Where to get married? A list of DC, MD, VA wedding venues

It’s that time of the year once again. Congratulations to all those who got engaged in the recent months! What an exciting time.  To help start your planning process, here is a listing of the venues in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia where we have either coordinated weddings or have visited since 2008. We hope you find this useful!

Photo: Mark Battinger of Rodney Bailey Photography

Northern Virginia

Trummers on Main, Clifton

The Lorien Hotel, Alexandria

Clarendon Ballroom, Arlington (and another wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding)

Whitehall Manor, Bluemont (and another wedding)

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Vienna (and another wedding, wedding)

Washington Golf & Country Club, Arlington (and wedding)

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Old Town, Alexandria

River Farm, Alexandria (and another wedding)

2941 Restaurant, Falls Church

Fort Belvoir Officers Club, Ft. Belvoir

Hollin Hall, Alexandria

Thomas Birkby House, Leesburg

Fairview Park Marriott, Falls Church

Signature Theatre Arlington (Shirlington, VA)

West Belmont Place (Lansdowne, VA)

Top of the Town (Arlington, VA)

Middleburg Community Center (Middleburg, VA) – summer wedding and fall wedding

George Washington Masonic Memorial (Alexandria, VA)

International Country Club (Fairfax, VA)

Foxchase Manor (Manassas, VA)

Mount Vernon Inn (Alexandria, VA)

Maryland

Marriott Bethesda North, Rockville

Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, Cumberland

Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo (and a wedding)

Newton White Mansion, Mitchellville

Oxon Hill Manor, Oxon Hill

Glenview Mansion, Rockville

Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts “VisArts”, Rockville

Black Rock Center for the Arts, Germantown

Washington, DC

Long View Gallery

Omni Shoreham Hotel (and a wedding)

Westin City Center

The Fairfax at Embassy Row

Mexican Cultural Institute

Harman Center for the Arts

Sewall-Belmont House

Meridian House (and another wedding, wedding)

Newseum

Fairmont Hotel

Tregaron/Washington International School

Park Hyatt Hotel

Georgetown Marriott

Equality Center

American News Womens Club

Decatur House

— Vicky

Real Wedding: Stephanie & Matt (Part 2)

For Part 1 of Stephanie and Matt’s wedding, click here for the vendor round up. Here are some photos I took from their wedding. Stephanie and Matt went for a fall style with lots of design elements that evoked everything fall!

Hollin Hall Boxwood Gardens. Note the pumpkins holding the two floral arrangements.

Hollin Hall Fireplace Room (above) and Dining Room (below). Note the brown satin linens and the pumpkin filled centerpieces. The couple named the tables after presidential homes. What a great idea!

Favors: For the adults, Mt. Vernon cider and for the kids, Historic Chocolates of Hollin Hall.

Edibles Incredible Cake

Mulled Apple Cider

Real Wedding: Stephanie & Matt (Part 1)

Hollin Hall Boxwood Garden Wedding Ceremony

When it gets to October, an incredibly busy month for most wedding planners in the DC area, it’s nice to have an easy wedding! Stephanie and Matt chose a lunch time celebration for their wedding and we had just beautiful weather for such an occasion. I personally love lunch time weddings because they tend to be more relaxed, although no less fun than an evening wedding!

Vendor Round Up

Venue: Hollin Hall Mansion. This is a beautiful venue in Alexandria. Associated with the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church, the Mansion is not only a charming house but the garden surrounding it is perfect for outdoor events. Although the Mansion itself is not the best alternative for a rain site for a ceremony, the Meeting House Chapel is a great alternative. Stephanie and Matt had about 80 guests and I thought it was the perfect number for a buffet lunch. You could probably fit another 30 people if you were doing a sit-down dinner with no dance floor.

Photography: Ed Fraser from A Candid Image. I had worked with Ed before when he was shooting for another photography shop. Easy going guy.

Floral Designer: The Flower Market. Very creative arrangements using pumpkins. See Part 2 for photos.

Caterer: R&R Catering (Laura Eaton). R&R is one of the recommended caterers for Hollin Hall and Laura is almost always the supervisor for this venue. Another outstanding luncheon. My favorite was the sweet potato mash and mulled cider. Perfect for fall!

Music: Celebrated String Quartet. One of my go-to string ensembles. Bridgette is excellent to work with in the planning stages. Usually, I hire them just for the ceremony or ceremony and cocktail hour and you don’t really get to hear how talented these artists are. This time, because of the event being over lunch with no dancing, Stephanie and Matt chose to hire them to play during the entire reception. It was wonderful! They played classical, swings, standards, rock, and just a huge variety of music. I even got to sit down for a few minutes to soak in the music. Ah … my private little concert! What a treat!

Cake: Edibles Incredible. Alan did a wonderful job and the cake was pretty good! One layer was pumpkin and the other was apple. I liked the pumpkin a lot – had to have a few slices to make sure! What I loved was the sugar fall leaves on the cake. Just beautiful work. See Part 2 for photos.