Real Wedding: Art Deco Chic for Sports Fans (Part 2)

Go back to Part 1.

Venue: Clarendon Ballroom. Sandra Hoehne. We looked at several venues in DC but finally Kara and Andrew came and saw the Clarendon Ballroom when we were setting up for Gwen and Adam’s wedding, and knew it was the place for them.

Officiant: Phyllis Anne Duncan, Northern Virginia Ethical Society.

Photographer: Angela Gaeto Photography. The bride’s aunt, a professional photographer in Albuquerque.

Floral Designer: Philippa Tarrant. When we decided on the black, white and blue color scheme, and knowing that Kara liked white, low texture flowers, Philippa was the perfect fit.

Music: MyDeejay.com. Evan Reitmeyer. Love Evan. Love the way he treats his clients. Love the way he subscribes to the same work ethic I do. I had a great time working with Evan.

Come on! You know the music is good when even Grandma, who is in a wheelchair, is boogeying down on the dance floor.

Photobooth: Party Booths.  Everybody had a blast with the photo booth. We used them before at Soumya and Tejus’ wedding a few years back. One note of caution – I thought the attendants were inappropriately dressed. They wore long sleeve polos shirts and baggy pants, inappropriate for a wedding where guests were in semi-formal attire. If you rent from them, please specify the attendant dress code.

Rentals: DC Rental

Bride Makeup: Leah McKay.

Hair and Makeup: Bridal Artistry. Barbara and Ky. Love working with Barbara and her team. We added and subtracted people several times and they were very flexible.

Rehearsal Dinner: Boulevard Woodgrill. If you don’t know, Boulevard Woodgrill has a private dining space in the lower level of the restaurant that can easily fit 60 people with its own bar.

Guest Hotel & Farewell Breakfast: Westin Arlington Gateway and Pizimini Restaurant. The Westin is an ideal location for anyone hosting a wedding in the Ballston/Clarendon area. The restaurant has a private dining space in the rear where our group had a farewell continent breakfast.

So proud of how this escort card display came out! The graphic artist that designed the cards made them look like ticket stubs. You can barely see in the background that the display also included lucite boxes of baseballs balls and candles surrounded by golf tees. Photo: Angela Gaeto

— Vicky

Real Wedding: Art Deco Chic for Sports Fans (Part 1)

While Kara and Andrew are on their honeymoon in Thailand, I thought we’d celebrate by sharing their wedding story. Lucky for me, they were referred to me by Koonal and Erin whose wedding we planned last summer. We worked with Kara and Andrew for over a year but the extended engagement allowed for planning tasks to be spread out. Kara was great at getting things done so by the time we had only 1 month to go, we had practically nothing left! That never happens!

Style Inspiration: We had fun coming up with a style that suited them. The final direction was inspired by the venue and their love of sports. Clarendon Ballroom’s art deco design inspired parts of the stationery set. Their love of sports can been seen not only in the stationery elements but also in the sport props we used for the photobooth and the golf ball escort card display. The overall feel they wanted was something modern, classy and minimalistic.

Guests hamming it up at the photobooth wearing the sports props we provided. The goggles are hilarious! Photo: Angela Gaeto Photography

Colors: Kara chose a black dress for the bridesmaids and she had imagined that they would carry white flowers. That was the starting point, and we just added a medium blue to as it was a color they both liked. The black and white scheme is a classic combination but is flexible enough to feel modern as well.

Classic yet modern black and white. One of my favorite looks ever. Love the tablecloths from DC Rental. Photo: Angela Gaeto Photography

These are the two coordinating tablecloths we used: Black Wavy Stripes (top) and Mojo Confetti Tuxedo (bottom) from DC Rentals.

More photos and a vendor recap in Part 2 — Vicky

Pro Pics: Abigail & Joe

The fabulous Lori Love has sent us some of the photos from Abigail and Joe’s wedding. Gorgeous! Check out more at Lori’s blog. For a recap on this beautiful wedding, go back and read Part 1 and Part 2 of this real wedding.

Real Wedding: Abigail & Joe (Part 2)

For the vendor recap, go to Part 1.

Beautiful white wreath by Philippa Tarrant at the Holy Trinity front doors

Programs

Escort Card Table

What a little pipe and drape can do to hide the otherwise boring ballroom walls. See the uplighting around the room and the pinspotting on the tall centerpieces?

My new favorite: the gold grid organza overlay paired with the gold bead clear charger from Party Rentals. Note also the menu card and boxed favors. They were the most yummy chocolate covered pretzels.

eaTip #1 : Using a mix of hotel and rented linens help to keep the budget reasonable. You can select a few tables to highlight with specialty rental linens like we did here with the organza overlay for the sweetheart table. The cake table also got special treatment with a double layer of gold shimmer tablecloth.

Cake by Park Hyatt pastry chef

eaTip #2 : It’s good to mix up the colors as you move from one part of the evening into another. For Abigail, her ceremony decor was mostly white/ivory. At the cocktail hour, we used the brown linens provided by the hotel. Once inside the ballroom for dinner and dancing, there were more touches of gold and deep red. While all the colors were present at each part of the event, the emphasis was on a different color at different parts of the evening. This will give you a coherent overall look but still allows you to vary things up a bit.

Sunday brunch at the Westin Grand Promenade. The floral centerpieces made a 2nd appearance too!

Real Wedding: Abigail & Joe (Part 1)

Kicking off the 2009 wedding season! I’m always really anxious with the first wedding of the year. Dust off the cobwebs and off we go!

Abigail and Joe came to me via Lori Love who is Abigail’s mom’s cousin and brought back together a bunch of vendors I really love.

The forecast didn’t look good for their wedding day as we were expecting rain all day. Luckily, it never actually rained, just misting and very overcast. In retrospect, I think the bad weather kept the crowds away and kept traffic very light. It was the first weekend of Cherry Blossom season and the crowds usually cause havoc with traffic.

Photographer: Lori Love Photography. We last worked with Lori for Sarah and Jordan’s wedding in 2007 so it had been a while. Lori is creative with composition and is fun to be around in general. Lori was able to get some photos outdoors with all the beautiful trees in bloom.

DJ: Chris Laich. Chris is the ultimate professional. As usual, he kept everyone dancing, even grandpa! A little Bon Jovi always revs up a NY/NJ crowd!

Floral Designer: Philippa Tarrant. Philippa’s work is always stunning. Her designs have a very modern sensibility to them and her arrangements are always really lush and full. She did an outstanding job again this time.

Reception Venue: Park Hyatt Washington DC (Amal Zaari) Amal was really easy to work with during the planning process and I can attest to the fact that their food is outstanding. Its catering staff provided attentive service, and the guys working at the entrance were extremely helpful.

Ceremony Venue: Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Courtney, their coordinator, is very helpful and you’ll be in good hands with her. Do note that Holy Trinity does schedule several weddings per day so schedule your time carefully with your ceremony and rehearsal.

Transportation: Reston Limo. My go-to transportation company. Their drivers are always on time and courteous.

Sunday Brunch: Westin Grand (Jennifer de los Reyes) Very easy to work with and accommodating.

Stay tuned for Part 2 for some of the pictures I took! Lori’s photos should be ready soon!