Yummy Blue…

Top to Bottom, Left to Right:

One of our beautiful brides in her beautiful blue dress at Woodend Sanctuary- Photo by Heather Z

Blue Cake by Cakes by Design from a wedding we did last year at the Engineer’s Club – Photo by Jennifer Hughes

Gorgeous Blue Garter from The Garter Girl

Blue Veil by Ossai as seen in the summer issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings – Photo by Marta Locklear

Lapis Champagne Flutes from BHLDN

Gorgeous Blue Shoes from one our brides at the Decatur House – photo by Rodney Bailey

Sorry we missed last week’s Style Post!! So we thought we would come back with something sweet!  While cupcakes and all sorts of dessert bars are the rage right now…we will always be in love with the “traditional” wedding cake.  We love cake!  Above is a way to incorporate your love of tradition with the cupcake aspect!  The cake was based on the design of the couple’s invitations and baked to perfection by Cakes by Design.  The bride added her own whimsy with the fun cupcake stand and cupcake decor inserts! To see more from this wedding at the Engineer’s Club in Baltimore - click here. (Photos by Jennifer Hughes)

We love the interesting design of the cake plate here to the left for a wedding we did at Brookside Gardens and the beautiful green garden design by Cakes by Linda for a wedding we did at Top of the Town (more from that wedding tomorrow and Wednesday).  (Photography by K. Thompson + Documentary Associates)

We will always love this cute bird cake topper from Mary Kate’s wedding at Thorpewood and this beautiful and intricate design from Cakes by Design at the Decatur House. (Bird photo by us, Pink cake by Documentary Associates and The Obsvervatory)

Dreaming about your wedding day but worried how to keep it stylish, fresh and eco-friendly at the same time?  This 4th Installment for Earth Day Week is about how to keep the flowers and the details green!  That is what we specialize in.  Eco-friendly flowers and details is what makes your wedding yours.  If you are like most couples, hundreds (if not thousands) of them have gotten married at your venue before – so the only way to make it special is with floral designs and personal touches.

Working with a logistical team and local farmers, distributors and nature itself, we design an overall design scheme for you to help fit your style!  From flowers that are grown in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Holland (the last two have some of the toughest fair trade and wage laws in the world and Holland practically invented the cut flower trade).  Using a combination of carbon offsetting, commercial flights (as opposed to Fedex or UPS) and sheer information and research – we are able to provide you with the best possible options.  Our inventory boasts thousands of pieces of glassware from small to large.  We don’t charge a “rental” fee for them like most florists do – we just simply pick up our stuff at the end of the night.  With most weddings – we will take any leftover flowers to a nursing home (complimentary).  If not – we also compost!  Our in-house paper and glass lantern inventory is extensive and in every color imaginable.  And…if we don’t have it in stock – we will get it for you!  We have even used leftover beading from Christmas tree decor for a bridesmaid’s bouquet!  We love to upcycle and reinvent weddings.

In conjunction with our flower department and lighting, we have all sorts of decor and favor options available for you.  We have LED lights for our paper lanterns, in-house glassware (like mason jars for serving lemonade on a sunny wedding afternoon).  We also have over 500 pieces of vintage and modern glassware just for candy and food bars.  If your venue or caterer only has trays – we have trays, footed candy bowls, 3-tiered petit four/cupcake plates and more.  We have our own carpentry team in house to custom design mandaps, chuppahs, arches, trellis’, chalkboards, directional signs and more.

We help take your dreams and ideas and make them a reality with the extensive collection of items we have in our inventory to the extensive reach of vendors that we work with in the DC area.  We have an extensive information database gathered from around the world with our magazine team of writers, photographers, interns, researchers and photo editors (Eco-Beautiful Weddings).  There is simply no other event design firm in the DC/Baltimore area that has as much experience, inventory and knowledge about going green as our team here at Elegance & Simplicity, Inc.!  Go green for your wedding today – email us inquiries @ eleganceandsimplicity.com!

(Photo Credits from Top to Bottom – 1st Bouquet – The Observatory, 2nd bouquet – Marta Locklear, Beaded Bouquet – Documentary Associates, Praying Mantis – Amy Deputy, Triple Centerpiece – Documentary Associates, Hanging votives – Marta Locklear, Blue/Green Lanterns, Candy Bar, Lemonade Stand and Cake photos – Documentary Associates (cake by Cakes by Design), Paris Photo – K Thompson, Blue/green votives + Trellis with paper lanterns – Jennifer Hughes, Escort “card” Chalkboard (with calligraphy from Meant to Be Calligraphy – K Thompson)

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We are gearing up for the Eco-Beautiful Spring Mini Mag!  Stay tuned tomorrow as it is filled with green contents that you will need to jump on!

We are so excited to finally showcase Kendall and Mohamad’s wedding as seen in Baltimore Bride Magazine!

If you are hungry for more images from their eco-friendly wedding – then click here to see all the fun details!

(photography by Jennifer Hughes)

There is a sense of magic with royal weddings – especially when it comes to the British.

The world has fallen in love with the upcoming nuptials of Kate Middleton and Prince William because of the type of wedding they want to have. The bittersweetness of the ring is what has made us so star struck with the couple.  Instead of choosing a large diamond rock (which would have been easy for Prince William), he chose to give one of his prized possessions – his mother’s ring.

Their plans for a fair trade and organic cake (above organic cakes by Sarah Magid and Cakes by Design), the ring and asking that guests make donations in lieu of gifts are just a few of the ways that let us know that Kate and William are modernizing and greening their royal wedding.  We know she wants an eco-friendly gown and if she wants an organic cake – why not have organic and local flowers?

Kate is an elegant and modern woman and by watching their romance and engagement unfold, we think she will choose a gown that whispers a sense of simplicity along with grace and elegant flair.  Everyone has been speculating about different designers, but it seems she has been consulting with a couple of local designers in England – BRAVO Kate!  We know whatever dress she chooses will wow us and will be embedded in our memories for years to come!

Congrats to Kate  + William!

(The Cotton Bride gown photographed by Parris Whittingham + Organic cotton bouquet by us and photographed by a little bit of whimsy photography + Cakes by Design photo taken by The Observatory)

Growing up my favorite color combination was purples with soft pink tones, so you can imagine my delight when Dennis and Danbee sent me their color palette all the way from South Korea!

The soft and delicate tones of lavender and grey with a touch of pink pizazz was perfect for their fall nuptials at Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University and Dumbarton House

One of the many reasons why I love weddings so much are the many children I get to meet along the way!  Every once in a while we get the cutest darn kids at weddings and this one was no exception.  I love the photo to the right of the little boys shoes – how darling are these traditional Korean wedding outfits!  I could not take my eyes off of them!

CUTIE PATOOTIE AWARD for sure!

We created this fun, fresh and modern escort card table design with fabric covered vases, submerged flowers and a bit of whimsy with the manzanita branches. The light lavender tone of the phaleanopsis orchids worked perfectly with their palette!

We used modern white vases with phaleanopsis orchids, hydrangea and ranunculus for their centerpieces to go on top of the gorgeous velour linens provided by DC Rental!

Our in-house graphic design artist created the menu for the couple and they went a little DIY by doing the printing and assembling themselves (and added a little oomph with the ribbon and square)!  Design Cuisine catered this fun-filled event and provided the beautiful tabletop items!

We added lavender lanterns to our inventory for their wedding and Sugarplum provided the beautiful tent, liner and uplighting to lend an ethereal feel to the reception.

Cakes by Design provided this absolutely simple but lovely lavender cake!  Just delicious and almost to pretty to cut!

And we could not resist putting in this hilarious photo of the best man break dancing to the perfect dance music set from Disc Jockeys on Call.  Break dancing always a includes a little luck – so the Korean ducks helped not only in the longevity of Dennis and Danbee’s marriage – but in the longevity of the best man’s spin!

Congrats to Dennis + Danbee!

Photos by Documentary Associates

Grab a cup a coffee or a glass a wine and get ready as this post is long!  There is simply no way to break up  this post into smaller parts!  The details of this wedding are just so much fun and better to see all together!  We have done two previous posts on the decor of the ceremony and cocktail hour (along with 3 teaser posts!) Now the finale!

Even with this overall Atrium room shot at the Ronald Reagan Building – you still can’t see all the stations of fun at this wedding!  To give just a little backdrop – Jordan is a school teacher – so some of the props might make more sense once you see them!

To bring in the true school spirit – we ordered some basic student high school lockers and painted them for the couple.  We still have them – so let us know if you want them for your wedding! It was the talk of the wedding and everyone had so much fun looking inside and seeing all the fun photos [if you look closely enough here - you can see her dad Rick Scott (who is currently running for Governor in Florida)].

Another fun station was the “Map Station”.  Since both Jeremy and Jordan love to travel so much – they wanted to see where everyone else has traveled to.  So we placed pink and green pins on the maps for where Jordan and Jeremy have been and asked the guests to place the yellow pins (as shown in the letters J) on the map for where they have been.

Then we had the photo booth.  I will most likely do a whole other post just on the photos from the photographer (Documentary Associates) that took the photo booth photos as they were hilarious!

(You can’t have a photo booth these days without props – we got these from Etsy!)

A couple of days ago we showed you the program we designed…here is the menu that matches!

There were so many flowers everywhere at this wedding that there just is not enough room in this post to show them.  We had tall arrangements filled with green and white dendrobium orchids along with jaguar pink orchids and yellow mokara orchids!  The two long head tables for the wedding party had lots of fun different shaped vases filled with seasonal local flowers including local hydrangea, peonies and roses.

One of the funniest things about this wedding is that Jordan wanted to possibly trip up the guests by numbering the tables with prime numbers (take a look at the photo above this one and you can see that table number is #29).  Carla David Design did such an amazing job with these table tents, the map station, soda station and lemonade/pink lemonade/limeade bar signs (below).

And now…the cakes!  Cakes by Design did such an amazing job!  I still can’t get over how she was able to create Jordan and Jeremy’s dog and how she used the decor on the groom’s cake to look like the masses/crowd (GENIUS!)

And…their super fun candy bar!

It was an amazing party and we had so much fun designing it!

Congratulations Jordan & Jeremy!

Wedding Planning, Floral Designs & Decor, Lanterns, Stationery, Candy Bar – Elegance & Simplicity, Inc.

Venue & Catering - Ronald Reagan Building

Photography - Ralph Alswang

Band + Ceremony Music - MSE Productions

Videography - Blue Sky Films

Lighting & Fabric Draping – Ampa Events

Cake – Cakes by Design

Linens – Table Manners

Bridal Styling – Polished Image and Style

Hair – Elegant Hair by Giselle

Make-up – Carola Myers

Detail Signage – Carla David Design

Photo Booth Photography – Documentary Associates

Rehearsal Dinner – Arts Club of Washington

Transportation – Chariots for Hire

Accommodations – Willard InterContintental

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/jordan-jeremys-reception/feed/ 3 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/jordan-jeremys-wedding/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/jordan-jeremys-wedding/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:00:28 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=3714

Oh – the yumminess from this wedding is abounding!  Stay tuned for several blog posts on this amazing wedding that we did for Jordan and Jeremy at the Ronald Reagan Building.

(Photography by Ralph Alswang, Cake by Cakes by Design, Lemonade Sign by Carla David Design)

This was such a fun bat mitzvah that we did in late spring from repeat clients for their 2nd daughter’s bat mitzvah in Bethesda!

She really let us great creative by using our cupcake trees along with wheat grass to place along the edge of the kid’s tables along with nestled cupcakes!

The adult tables had tall arrangements with ginger, eremurus (foxtail lilies) orchids and elephant leaves to remind the guests of their family’s heritage in Costa Rica!

Thanks to Debbie Delardi over at Cakes by Design once again for her amazing cupcakes!

By the way – we have a number of the cupcake trees in stock for rent anywhere in the Washington, DC and Baltimore areas!  They have been super popular this year with our clients!  Not exactly the best photos we have ever taken – but it got he job done!

Mazel Tov!

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!

This issue is amazing – complete with all sorts of ideas from all over the place about how to go green for your wedding day!  We were able to do an amazing photo shoot at Woodend Sanctuary to showcase some of the green styling we do for weddings.

The amazing vendors that were involved include: Tom Van Veen of Documentary Associates, Debbie Delardi from Cakes by Design, DC Rental & Table Manners!

Click on the images to enlarge them!

We have made about 4 different ones and our couples have loved them so much – they have them as decor in their homes now!  A great way to make your wedding decor part of your daily living!  Reuse people!

Happy Planning

~Katie Martin

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/one-of-our-new-cupcake-trees/feed/ 1 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/ameena-james-wedding-at-the-ronald-reagan-building/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/ameena-james-wedding-at-the-ronald-reagan-building/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:46:08 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=510 We seem to get so lucky to get some of the best brides and grooms in the city!  All year long we get the pleasure of working at the Ronald Reagan Building and this year – Ameena & Jamie take the cake for the best wedding of the year!  We got a taste of the wedding from Documentary Associates all over again!

I can’t wait to hear more about their honeymoon to Costa Rica!  We loved planning for their big day and we will certainly post more details about their wedding on the main website soon!

My favorite is Cakes by Design.  Debbie has become such a great friend and part of our family.  She makes my son’s birthday cake every year!  Then, when Miguel and I were married last June she made our wedding cake.  Here it is – for those that are interested (yes it is weird and zig-zaggy – just like life!):

Debbie will be having an open house cake tasting this weekend at her cute space in Occoquan.  Email Debbie directly at cakesbydesign@yahoo.com!  I have a few clients going this weekend, so I plan on going myself!  Hope to see you there! – 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!

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