Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - Walking Down the Aisle

After we were done with a few pics of just us, it was time to start the ceremony. 

^Here are the beautiful wreaths from our florist Blue Ridge Floral Design 

^I told our florist that I wanted green and white wreaths, but that I wanted them to look "modern" which for me meant not having traditional wreath florals like roses and hydrangea. I think she did an awesome job. 

^And here is the inside of our tiny little chapel 

^This is the view from the front looking out the door 

^Our pew florals, which I also loved.  Also from Blue Ridge Floral Design 

^Here come the guys!

^Waiting outside the church 

^I love this pic of my nephew! He escorted my Mom

^Waiting to head into the church 

^Here I come! The families, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and flower girl came before but for the sake of brevity I'm skipping to the key moment 

 

^Fiance watching me walk down the aisle 

^Coming down the aisle. One of my friend's husbands had just whispered something like "you look awesome"...which is why I'm looking at him and not at my groom! Haha 

^Now my eyes are where they are supposed to be! For such a short aisle it still seemed like a long walk when you have everyone watching you

^Finally, we're ready to start the ceremony! My flower hair clip is from Etsy seller Ella's Alley. When I bought it in Feb it was only $9! Her prices have gone up a bit but they are  a steal compared to some of the other hair clips people are selling for upwards of $100 or more. I just didn't see the point in spending that much money and I was thrilled with how my little $9 flower came out. 

Vendors So Far:

Video- Monachetti

Photography - Linda Wallace

Hair/Makeup- Daphne Latham

Dress Designer - Vwidon

Dress Salon - Promise for the Savvy Bride

Shoes - Vera Wang new from Ebay

Bracelet- Carolee

Veil- Occansey Design

Purse - Belk

Hair Flower - Ella's Alley 

Flowers - Blue Ridge Floral 

Suits- Men's Wearhouse

Ties - Wild Ties

Socks - The Gap

Bridesmaid Dresses - Maggy London from Nordstrom

Flower Girl Dress- Rare Editions from Dillards

Sportscar - Sports Car Rental

Reception/Accomodations - The Clifton Inn

Breaking News: AisleDash Retires

Its true! I just saw a post on AisleDash - another great bridal blog that I read fairly frequently. They've decided to retire from active blogging. I'm sad to see them go as they were always a great source of Bridal info.

Running of the Brides: DC - TOMORROW!

An event popularized by the Today Show among others, Filene's now world-famous "Running of the Brides" (a take-off of Pamplona's Running of the Bulls) will take place in DC - TOMORROW, August 1 at the Mazza Gallerie store in Chevy Chase. If you don't have your dress yet or are looking for a designer dress at a discounted price - this event is for you! Dresses will range from $25 - $700.

Here's how the Filene's site describes the event:
"The day of the sale, brides-to-be and their helpers line up early. When the doors open, they run full speed towards the racks. In less than 60 seconds, the racks are stripped bare (store employees have to hold on to the fixtures so they don’t topple). The women grab whatever gowns they can, haul them off to a corner, strip down to their underwear and start trying on dresses. Minutes later the trading begins. Every dress, no matter what size, style or color, gets bartered for another, as each bride tries to find the gown of her dreams at a cut-rate price."

Check out the website for more detailed info - and set your alarm clocks - brides to be get there EARLY - make sure you don't oversleep!

Our Invitations....

Okay, So everybody has received our invitations now, even our international guests---so it is time for me to present to you, my babies.

^ Sorry for the white boxes, I couldn't figure out how to blur the images, so these ugly white boxes are getting in the way of my invitations--but just imagine them as if they aren't there :) Here is the finished invitation, wrapped and ready to go. After much deliberation we used Silver and White Ribbon from Paper source to wrap the outside. Than we used the Xyron to make the M stickers that you see. Now let me show you what is inside!

^ What you see here is the invitation, which we had letterpressed by Paper-Source ( I highly recommend, it was competitive pricing, and they came out beautiful). Than FI and I cut the Stardream Mars Paper from paper source to put as a backing for the Invite.

Next step ( which I unfortunately don't have a picture of) was my aunts and Mom taped the stardream paper to the pocket fold, and the invite to the stardream paper. We purchased our Pocket Folds from Paper Presentation in stardream silver. I also highly recommend them, they were amazing quality, and worked perfect with our color scheme.

We than moved on to the inserts, we had four inserts total. All the inserts were printed on Stardream quartz paper from Paper-Source. We purchased the large pieces of the card stock for about $1.75 a sheet--in total we ended up purchasing about 30 sheets ( cleaned out the Georgetown and the Alexandria Paper-Source), but it was enough for all four inserts. We than spent a couple of hours at Kinkos, cutting the paper down to the right size, and than it was time to printing. We spent about 5 or 6 hours getting the design perfect/printing them out, and without further ado, our inserts :

^ Our Very Talented Groomsman designed this for us, we LOVE it. It shows our top 3 locations-Church, Reception Site, Hotel and of course the Metro.




^ Next up was our Reception Card--We put our logo at the top, and than kept it pretty simple.




^ We than included our brunch card, along with our wedding website, funny story FI and I forgot to include our website anywhere on the invites, so we had to run these thru the printer again at the last minute to add it!



^ We decided to use a postcard RSVP--the front had my parents name, but FI and Mine address so we could receive the responses! I must admit getting the mail is now my favorite part of the day! We also put a section for guests to write us a note, unfortunately we have only received a few that followed this request :)





^ The back of the RSVP had the usual accepting or declining--but we also asked if they would let us know where they are staying ( for OOT bags) and also if they would be attending brunch

So there you have it, the inserts and the pocket fold--Next up I will show the envelopes/Labels and it all put together!

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - Just Us

Once we got to the chapel, and before the ceremony started, Linda took some photos of just us. 

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace 

^This is probably one of my favorite pics of just us form the entire wedding 

^Totally unintentional but is anyone else thinking the Wizard of Oz? 

^Definitely has a Dorothy marries a munchkin vibe. 

^My awesome bracelet

^There it is again!

^I really like the way Fiance looks in this one...very happy 

^Could I look more arrogant?  Anyone who knows me is thinking "why yes, you often do." 

^In front of our cute little chapel 

^Liking the way fiance looks in this one too

^Just hanging out 

Favors vs. No Favors?

Favors or no favors, that is the question? I must admit the idea of favors has boggled me since I first encountered a birds nest of sugar coated Jordan almonds at a cousins wedding. Why? I wondered... I'd read the symbolic meaning of the almonds however, as I looked around the room no one cared; I saw children playing table football with almonds, adults with puzzled looks picking birds nest apart at their tables and when the reception concluded I found a ballroom littered with almonds left at the tables and on the floors and again I wondered what's the point. Today I think of a wedding and I believe it is a opportunity for friends and family to help a couple celebrate their choice to walk through life together. The couple or couples parent's plan a great party with at the very least food, drinks, and some sort of entertainment. All this is planned for the guest enjoyment so why is it necessary to give guests a gift for attending? Isn't a invitation to a wedding a gift in itself? The "favor" which in my opinion is nothing more than a unappreciated afterthought with the couples name on it is a wedding racket and a huge drain on a wedding budget! Who's really going to use the playing cards with your picture, or weird apple butter you made and stuck your monogram on. I'm not one of those people who hangs around weddings until the end to snatch a centerpiece all I need to take away are a a few photographs and some great memories. Now I am planning my own wedding and being constantly reminded by venue directors, caterers and my mom that I must decide on a favor because as they all say, "you can't have a wedding without favors..." Whatever! I've entertained the idea of making a donation to a charity in the name of my guest but I don't want to impose my beliefs on them what if they don't want to support the charity we select. I also thought about making cookies or fudge or something but really, who has the time? Second, after the wedding cake who needs more sweets! I don't know what I'll do but I'll keep you up to date on any new ideas I find. Here are a few unique ideas I found at The Knot:

A sterling silver luggage tag with a personalized thank you note. (Cute since all of our guest will be traveling.)

How about a recovery bag for when the party wraps up in the wee hours of the morning! (Vitamin Water, Excedrin, and a snack bar.) Or a breakfast bag with some instant coffee or tea & a muffin for guest to munch on as they head to the airport!

A tissue for your tears... This is a nice idea offering a hanky to your guests as a useful keepsake perhaps with our monogram...

A $1 dollar lottery ticket & a shiny new penny in a vellum envelope! Lucky in Love; give guest the opportunity to win back some of the cash spent on getting to our destination wedding !

An uplifting or inspirational read for the plane; hmmm... I'll keep you posted on our decision!

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - The Ride

One of the most fun parts of the wedding was getting to drive around the entire weekend in the 1959 MGA we rented from Sports Car Rentals.  I wrote before about how much we were looking forward to it...but the reality was even better.  Fiance was in heaven all weekend.  And the best part...the entire weekend was only $180.  No...not the hour, not the day...THE WEEKEND.  Best deal of the wedding.  Limo-schmimo.

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace 

^Here it is parked outside our reception site/accomodations, The Clifton Inn. 

^Of course since it was an older car it had older features...like a tiny rearview mirror, barrel breaks, stick shift, and a knob you had to pull to help make it start! 

^Fiance drove with his brother to the chapel.  I took our wind-free RAV4 for the trip to the chapel

^There they go! 

^And here we are at our adorable chapel, getting ready to take some more pics

Vendors So Far:

Video- Monachetti

Photography - Linda Wallace

Hair/Makeup- Daphne Latham

Dress Designer - Vwidon

Dress Salon - Promise for the Savvy Bride

Shoes - Vera Wang new from Ebay

Bracelet- Carolee

Veil- Occansey Design

Purse - Belk

Flowers - Blue Ridge Floral

Suits - Men's Wearhouse

Ties - Wild Ties

Socks - The Gap

Bridesmaid Dresses - Maggy London from Nordstrom

Flower Girl Dress- Rare Editions from Dillards

Sportscar - Sports Car Rental

Reception/Accomodations - The Clifton Inn 

EAD- A New Resource for Vendor Reviews

I was really excited last week when Elizabeth Anne Designs launched their library of all the great vendors they've featured on their site, but I was thrilled today to see they have added a "Vendor Review" section as well.   It's easy enough to find lists of vendors, but as a bride I found THE BEST resource was honest reviews from real brides.  

Remember that resources like these are only as good as we make them! The more brides that contribute the better we can get the word out about good vendors, bad vendors, steals, and up&comers.   I've decided to try and add at least one review a day from my own wedding so that I don't feel overwhelmed! 

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - Out For A Stroll

The following series of pics I call "out for a stroll."  Our photographer just took shots as we walked around outside our reception site.  So simple, yet the pics turned out so well. 

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace