Continuing on from Wednesday and last week, I wanted to show you the details from Caitlin and Dan’s reception.  The above is simply one of my favorite designs from 2011.  We used plums inside the vase with orchids as well.  The orchids and hanging votives created such a stunning effect at night.

We placed little keepsakes of rosemary and wheat for each place setting.  The wheat symbolizes fertility and the rosemary symbolizes fidelity!

The gorgeous cake designed by Design Cuisine!

In addition to the cake, Design Cuisine also made a gorgeous dessert bar!

The day of the wedding we were all so worried about the snow, but I think Caitlin and Dan would agree – it made for remarkable and beautiful portraits for them!

Congrats to Caitlin & Dan!

Have a great weekend!

Photography by Greg Gibson

Red is making a comeback…Get Ready!!

Our sexy red backdrop with candles – photo by Documentary Associates

Red Shoes Via Santa Barbara Chic Blog

Red Invitations via Invitation Crush

Red accented cake by Maggie Austin Cake

Our own red rose wreath and red peony posy

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/red-wedding-style/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/light-pink-wedding-style/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/light-pink-wedding-style/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:30:28 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=5838

 

Pink Monique Lhuillier Bridal Gown and Light Pink Wedding Shoes via Flickr

Pink Bow Tie for your groom with Gorgeous Light Pink Bike Design Invitations via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Our pretty rose, calla lily and freesia bouquet with our light pink hydrangea with ranunculus and freesia bouquet

Gorgeous cake we helped to design with Cakes by Design along with these fun lemonade signs from Carla David for a gorgeous wedding at the Ronald Reagan Building - Photos by Ralph Alswang

Our “black and white” bouquet with Picasso and Eggplant toned mini calla lilies, deep purple ranunculus with fern curl accents – Photo by Documentary Associates

Black and White Cake Inspiration via Wedding Place

Our pretty corsage and lapel flowers with lisianthus and phaleanopsis orchids

Our Luscious Verde Black and White Invitations

French Maid Garter from The Garter Girl

Lelah Shoes by Badgley Mischka from Zappos

Black and White Linens from Table Manners

Black and White Tags for your candy bar via Etsy

We finally found a photo of the cute cake from the wedding we did recently at the Hotel Monaco in DC.  Katie and Grant’s wedding had a cute lemon and lime theme (to see more from their wedding click here.  The cake was designed by Patisserie Poupon!

Got the photos back super quick from Mary Kate McKenna from this adorable wedding at Thorpewood!

I gave you a sneak peak of the wedding last week and I wanted to show you this cake today with this absolutely wonderful vintage family heirloom cake topper from the bride’s grandmother’s wedding.  Stay tuned tomorrow for more detail shots from the flowers and more!

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I also wanted to take this chance to just send out our support to our military around the world and locally.   Rarely do we ever celebrate the death of someone, but most Americans today are celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden.  We celebrate this victory on many levels, but also celebrate the efforts of our military personnel who have been involved over the years in search of this man.  We salute you and give great thanks for your great service.

Continuing our Earth Day week on how to keep your wedding eco-friendly – we move on to the next part of your planning process – THE CATERER!  Why is this so important?  You will spend approximately 50-60% of your wedding budget on food + rentals – so you want to make sure you are putting your dollars in the right place.  Our favorite and one of the best caterers in the United States is Design Cuisine.  Above are glassware from their sister company DC Rental.   Design Cuisine is now Green Restaurant Certified and prides itself on sustainable practices and using local resources as often as possible. (Photo by Kathy Blanchard)

Another nationally known caterer that claims DC as their own is Main Event Caterers.  In 2010, they were named Caterer of the Year by Catering Magazine!  They have their own in-house water filtration system with reusable glass bottles.  Their incredible chef prides himself on using locally sourced food as well.  They are 100% Wind-Powered and Carbon Neutral through Terrapass.  They have a comprehensive Recycling, Reusing and Composting Program and strive to educate their clients about how to stay green for their weddings. (photo by K. Thompson Photography)

Occasions Catering was the first caterer in the country to become Green Restaurant Certified!  One of the first to compost and have been a supporter of local farmers years before it was thought to be “green”.  They even make their own jams and preserves in-house!  Truly one of the greenest caterers in town!

Gail’s Vegetarian Catering has been around for years as the DC area’s greenest vegetarian caterer.  Obviously going vegetarian for your wedding is the greenest option.  They are approved by Green America and create amazing menus with flair.  A note – their business is up for sale – the hope is that whoever purchases Gail’s will have the same philosophy and will continue with the same style.  Since it is has been on sale for a while – we are more than sure that Gail is looking for the best person to take it over!

Our final favorite pick for Green Catering is Catering by Windows, another local favorite that is Green Restaurant Certified.  Certainly one of the largest event caterers in the area – they even recycle kitchen oils and food by-products.

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Earth Day Week Green Giveaway for today are free movie tickets to see the pre-screening of Something Borrowed from Stephanie Ward over at Punk Rock Bride - local eco-friendly wedding gown designer!  LEAVE A NOTE BELOW ON HOW YOU PLAN TO GREEN YOUR WEDDING TO WIN THE TICKETS!

I finally have a chance to blog my last big wedding from 2010.  Jennifer Hughes sent these beautiful images over to me from Amy + Daryn’s nautical-themed wedding at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott.

Amy + Daryn chose the beautiful Old Otterbein UMC Church (which has served Baltimore since 1771!!!) for their ceremony.

So many fun and interesting nautical details from the reception…

The nautical knot was perfect for their menu (taken from the design of their invitations).  We designed the escort cards to look like tiny nautical flags (yes we cut each and every one individually and placed in them in sand).  The sand boxes were surrounded by nautical rope along with tiny sand dollars and starfish!  Instead of a guest book – Amy + Daryn opted for fun wooden nautical flags for their guests to write on!

Amy really wanted some fun and different details.  From the nautical cake topper (as created by the pastry chef onsite the Marriott) to the fun decor items we created complete with lifesaver accents!

Stay tuned for more and thanks again to Jennifer Hughes for the images!

Over the past few weeks I have met with so many fun brides that are looking for purples and lavenders for their wedding flowers!

So it got me thinking – I better do a blog post about this!  I created the above color palette as I met with one of my clients and we came up with a fun design scheme complete with flowers, furniture and colorful linens galore!  Purple has always been one of my favorite colors and can be used everywhere!  So here are my picks for purple for your wedding and your home!

(Credits Top Marta Locklear, Documentary Associates and ME!)

Some of the best purple floral designs use hydrangea, roses, calla lilies and orchids.  But don’t forget fresh lavender, veronica, delphinium, stock, aliums, carnations, agapanthus, caspia, statice, anemones, hyacinth, muscari and so much more!  Check in with us to find out what is available for your wedding day!

This photo from Apartment Therapy is just delicious!  This should inspire you to use purple with matte gold items for your wedding day.  Go with matte gold chivari chairs and gold rimmed plates to get this regal look! Heck – get someone like Kendall’s Cakes or Cakes by Design to paint with edible gold on your cake or wrap pretty matte gold ribbons around the tiers of your cake.  (And no – I will not spray any of my flowers with gold – sorry folks!)

And this beautiful combination of purples, aquas and blues is enough to make me swoon!  I am starting to dream of an amazing lounge combination with purple and blue flowers with funky aqua bridesmaid dresses!  The splash of red gerbera daisies adds the extra touch of whimsy!

If you have not found inspiration for your purple wedding and modern home landscape here – let me know and I will whip up something purple next week!

We were so excited to meet Maggie Labaugh (right above) of Magpie’s Cake and her sister and marketing director Jessica Rapier (left above) yesterday that I think yesterday’s cake and cookie tasting might have been the best we have ever had!

Maggie brought her delicious samples in a delicate box complete with linen napkins and sterling silver forks!  Tara and I just marveled at the presentation alone!

If you take a look at the menu of goodies that were prepared for us – you will see  that this was not your ordinary cake tasting.  Every cake was a progression from light and fluffiness to rich decadence.  I landed at the Mexican Vanilla Cake with Earl Grey Ganache and fell in love.  Tara loved the Fiori Di Sicilia Chiffon cake with Strawberry and Champage Preserves and vanilla buttercream – which had a wonderful orange creamsicle tinge to it!  The Double Chocolate Espresso Cake was not for the faint of heart and definitely had a kick to it!

Every cake comes with a delightful detailed hand-drawn treasure,  Maggie is all about creating her cakes from a highly stylized perspective.  These are not the typical buttercream, three-tiered cakes – they are works of art.

She is a an amazing artist!  She also does cookies!

She even made a cute E&S cookie for us.  We love these cookies so much – we just could not eat them!  (Well – we ate one – shhh)

Stay tuned as we are in the throws of planning their launch party and you are invited!

If you are wanting to take your wedding or special occasion cake to the next level – Maggie is the person to call!

Happy Cake Eating!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/magpies-cake-tasting/feed/ 3 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/kendall-mo-part-iv-cake/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/kendall-mo-part-iv-cake/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:40:36 +0000 Katie L Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=3184

Ok – so I am officially obsessed with this cake.  Debbie Delardi from Cakes by Design outdid herself with this one! I am in love with it!  Debbie based the design on the Save-the-Dates and Invitations by her Etsy designer Magnolia Papier!

She also made cupcakes which we inserted paper flowers from Magnolia Papier into!

(Notice the cute paper detailing on the blue cake pedestals – which I am also obsessed with!)

Now – here comes even more craziness!  Their wedding will be on Ace of Cakes this summer!  For all you cake addicts out there…I will post about the show as soon as I know the date!

Kendall wanted to surprise Mo with a cake made in the likeness of the robot that Mo has to use 3-5 times a week to perform surgery at John Hopkins!  The robot is called the Davinci – here is the real life version of it:

And here is the cake:

It was so much fun and such a wonderful surprise for Mo!

Check out the cake topper for this one:

Her in her dress, he in his scrubs along with their doggie and the cute love birds from their invitations! ADORABLE!

There are so many more photos from this wedding…but I am figuring 4 posts is enough!  We will have a gallery of their wedding soon on the main website as it was such a wonderful day!

Again – a huge thanks to Jennifer Hughes for the images and a big ole’ congrats to Kendall & Mo!

I will post once we know about the show airing!

Cheers!

Credits clockwise from upper left:

Invitation: Etsy seller Ello There

Garter: Julianne Smith

Cake: image via Meg Baisden Photography

Bouquet: Martha Stewart Weddings

Cocktail napkins: via Once Wed

Lemonade jar: Casando Ideias

Lemondrops: via Once Wed

Balloons: via Once Wed

Dress: Stephanie James Couture

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/fresh-retro/feed/ 1 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/harvest-wedding-inspiration/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/harvest-wedding-inspiration/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:01:12 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=1601 One look at this inspiration board and you’ll know what inspired us. That gorgeous Carolina Herrera gown, front and center. The stunning wheat design on the bodice makes visions of decadent chocolate cake, pomegranate, persimmon and wheat dance through our heads!

Credits clockwise from upper left:

Shoes: Style Me Pretty

Bouquet: Martha Stewart Weddings

Wheat Boutonniere: InStyle Weddings

Chocolate Cake: Martha Stewart Weddings

Place setting: 100 Layer Cake

Invitations: Bespoke Press

Pomegranate Escort Cards: Martha Stewart Weddings

Gown: Carolina Herrera via Kiss the Groom

OK – I am in love with these photographers from Austin, Texas.  Their logo is cute.  Their photos are cute.  They, themselves, are freakin’ cute!  Because of them, I am going to start a section on my blog called “Cutie Patooties”.  Every week, I am going to proclaim someone as a Cutie Patootie!  I am sure at some point I will come up with an actual statuette that they can display on their mantels at home.  I will have to ponder that for a moment.  Not only are they cute, but they seem to have super cute clients (also cutie patootie material).  Take a peek:

So – I hope you will look forward to my Cutie Patootie posts and recommend any Cutie Patooties you know!

Stay Cute!

~Katie Martin

This week is our Summer Orchard Inspiration Board

Invitation: White Thread
Fruit Escort Card: Joy de Vivre
Dress: Atelier Aimee
Cake: Project Wedding
Bouquet: Grant Riley Weddings
Tablescape: Style Me Pretty

Happy Planning!

~Katie Martin

We were able to eat yummy cupcakes and check out the garters all at the same time!  I loved meeting Penny, the owner of Hello Cupcake, and eating a yummy carrot cake cupcake!  Aren’t Penny and Julianne cuties!  Cupcakes and garters – how could you go wrong????

Ivy Robinson came up from Charlotte for the event.  Ivy is our Charlotte Couture Wedding Consortium Director and she has been featured several times on Whose Wedding is it Anyway? and on the new series Hitched or Ditched!  

I want to also send a quick thanks to Shannon from Sevan Photography for taking the photos and sending them to us so quickly!  We were truly excited to be invited to the event and one of our brides go to be among the exclusive “10 brides only” list to check out the garters and meet wedding professionals from around the area!  

Julianne’s motto:  Embrace the Garter Tradition, With Style.

She is able to custom coordinate your colors with your garter!  Check out her website today!

****Katie Martin

You have seen previous posts about the beautiful Adele Wechsler wedding gown that was provided by Promise for the Savvy Bride, but here you will finally get to see the bride in the dress that she chose! Robin Fisher from Polished helped to style the bride and her sister with the best colors and accessories.

Although Earth Day was a very strange weather day, the wedding was beautiful!  Fortunately, the couple had two of our favorite photographers (Love Life Images & Documentary Associates) that took amazing photos for them. The wedding day started off with a quick interview from WJLA Channel 7 at the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church!

We designed the eco-friendly bridal bouquet with blue delphnium, yellow freesia, pink astilbe,  lisianthus and bouvardia.

Videographer Jessica Pi took amazing coverage that I will post shortly!  Elegant Hair by Giselle provided a beautiful natural look for the bride and Carola Myers provided flawless eco-friendly make-up by Korres (which Katie is an avid fan of!).

Utilizing the amazing local Cherry Blossom farmers, Green Love Events was able to display these magnificent blooms in the alcoves going up the stairs to the cocktail hour.

The cocktail hour was hosted upstairs in the museum, complete with mason jars filled with flowers!  The tops of the mason jars were available to the guests at the end of the evening; encouraging guests to reuse the jars for their own use after the wedding!  All of the flowers used for their wedding were grown by local farmers or from Holland’s pesticide free farmers.  All Dutch flowers were flown in on a commercial flight to utilize space otherwise unused by the average consumer on a commercial flight! 

The bride and groom made their way to the reception in a pedicab!

The guests were invited into the Carriage House after the cocktail hour for dinner and dancing.  Here are some of the beautiful details from the tables!  We love billy balls and lisianthus!  Every place setting had a different type of flower tucked into their napkin!

The centerpieces consisted of three vases.  Some tables had pink recycled glass jars (others had orange) accompanied by a flip top container and spice bottle filled with flowers.  The tops for the spice jars were provided to guests at the end of the night and they were able to take the flip top jars to use for anything from holding sugar for their coffee in the morning to saving leftovers!

Evan from MyDeejay.com had everyone dancing all night long to the couples favorite tunes!

Avalon Caterers provided eco-friendly, local and organic cuisine from the cocktail hours through the end of dinner!

 Cakes  by Design provided a beautiful eco-friendly cake complete with fresh local raspberries and decor that can be reused again and again!

The bride’s Scottish heritage brought forth the bagpiper at the church and the the beautiful custom-designed Korean Korum Bow on the bride’s gown was a fantastic addition to celebrate the groom’s culture.

Of course,  the snapshot studio from Love Life Images was a hit!

Last but not least, the entire wedding was carbon neutral with a carbon offset purchased by Elegance & Simplicity  from Carbonfund.org!

Elegance & Simplicity also provided all wedding stationery (which was all post-consumer waste recycled paper) and calligraphy.  The stationery included wedding invitations, escort cards and programs.  Elegance & Simplicity provided the couple with a logo and a logo sign to be reused by the couple as personal decor.  All leftover flowers were either taken by the family or composted by Elegance & Simplicity.  The discarded programs and escort cards were recycled by Elegance & Simplicity.  Leftover food was packed up for the bride and groom and their families at the end of the evening by Avalon Caterers.  Avalon Caterers made sure that all of their staff either carpooled or took Metro to the event.  Ask your wedding professionals how they can make a eco-friendly difference in your wedding day!  Check out all of the green wedding professionals in the consortium by clicking here!

Congratulations to our 2009 Green Wedding Giveaway Couple!

Check out my most recent post (not my photo though) about eco-friendly wedding cake!

http://www.greenandcleanmom.org/green-your-wedding-cak/

***Katie Martin***

I have been getting a lot of emails about how Dana & David are coming along with their Green Wedding Plans!!

Her dress is picked, she met with Avalon about Eco-Cuisine as well.  They are getting married at Mount Vernon United Methodist and they have picked out their invitations!  With that – they have also chosen a logo!  

We will be using their logo on their invitation envelopes and programs and stamps!  However – we specifically helped her choose a logo that did not have the date of their wedding.  Why is this green?  So they can use the logo for the rest of their lives.  They will have other celebrations and things to do in the future together – so why not have a logo that is a stamp for their lives.  Reusing items from your wedding is key to being green and keeping the memories of your wedding vibrant and alive in your daily living!

We are off to see Debbie at Cakes By Design tomorrow to pick out their cake!  Stay tuned!

***Katie