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

A few of our favorite drinks from over the years…

Ginger lime mojitos from Design Cuisine with our straw escort card tags in Stewarts Soda Bottles – Photos by Kathy Blanchard

Wonderful Cocktail concoctions from Farmers & Fishers from our article in Eco-Beautiful Weddings – Photos by The Obsvervatory

Cucumber water station from Main Event Caterers (photo by K. Thompson Photography) with sodas from our Green Wedding Giveaway (Photo by Documentary Associates + The Observatory)

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/wedding-drink-style/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/floral-designs/samples-season/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/floral-designs/samples-season/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:30:24 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=5724

It’s that time of year!  Both in the spring and the fall we are always making samples for our clients to make sure the look we are going for is in line with what the caterer is providing as well.  Above is a fun sample of manzanita branches with terra cotta roses attached to the branches with plums inside the vase over at Design Cuisine for a wedding we are doing at the Meridian House in the fall…

Then for this sample we were asked to create an interesting eco-friendly design for a corporate event at Window Catering Company…All items can be planted again or simply placed on someone’s desk after the event!

Speaking of eco-friendly… the Fall Issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings goes live on Thursday!

There is nothing better than the best band ever for a wedding!  Golem, from New York, kept everyone on the dance floor at Decatur House for Mari and Josh’s wedding reception!  Can’t you tell by this photo above?  Take a look:

Don’t you want to get up and dance right now?

If you saw the post yesterday – you also saw this gorgeous quilt made by Mari’s mom.  We were able to bring it over to the reception in between the ceremony and reception to hang behind the escort card table.  Just beautiful!

Mari and Josh chose beautiful fabrics from Africa to place on each table.  Every table had a different fabric accent that our seamstress customized for them from the bolts of fabric Mari brought back from Africa.  We then had several fun ceramic square white vases filled with herbs for the guests to take home.  As always, Design Cuisine did an amazing job.  You can’t tell from these photos, but Mari’s family owns cattle and Design Cuisine was able to use cuts of meat from her own family’s farm for the dinner!  Just an over the top amount of work and wonderful customer service!

We loved Mari’s beautiful bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquet – a fun and whimsical bouquet with peonies, delphinium and belles of Ireland.

Her bridesmaids bouquet complimented so wonderfully with the peonies, delphinium and dianthus!

Stay tuned tomorrow for our final installment from Mari and Josh’s wedding…incredibly fun photos!!!

Photography by Documentary Associates

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!

Following up on our post from this past Tuesday, we are excited to bring you more details from the reception at Margaret and Patrick’s beautiful wedding at Rust Manor in Leesburg.  Transitioning into the reception, Margaret and Patrick went from a purple and green theme to adding blue to the mix at the reception.

We used a mixture of different centerpieces: 2 low and 1 tall (tall not shown here).  We had some great navy fabric leftover from another event that complimented the color scheme well and wrapped some of the low vases with it! Our graphic artist designed the table numbers, programs and more!

The bride’s mom came up with a great quilt idea to have each of the guests write a note to the bride and the groom on quilt squares to incorporate into a finalized quilt!  I had so much fun with the mom gathering ideas and our carpenter on staff made that cute sewing station stand from reclaimed wood!

I just love how bright and cheery the spools of thread are!  This was all a surprise to the bride the night of the wedding.  Her grandmother was a quilter and it was a wonderful and bittersweet reminder of how family lives on in traditions.

Yes – you have probably seen a similar cake in The Knot!  She loved it and Design Cuisine did a great job of replicating it for her with their wedding colors!

Combining both of their family’s heritage – we brought in Lebanese Debke Dancers and Irish Celtic Dancers towards the end of the evening!

Then, if that was not enough – we made sure they were sent off with Irish Lucky Clover Cookies, Baklava and Mulled Cider to Go!

Many Congrats to Margaret + Patrick!

Vendors

Photography – Kathy Blanchard

Veneu – Rust Manor

Wedding Planning, Design, Florals, Lanterns, Programs, Signage – Elegance & Simplicity, Inc.

Catering + Rentals – Design Cuisine + DC Rental

DJ Music Services - Disc Jockeys On Call

Videography – Blue Sky Films

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/margaret-patricks-lebanese-irish-reception/feed/ 1 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/margaret-patrick-rust-manor-wedding/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/margaret-patrick-rust-manor-wedding/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:01:32 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=4612

I am so excited to finally show you one of my favorite weddings from last year!  Margaret and Patrick were married this past October at Rust Manor (which is one of the Audubon Society’s properties).  This wedding meant so much to me as Margaret is the sister of a previous client Ameena (click here to see her wedding)!  I really got to know Margaret, Ameena and their mother during Ameena’s wedding and I was so excited to be planning Margaret’s wedding!

Her pretty bridal bouquet was comprised of purple vanda orchids, green cymbidium orchids and white ranunculus.  Margaret wanted purples and greens for the ceremony and blues and greens for the reception.

We were able to hang some pretty purple and white paper lanterns along with our green glass votives above the couple for a lantern chandelier effect from the sprawling tree!  We customized our reclaimed wood stage for them with a darkened natural stain.

After seeing our cute article on eco-friendly wedding children’s ideas in Eco-Beautiful Weddings (by Couture Parties), Margaret fell in love with the idea of a little sign for the ring bearer instead of a pillow.  Margaret’s mom also got a radio flyer painted blue to fit the color scheme for the little flower girl to ride in!  Just adorable!

During the cocktail hour the guests were treated to eye candy and so much more!  Since Patrick is Irish – they opted for a fun Shamrock Ginger Lime Mojito!  We kept the purple going with the flowers, but started to bring in the greens and the blues with this fantastic escort card table display:

(Be sure to click on the photo here above to get a bigger and better view!)

Stay tuned for later in the week for details from their reception!

Photography by Kathy Blanchard & Catering by Design Cuisine

We are thrilled that our friends over at Design Cuisine have gotten their Green Restaurant Certification.  This is another incredible accomplishment that Design Cuisine can add to the list.  This certification is not to be taken lightly and we wanted to take the beginning of this week to applaud Design Cuisine for their dedication to sustainability!

We have a fantastic wedding from the fall that we will be posting shortly featuring some green elements that Design Cuisine created with our team!

Stay Tuned!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/design-cuisine/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/dennis-danbee-at-dumbarton-house/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/dennis-danbee-at-dumbarton-house/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:00:06 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=4362

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

Oh Jennifer…what I am going to do with you!  Every single photo you take is amazing!  Yes – we are back again for Candace and Chris’ wedding. I promise this is the last post (maybe – LOL) about this wedding…but there are simply are so many things to write about it!  I thought this would be a good post right before the weekend to sink your teeth into!

We purchased these new chandeliers for their wedding to hang above the escort cards (now available for your wedding – we have 6 now)!

We hung 3 crystal chandeliers above the escort cards to create a vignette of gorgeous fun!

Yes – those are teeny tiny clothes pins – perfect for escort cards hung on hemp ribbon!

This gorgeous banner from Giggleberry Creations was the entrance bunting as guests were welcomed to the wedding!  And also a perfect spot for a kiss!

Giggleberry also created this adorable “Love Nest” bunting for the Love Nest! Here guests were asked to leave love notes and wishes for Candace and Chris and attach them to the bunting.  We created these so they could be reused as decor in their home!

You might remember these hanging flowers above the cocktail hour’s tapenade station from a previous post about their wedding. Well – here is what happened while the guests were at dinner:

We transformed the tapenade station to the dessert station complete with suspended lollipops!  Candace’s friend provided cupcakes and cookies while we provided the stands, jars and candy!

We were able to use our vintage cake pedestals and jars along with custom designed signage for the candy sticks and signs for the cupcakes and cookies.

And how could we not have some sort of car photo?  Two Corvettes adorned the driveway as guests entered the wedding.  Of course, having their wedding on our blog and not talking about cars at all would be blasphemy (at least in my mind)!  My first brand new car was a green civic from Ourisman Honda in Bethesda!   I love this adorable shot of them inside one of the corvettes!

Well – there are more details to show – but I will sign off by saying that these two love birds were wonderful to work with and I had a wonderful time planning this gloriously beautiful wedding.

Big hugs to Candace, Chris and their families for letting us be a part of their day!

VENDORS

Caterer – Design Cuisine

Photography – Love Life Images

Band – Washington Talent Agency

Rentals – DC Rental

Hair onsite (including bridal) – Elegant Hair by Giselle

Bridesmaids Hair – Salon Jean

Make-up – Jeff Enriquez

Bridal Make-up – Carl Ray

Valet – MarcParc

Hotel – Hotel Monaco, DC & Bethesda Hyatt

Rehearsal Dinner – Congressional Country Club

Officiant – Mary Maurey

Elegance and Simplicity Provided Wedding Planning, Floral Design, Programs, Menus, Signage (both paper and wooden), Dessert Bar set-up, Chuppah rental, Calligraphy and other decor prop item rentals.

They had such a beautiful day and used some of our new inventory for their wedding.  I simply could not wait to show all of you how wonderful the day went.  Photos will not do justice as to how much fun the guests had while dancing to the groom’s favorite band from Philly.  The food by Design Cuisine was amazing (as always) and the wedding professionals that Erin and Chris chose from our preferred list were top notch in every way.

Congrats to Erin and Chris!

Take a peek here:

Below we have their escort card table arrangement which turned in to their note card station for guests to write their well wishes to the bride and the groom!

Here are our fun new tea lights that we hung in the tent for a touch of whimsy!

St. John’s has a beautiful parish house attached the back of the church with fantastic high ceilings.  Erin’s bridal bouquet was shot against one of the beautifully decorated walls below.  She used a family heirloom pin to decorate the bridal stems.

They chose one of the most amazing menus, the guests raved about all night!  Not to mention the fun key lime mini cupcakes and the french fries passed out later in the evening!

Instead of writing or printing out table names, the groom went around town to their favorite restaurants and took photos to label their tables with!  Their low centerpieces were filled with fresh Dutch Hydrangea and fragrant local peonies.  Their tall centerpieces (not shown here) were tall trumpet vases filled with white and green orchids.

More to come! Stay tuned for some new news!

Cheers,

Katie Martin