” in gold and then on the back of the card in black and white we had fun including our wedding date which is my favorite detail of our wedding 09.10.11. Our invitations were simple and classic in black and white but we incorporated small details such as a black and white striped liner for both our save the dates and our wedding invitations which we carried over into black and white striped linen for our bars.  The phrase “The Best is Yet to Come” which was printed in gold on the shoulder of our invitations and on our napkins is from the lyrics from our wedding song “Someone like you” I loved that these little details were unexpected and added an element of surprise.

Since the St. Regis in only about 2 blocks away from The White House you can’t not feel like you are a part of history as Presidents both past and present have walked the hallways of the St. Regis, this lead to us using Presidents names for our table numbers which is one of my favorite details from our wedding day as this was Branden’s idea.

It is hard to pick a favorite moment of your wedding day…but Debby did have a few that stood out to her!

1. Riding in a vintage 1964 Bentley that I surprised my father with. I remember just feeling so calm as we drove to the church together, I will always cherish those few minutes we had alone just laughing and talking and taking it all in. The best part of our drive together was how calm and relaxed I felt as we road through Georgetown.

2. There was a moment during the night that Branden and I took a moment to ourselves and stepped outside on to the terrace, we looked around and there were people outside drinking and laughing and then we looked inside at the ballroom and the dance floor was packed, it was a great moment to be surrounded by the people we love the most in our lives and see that they were having just as much fun as we were.

3. But, my absolute favorite memory is when the doors of the church opened and I saw Branden for the first time, as I walked down the aisle he was the only person I could see and when I got close enough he said “You Look Beautiful”, it was as if time stopped and it was just the two of us standing there.

And, as for any DIY projects…

I didn’t have too many DIY elements other than often creating Powerpoint presentations for my vendors so that they could really see my vision. My favorite presentation that I created was for our wedding website. I couldn’t find a template that I liked and that I felt that went with our theme and since this was an out of town wedding for everyone, Branden’s family is form Cincinnati, my family is from Connecticut and we live in New York it was important that our website be a tool that our guests could refer to and use to make their travel plans as easy as possible. I hired graphic designer Damian Barchowsky to make our wedding website and it still is one of my favorite elements of our wedding, especially the map that Daley Ann made. Our wedding website is http://debbyandbranden.com/

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: St. Regis

Ceremony: St John’s Episcopal Church Georgetown Parish

Cocktail Music: Celebrated Strings

Planning: A. Dominick Events

Photography: Rob Garland Photographers

Stationery: Cheree Berry Paper

Cake: St. Regis with flowers by K. Rose Cakes

Floral and Design: Multiflor

Band: Class Act Band

Lighting: Frost Lighting

Dance Floor: Perkins Productions

Candy Bar: Georgetown Candy

Rentals: Party Rental, DC Rental, La Tavola

Transportation: Atlantic

Vintage Car: Regal Limousine

Hair: George Salon

Make Up: Lindsay Steffens Montgomery