Real Wedding: Ina & Cyrus (Part 3)

Go back to Part 1 (the intro) and Part 2 (the pictures).

Here’s the vendor reviews. On days like it was, where it was raining buckets and we had to implement the Rain Plan and everything was just wet and messy, you really value having an exceptional vendor team to make sure everything still goes smoothly.

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Oxon Hill Manor. OHM is a beautiful mansion with lush gardens. It’s really a hidden gem. The challenges with this facility are that a) they have 2 events on Saturday; and b) if there is inclement weather and you need to hold a ceremony inside, the largest room holds only about 100 people. The staff is OK. They were flexible in allowing us in a bit earlier. Even though they have several event staffers, they don’t assign you one. So when you call, you never know who you will get and they are likely to not know much about your event.

Catering: R&R Catering (Natalie Seng, event designer). Good job as usual.

Photography: Laura Kay Photography. Love, love, love Laura’s approach to photography – so fresh, whimsical and fun and just a little edgy. The photos speak for themselves. Plus, she’s just a fun person to be around. Go back to Part 2  for the pictures.

Floral design & lounge furniture rental: Davinci’s Florist. At a location like OHM where you have a tight load-in time, Davinci’s was the logical choice to supply the lounge furniture, as opposed to getting a separate rental company. They were already going to be there to set up the flowers so it’s fantastic that they could offer both! The bridesmaids’ bouquets are some of my favorites all year because they were so cheerful!

DJ: Bob Artman, Artman DJs. Bob is so easy to work with and I was so relieved to have him there because I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about him at all. Great music as usual.

Salsa Lesson: Instructor from Dance Factory. Fun for all guests!

Lighting: Blue Ridge Light Forms. I worked with Larry Lustberg during the planning phase and he was fantastic. Always responsive. Our original plan was to have lanterns over the back patio. But because of the rain, the BRLF team went the extra mile to try to make the inside as nice as possible. They did uplighting in the dining room, a soft spot light for the ceremony and then changed it to a cool, rose color wash for the dance floor (in the same room). They were also able to light the outside columns. They also attempted to string some of the lanterns inside but the mansion staff wouldn’t let them. Their team is just awesome!

Hair & Makeup: Chaos Salon.

Bridal Gown: Distinctive Designs Bridal . A Pronovias design. I love Pronovias.

Alterations: Estee Livioco. Ina bought a sample which was many times larger than her dress size so I sent her to the one and only Estee, who also altered my dress. Of course she worked miracles and did a great job basically remaking Ina’s complicated dress. [Ina's yelp review of Estee]

Real Wedding: Ina & Cyrus (Part 2)

We introduced you to another one of our lovely couples, Cyrus and Ina in Part 1. Go back if you missed it.

Let’s chat about the elements of this wedding because I had so much fun working with the bride and groom putting it all together.

Wedding Style: Ina and Cyrus wanted a homey, whimsical and relaxed style to their wedding. They chose a buffet for dinner, with a mix of formal seating for their relatives and lounge furniture for their friends.

The Dining Room with a casually elegant feel. Photo courtesy of Laura Kay Photography

eaTip: We chose walnut folding chairs for this wedding. We considered chivari chairs too but it would have been too formal to use chivari chairs and it would have strayed away from the homey feel the couple wanted. Be consistent in each design element you choose for your wedding.

Lounge furniture from Davinci's set up in the foyer in front of the candle lit fireplace.

Wedding Colors: we chose a soft color palette of creams/whites, sage green, a mellow yellow and a touch of brown to ground it all.

Personalization: Cyrus gets full credit for this one! To add some whimsical, personal elements to the wedding, Cyrus came up with the idea of setting textbooks they used (law for Cyrus – the thick one, and education for Ina), board games they liked to play, and music they played/sang (they both sign/play in a church music group) on the coffee tables.

It all makes sense for a bride who is a teacher: Composition book as a guest book. Chalk board frame. Little lunch-box type box for gift cards.

[Photos courtesy of Laura Kay Photography

What's with the Curious George lunchbox, you ask? Ina had this and I thought we just had to use it somehow. We tied a tag that said "Open Me" and inside the guests discovered school photos of the couple! So fun. Photo courtesy of Laura Kay Photography

Stay tuned for vendor round up!

- Vicky

Read: Transportation tips on Reston Limo Blog

When clients ask us to organize transportation for them, we almost always turn to Reston Limo. We are thrilled that they interviewed up recently for a blog post. You can read more about me and get some tips on planning for transportation. Hope you find it useful!

If you are planning an event Sunday – Thursday, buy 3 hours and get the 4th FREE for ANY Vehicle! *New reservations only. May not be combined with any other discount or offer. Based on availability.

- Vicky

Real Wedding: Ina & Cyrus (Part 1)

One of my favorite from Laura Kay Photography. Look at the lighting on her dress. Photo courtesy of Laura Kay Photography

I’ve always thought that if you have a solid plan for inclement weather, you would never have to use it. On a Saturday in August, for the first time in my career, I had to go to the rain plan for not 1 but 2 weddings! No matter! Plan B was just as awesome as Plan A!

Ina and Cyrus are such a darling couple. You can see why they work as a couple: she the more laid back, personable one; he the more cerebral one. Ina did much of the planning herself while Cyrus finished law school in Boston, where both would be moving to after the wedding. Like many modern couples, they relied on Skype. She always sought his input, even though he wasn’t physically there. A sign of a good marriage – communication!

So back to the rain. This was the weekend Hurricane Bill had passed by our area. It was a torrential downpour. I have to tell you a secret though – I think Plan B turned out to be more magical and more intimate than the original plan! Ina and Cyrus had a great time, smiling all day long. Here’s to remembering what this day is all about!

Visit the Laura Kay Photography blog for more photos.

Stay tuned for an overview of their wedding design and vendor round up!

- Vicky

Photos from July Brides Against Breast Cancer Gown Sale

Back in July, we volunteered for the 2nd year in a row at Brides Against Breast Cancer Gown Sale, a fundraising event for Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. This year was held at the Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, VA.

Unlike last year where I was able to help and meet many brides, I spent most of my few hours there helping one bride in particularly. It was really great hearing about her wedding and chatting with her Mom and friends. We really bonded over the 3 hours! The bride to be had an amazing figure and found a gorgeous gown that fit her like a glove. Just before they left my station, they even snapped a photo with me! So fun!

Outside the lobby of the Westin Arlington Gateway ballroom

Brides-to-be eagerly awaiting the gowns ahead!

The check out area

Tons of wedding gowns waiting for an owner

My new associate Megan and I awaiting the brides.

If you missed it, the next one in the DC area will be on October 23-25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Silver Spring, MD. Click here for more info.

We had a wonderful time volunteering at this event last year (more here) and will be volunteering again next year!

Vicky

Thank you to our summer intern, Kristina

How quickly the summer  months fly by! We want to thank our awesome summer intern Kristina for helping us through some of the busiest weeks of the season! We first introduced you to her in the beginning of the summer, and since then, she has dabbled in a lot more than she bargained for!

Some of the tasks she got to participate in included (some more fun than others):

• Site visit to Oxon Hill Manor for one of our August weddings.
• Site visit for one of our September weddings and R&R open house at Meridian House.
• Assembled invitation sets
• Tallied RSVPs
• Called delinquent guests
• Wrote, laid out and assembled a ceremony program
• Assembled guest welcome bags
• Edited wedding website content for our client
• Prepared for 2 weddings by cleaning some glassware, peeling off stickers, unpacking necessary items (not glamorous but it had to be done)!

Kristina hard at work tying raffia on the ceremony programs.

Wow! You did a lot! Thanks again Kristina! We hope you enjoyed your time with us and that you felt like you learned something. Good luck with your senior year at Duke!

Real Wedding: Marix & Arjay (Part 3)

Go back for Part 1 and Part 2 (vendor round up).

Finally, here are some of the day’s photos. These are clearly my pics. Go to Rick Martin’s blog for more professional photos.

We used a mix of square & round tables. The 2 tall floral arrangements made a 2nd appearance. They were the altar arrangements.

You can see the custom overlay the bride brought from the Philippines underneath the modern, red floral centerpiece from Heaven on Earth flowers.

Is this cake gorgeous or what?! It was made by the restaurant's in-house pastry chef.

At the end of the evening, Marix and Arjay sent off several sky lanterns. You light the bottom of the lantern, once it heats the air in the lantern, it flies off like a hot air balloon. Yeah, I freaked out a bit with the fire but i was really cool!

Real Wedding: Marix & Arjay (Part 2)

Go back to Part 1.

We get a lot of clients who live in another state but rarely do we get clients who live in another country. Because they live and work in the Philippines, Marix and Arjay hired us to help them plan there wedding here in Virginia, acting as their eyes and ears on the ground. With technology these days, it is pretty easy to accomplish much of the planning process on-line. We provide our clients with a group website, where we can share photos, documents and calendars with each other with ease. When they visited over Christmas, we crammed in all the vendor interviews and they were able to select the ones they liked.

Ceremony: Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Arlington, VA. Welcomed non-members.

Reception, Catering & Cake: 2941 Restaurant, Falls Church, VA (Director of Special Events Michelle Marquez). If you are looking for an intimate space for your wedding, I highly recommend this restaurant. The Waterfall Room, where the reception was held, can hold up to 80 people. The Koi Room can hold up to 60, the Tasting Room 30, and the entire restaurant can also be bought out. The outdoor terrace is beautiful for either a ceremony or a cocktail hour in our case. Being one of the best restaurants in the DC area, the food of course is outstanding. They have also recently began offering wedding cakes and let me tell you, the cake was spectacular – beautiful to look at and incredibly flavorful and moist! Michelle is super easy to work with, is very professional and takes really good care of her clients.

Photography: Rick Martin Photography. When in doubt, you turn to reliable vendors and Rick is definitely reliable. Arjay and Marix just loved the images from Rick’s website and their instincts were confirmed when they met him in person. Rick brought along his good friend Bruce to shoot, so we were lucky to have double the talent that day. We featured Rick earlier in the year.

Videography: A&E Productions, Eric Nicholas. If you are looking for a documentary style videographer, Eric is your man. He doesn’t do any fancy editing, just shoots your day as it happened and is an excellent value. While Eric is a camera man for a TV station during the week, he shoots weddings on the weekends. It’s great to have him on hand because he’s pretty savvy with AV equipment in general.

Floral Design: Linda Merritt, Heaven on Earth Wedding Flowers.

DJ: DJ Mike Valenti. I just love Mikey V, whom I met at the very first wedding I ever coordinator and whom has remained on top of my list for years. Everybody had a fabulous time dancing their hearts out, including an all-out sing along for the last song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (one of my favs).

Transportation: Regal Limousine Rolls Royce.

Beauty: (Hair) Le Salon, Tysons Corner Center and (Makeup) Suzanne Minskey, Faces by SAM. One of those last minute things, I had to find some good value vendors for Marix’s beauty team. One of my former clients years ago had gone to Le Salon in Tysons and her hair turned out really nice. That was one I kept in the Rolodex. $65 for a fun updo is a pretty good deal! As a last minute booking, I was able to score Suzanne Minskey whom I had not worked with before. She’s just super nice and calming, and having worked with models, has gotten her used to doing make up very quickly. Marix said her hair and makeup looked good well into 3am!

More to come in Part 3! Vicky

Tourist info for Visiting Guests

Got out-of-town guests visiting the DC area for your event and maybe extending their stays to see the sights? I’ve got 2 of my favorites resources for you that you can provide to your guests in this post.

If I were visiting DC, where would I look for info? One of my favorite on-line sources for long-weekend info is United Airline’s Hemispheres Magazine and its feature, Three Perfect Days. Yes, after years of flying to California on United, I’ve read about many interesting cities and TPD provides a concise guide to many of the larger cities around the world. Here is the one for Washington, DC.

When creating welcome bags, be sure to include a local visitors guide and maps to help your guests navigate the city. Contact your city’s visitors bureau and they can help you with obtaining those items. Destination DC provides 25 free copies of any combination of the Official Visitors Guides or Maps and then it’s an affordable $0.40 each. Click here for the order form.