District Weddings » Garden Whimsical

Strong Mansion Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:00:42 +0000

When Alison of Red Shoes Photography sent me Cathryn and Justin’s wedding, I immediately started ooo-ing and ahh-ing. This simple yet elegant wedding at the Strong Mansion is just so quintessentially lovely — it will certainly start your week off just right!

The fabulous vendor team:

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

Spring Omni Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:15 +0000

Jenny and Chris were married at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in the oh-so-lovely Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. – such a great spot!

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

Vintage Hotel Monaco Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:35:04 +0000

Karima and Nelson’s wedding, by Robin Shotola Photography, took place this past July in Alexandria at The Hotel Monaco. It is vintage and darling and has quite the personal favor detail – read more to check it out!

I have seen all sorts of wedding designs but definitely have never seen a “Favor Vintage Favor Flea Market” - very cool! Karima created a display of collected vintage items that she found in thrift stores and antique shops, and each guest was allowed to take one. That is certainly a personal touch!

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: The Hotel Monaco of Alexandria, VA

Photography: Robin Shotola Photography

Cupcakes: Red Velvet Cupcakery

Floral and Decor: Petal’s Edge

A St. Regis Funky and Elegant Fiesta

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:25:01 +0000

Emily and Hiram were married at the St. Regis this past May and this wedding was totally their own! Emily owns an Italian market on the Eastern shore and Hiram is from Mexico so the couple worked with planner Kate Harlan of Simply Chic Events to create a funky yet elegant fiesta to honor their respective heritages.

The couple embraced the elegance of the St. Regis ballroom while staying true to their own personal style. Hiram is a composer, and his close friends provided the ceremony music. Later in the evening. guests were surprised when District Taco arrived late night for a little street food action just outside of the Astor Terrace at the gorgeous St. Regis.

Happy Monday and enjoy this fun, fun, fun wedding!

From the oh-so lovely bride:

Hiram and I wanted to have a wedding that represented us as a couple by enjoying great food, in an elegant but comfortable outdoor space. This was the first time our families were going to meet so we wanted everything to be just right!

We debated renting a property and using a caterer versus going full-package with a hotel. We shopped around both options until we found the St. Regis. We loved their outdoor Astor Terrace, just off the Astor Ballroom and we were very excited about what their kitchen could do for us.

The wedding was in early May so the weather allowed us to have the ceremony outside on the terrace. After the ceremony we lead our guests to the lobby and the hotel salon for cocktails while the staff transformed the outdoor space into a super-cool lounge complete with strings of lights overhead (a brilliant idea from our planner Kate Harlan). After cocktails we led everyone into the ballroom which was exquisitely decorated with a mix of floral designs in mercury glass and glass and a wash of peach light. The inspiration for the whole color scheme was a previous design that we had seen in floral designer Philippa Tarrant’s portfolio.

We worked closely with the St. Regis on every aspect of our dinner menu. Events planner Haydee Gamez and chef Andrew Roche accommodated our desire to incorporate seasonal flavors that Hiram and I seek out each spring; wild ramps and morels, as well as our favorite Italian wines. I am in the food business myself and I was very pleased with the high quality and value of the dinner that was served.

To honor my husband’s Mexican heritage, we hired District Taco to serve late-night snacks from their cart. Haydee Gamez and the St. Regis had no problem with this service and even let the guys roll up on the lawn to be closer to our guests. I need to note that again, this was one of Kate Harlan’s great ideas and it is something that our guests are still talking about!

While the East Village Exchange was rocking the ballroom, the terrace was a wonderful escape for us to spend some time talking with our families and friends. Everyone was so receptive to the use of the terrace, first as a serene ceremony backdrop and then as a magical lounge area complete with rented sofas from AFR. Seriously though, I hardly left the dance floor that night because that band is incredibly talented!

Picking the East Village Exchange (from Elan Artists) was something that my husband was insistent on because he’s a composer and many of our friends are musicians. We knew that the East Village Exchange would deliver a high-quality performance in a variety of styles. When we asked them to learn a Mexican song for us they had no problem getting it completely right.

Our documentarian for the event was the fabulous Kate Headley, who clicked the night away using film cameras exclusively. Her prints are so evocative and beautiful, they are as real to me as my own memories of our wedding. We received our album exactly when it was promised to us so we were able to re-live the night shortly afterwards. Hiram and I had the time of our lives at our wedding and we owe it all to our superb vendors.

The fabulous vendor team:

Photography: Kate Headley Photography

Ceremony: St. Regis, Washington DC

Reception: Astor Ballroom and Astor Terrace at St. Regis, Washington DC

Florist: Philippa Tarrant

Wedding Planner: Kate Harlan, Simply Chic Events

Lighting: FROST Lighting

Furniture: AFR Furniture Rental

Hair: Petra Gephardt

Makeup: The Andre Chreky Salon

Late Night Bites: District Taco

Old World St. Albans Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:22:31 +0000

Man oh man have I been busy! Wedding season has arrived early this year for me and I am in the thick of things with weddings each weekend! I wouldn’t trade it for the world but I could use a few more hours each day!

Today’s wedding is darling and local with an old world education theme. Evan and Erin gave a nod to their studies at Yale and the fact that Evan is about to head off to England to continue his studies as you see the old books as center pieces and English Garden floral design. Here is a dose of pretty to get your Monday started!

The fabulous vendor team:

Floral and Decor: Company Flowers

Hair: Blondie’s Salon

Cake: CakeLove

Dress: Gossyia

Venue and Catering: St. Albans

Photography: Porter Watkins Photography

Union Station Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:00:11 +0000

Emily and Chris’ wedding from May 7th is exactly the type of celebration that I love to see. The couple accounted for each detail with personality and care to create a meaningful, special wedding day.

And, aren’t they just dashing?! What a classic and timeless bride and groom!

From the bride, Emily…

We originally wanted to have a small, casual, outdoor wedding. But, a number of factors, including time of year and the guest count, quickly took over and we realized that our plan wasn’t very practical. So throughout the planning process we looked for ways that we could bring our original vision into our more formal event. We selected Holy Rosary Church in part because of my Italian heritage and but also because it is such an intimate space. It was so wonderful to look out from the altar and be able to see every one of our guests.

Union Station, our reception site, wasn’t originally on my radar. But when we saw the space we were totally taken with the East Hall’s history and personality. I was worried that the space was going to be too traditional. But, working with vendors I laid out my ideas for a modern, organic, Mediterranean feel dominated by green, ivory and brown. Once we landed on the idea of “bringing the outdoors in,” the whole thing took shape. We brought trees into the reception space and hung lanterns from the branches. My cousin, who runs Butera the Florist and is a total floral visionary, came up with the idea to construct a life size tree in the Columbus Club. He then carried the tree theme through to the East Hall, where he built amazing floral structures that dripped with unique choices like succulents, herbs and artichokes. Design Cuisine made a fun crepe cake with Nutella and rasberry jam, and the florist topped it with lavender (which was also at guests’ place settings, along with rosemary). With the lighting design it really felt like we were outdoors.

We also felt strongly about bringing in as many personal touches as we could. I do a lot of work on Latin American issues, so we hired Grupo Corozo to play for cocktail hour. We are both bourbon lovers and the wedding happened to be on Derby Day, so we served mint juleps during cocktail hour. Chris and I have traveled a lot and have strong connections to our Italian and Norwegian heritages, so we named the tables after cities where we, and our relatives, have lived. Melissa Weller at Persnickety Invitation Studio and my artist mother did a great job figuring out how to create a cohesive design with a sense of humor (instead of place cards we had a big board titled “Where in the World Am I Sitting?”) Probably my favorite element was the donations table. Instead of handing out favors we selected charities that are meaningful to us and made donations in guests’ honor. The florist used glass jars and Spanish moss to integrate the table with the feel of the event and we asked guests to toss stones into the jars labeled to select the charity of their choice.

Regarding the escort cards…My grandfather was a shoe repairman and he would tie small, manila tags onto his customer’s shoes to identify their owner. We spun this idea off for the place cards. Each tag had the person’s name on it, and we used ribbon to hang them on the back of chairs. My aunt had some original tags from his shop, so we used those for the head table. Persnickety created “knock off” tags (in different colors, to help the caterers) for the rest of the guests’ tables. During cocktail hour, we displayed a photo of my grandfather and an explanation of the meaning behind the tags that served as a tribute to all of our grandparents.

When we started the planning I was overwhelmed by choices and unsure how we could reflect our personality and tastes, especially since neither of us had a strong interest of having a wedding. But thanks to our amazing vendors we were able to create a a wedding that really felt like “us.”

The fabulous vendor team:

Photography: Kirsten Rose Photography

Ceremony: Holy Rosary Church

Reception: East Hall of Union Station

Florist: Butera the Florist

Wedding Planner: Jamie Sears, Simply Chic Events

Catering: Design Cuisine

Hair and Makeup: KPN Hair & Makeup

Transportation: Linder & Associates

Dumbarton House Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:00:29 +0000

Hello and happy Monday! This morning, savor a fresh cup of coffee and welcome the week with the beautiful wedding of Kate and Aaron…Thank you to Jennifer Domenick of Love Life Images for sharing the lovely pics!

Kate, today’s beautiful bride, shares…

I always wanted a wedding with a DC theme. I love my hometown and I thought our wedding would be a great opportunity for our out of town guests to get to know DC since they were probably last here on their 8th grade trip :) I knew I wanted to get married in September at Holy Trinity church since that is our parish, so the date of September 18 kind of fell into place. We met with Katie Martin and Tara Davis at Elegance and Simplicity and they led us to the Dumbarton. It was so close to Holy Trinity and it was perfect for the kind of wedding I wanted – elegant, classic, DC-themed, and an amazing party. Of course I wanted it to be really pretty, but the thing that was the most important to me was the fun factor – I wanted an amazing band, great drinks, games, all the elements to a great party – I was so lucky that turned it to be even better than I imagined.

As far as the details, Michelle from Main Event and Tara from E & S were so great. I really wanted long tables in the Dumbarton’s tent but apparently it had never been done there before. Everyone was doubtful that it was possible given the space available, but since they knew I wanted it, they made it work and it was beautiful. I wanted everything to be really clean and simple so we did white everything with tons of greens/white flowers running down the center of the long table in vintage vases with hundreds of votives. We also had white lanterns and candles everywhere – on the steps, along the ledges – everything was glowy and warm.

Since Aaron and I are a doctor/teacher pair, Tara had the great idea to incorporate apples into all the decor since it’s associated with both jobs :) We had apple escort cards under a gorgeous tree of manzanita branches, and two signature drinks – “Just What the Doctor Ordered” and “Meet me After Class” – that Michelle’s maitre’d invented for us at our tasting. They were beautiful and both incorporated apple/teacher/doctor themes. Meet me After Class was an apple-tini with a graham cracker rim that was like a school snack, and Just What the Doctor Ordered had tonic. We also had vases with apples and floating candles everywhere, and votives going up and down the stairs into the the tent.

We had lawn games at the cocktail hour and lots of pictures hanging from the trees. One of the other great elements was the Snapshot studio from LoveLife Images. It was so much better than a photobooth – our guests were literally in there all night – we have over 275 images from in there! I wanted the atmosphere of the cocktail hour and reception to feel elegant, but not stuffy, and the little touches really made it seem relaxed which I loved.

Like any bride, there wasn’t one moment I wasn’t loving or having fun – it was just so incredible to have everyone I ever loved all in one room having fun! However, if I had to pick a few, one of my favorite moments was probably during the ceremony when Aaron and I exchanged rings. We were so happy, and I felt like my nervousness of messing up during the ceremony was over and I was just really looking forward to the party. I had this gorgeous long veil and when I was walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, my sister went to straighten it and it accidentally pulled out of my hair! She was so upset but the guests loved it. Everyone was laughing and clapping and I think we played it off well – I mean, the pictures are hilarious!

My other favorite moment is at the reception when our amazing band, ‘Round Midnight, noticed that our crowd was ridiculously into dancing – it was literally a packed floor for four hours – no one sat down. In the middle of “Shout,” the lead singer came out and went up to me and Aaron and got us to sing! He started teasing Aaron about that part in the song that goes ”now that I got my woman…” etc. and got him to sing it! The guests and I were literally dying - it was so random and hysterical. Good thing that Aaron is such a fearless person – he sang like he was Marvin Gaye or something – like literally he sounded like a lounge singer. It was so crazy. Then the lead girl singer of course came out and the crowd was going crazy to pressure me to sing… it was so funny. Everyone kept coming up to us being like, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you were doing that!” But seriously we had no idea! it was too funny. Jennifer took such amazing pictures of the whole thing – they’re our favorite shots of the day.

The fabulous vendor team:

Photography: Jennifer Domenick of Love Life Images

Ceremony: Holy Trinity Church

Reception: Dumbarton House

Coordinator: Elegance & Simplicity

Bridal Shop: Kleinfelds

Dress Designer: Monique Lhuillier

Hair: Carola Myers

Makeup: Carola Myers

Suit/Tux: Ralph Lauren

Florist: Elegance & Simplicity

Caterer: Main Event Caterers

Cake: Kendall’s Cakes

Transportation: Chariots for HIre

Officiant: Father Donald MacMillan, S.J.

Reception music: ’Round Midnight (band)

Invitations: Vera Wang

Westin Grand Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:00:49 +0000

Trevor and Mary had their wedding at the Westin Grand in D.C. which has an amazing courtyard and window filled ballroom!

The color scheme, preppy pink and lime green, could be found everywhere – bridesmaids wore fun, satiny pink frocks and heels, tabletops were adorned with green linens and pink place cards, and pink and green flowers were hanging all throughout the big day. Even the adorable “flowerpugs” wore pearl collar-necklaces with green and pink leashes – super cute!

Planner, Lesley Cohen, tells us, “My favorite moment was during the ceremony processional. One of the “flowerpugs” (as Mary called them) slipped their collar and took off running! She was quickly caught but the guests were laughing. It definitely helped to relax the entire atmosphere.”

The centerpieces by Yellow Door Floral Designs were large arrangements of fluffy pink flowers shaped to look like a large gift boxes tied up with ribbon - a present for each table!

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: Westin Grand D.C.

Photo: Chris Baltazar

Lighting: John Farr Lighting

Video: AVS

Florist: Yellow Door Floral Designs

Ceremony Music: Bialek’s

DJ: Kirkabee Deejays

Cake: Amphora Bakery

Rentals: DC Rentals

Stationery: Paperzest

Custom Bow ties: Carrot & Gibbs

Bridesmaids: Jenny Yoo

Hair: Okyo Salon

Make-up: Andre Chreky

Gown: Rivini from Rizik’s

Planner: Lesley Cohen

Meridian House Wedding by Paul Morse: Part II

Danielle Freedman — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:35:03 +0000

I have more fabulous images to add to today’s Meridian House wedding by Paul Morse…so lovely!

Garden party meets wedding celebration…

Dumbarton House Wedding

Danielle Freedman — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:16:45 +0000

Hello and Happy Monday! First, I want to thank all of our survey participants from last week! We will be announcing the winner of the fabulous Vineyard Vines giveaway later this evening.

Next up, I am delighted to share this beautiful, whimsical wedding by Love Life Images and Pam Barefoot of Atrendy Wedding. The girls got ready at The Westin Fairfax Embassy Row and then headed to the ceremony at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church…Oh this father-daughter moment was captured with such grace.

Guests were welcomed to town with these adorable floral bags. How fun are the detailed props from the bird cages to the pom poms?! A game of bocce ball anyone?

The Dumbarton House looks absolutely beautiful. For the trillionith time, event lighting (so important!) makes this space look even more breathtaking – we heart Frost Lighting! And, of course, as always, the flowers by Philippa Tarrant are so romantic.

Thank you to Pam for sharing Annabel and Tim’s wedding with us!

The fabulous vendor team:

Venue: Dumbarton House

Photography: Jennifer Domenick of Love Life Images

Planner: Pam Barefoot of Atrendy Wedding

Catering: Main Event Caterers

Florist: Philippa Tarrant

Deejay: My Deejay

Cake: Fancy Cakes By Leslie

Lighting: Frost Lighting

Tent: Sugar Plum Tent Co.

Photobooth: Through photographer

Getting Ready Hotel: The Westin Fairfax Embassy Row

Makeup/Hair: Kim Steele - 703.597.9955 or stylemakerkim@aol.com

Church: St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church

Organist: Marc Ohnmacht - 202.588.8045 or mohnmacht@hotmail.com

Cocktail Music: Eric Waters - 703-750-3636 or eric@watersguitar.com

Transportation: Fleet Transportation