The ultimate Georgetown location for DC brides and grooms is the Halcyon House. A few weeks ago – we were there for Lillian and Henry’s wedding.  They wanted simple decor for their arch…where we added a cocculus garland and white lisianthus accents.

We also had our signature Manzanita branch escort card table arrangement complete with wheat grass as the guests entered the reception.

For the centerpieces we had a mix of tall and low ones.  Low centerpieces had local hydrangea with garden roses and echeveria. The tall centerpieces had trumpet glass vases with local hydrangea and white mini calla lilies.

As soon as we get the professional photos back – we will post them!

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/halcyon-house/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/katie-grants-wedding-at-hotel-monaco/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/katie-grants-wedding-at-hotel-monaco/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:51:55 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=5597

It is always so much fun to be part of the planning process of a wedding and to watch brides and grooms see each other for the 1st time!  Katie and Grant were so easy to work with and they ended up having a beautiful day at one of our favorite hotels – The Hotel Monaco in Washington, DC.

Her bouquet was comprised of local green hydrangea with local white phaleanopsis and fun billy ball accents from Canada!

The bridesmaids bouquets were a fun clutch of billy balls with a lily grass loop accent.

They had a cute little lemon and lime theme for their wedding in not only colors but with lemons and lines in general.  The escort card and the cake sported some lemons and limes!

They had similar flowers as well in their centerpieces with the local hydrangea, billy balls and white dendrobium orchids.  Really perfect for a July wedding!

Congrats to Katie + Grant!

Continuing from last week’s post…here are more details from the pretty in pink wedding we did earlier this month at the Decatur House!  We showcased the beautiful and fun bridesmaid bouquet last week with the limes…Above is the bridal bouquet with pink peonies, white freesia and green hypericum berries.

Main Event Caterers brought these great ottomans in to have a fun lounge feel inside the carriage house!

We used rich colors in the altar arrangements with these pink and green hydrangea and pink peony mixture.

We loved this fresh look with pink hydrangea and pink peonies with pears inside the vase!

This pretty and simple cake was brought in by Main Event Caterers from Fancy Cakes by Leslie!

Congrats to Jane and Michael for the beautiful wedding day at the Decatur House!

Infusing flowers is something we love to do!  Of course pears have their whole “perfect pair” mentality in weddings, but I just love using then for their colors.  Mixing floating pears and orchids is a perfect combo!

It’s hard to find an all green centerpiece at certain times of the year…but you can’t go wrong with pears, vibernum and bupleurum!

Having a citrusy feel to your buffet is perfect with bright orange linens and a lime filled vase.  Limes were used after the event! (Arrangement includes green Dutch hydrangea, orange unique and black magic roses with burgundy cymbidium orchids).

We loved creating this backyard oasis cocktail  display complete with tropical foliage, oranges, orchids, snapdragons, lily grass and pin cushions.

An event we did many years ago which still gets so many accolades!  Oranges and kumquats filled the vase with pretty and simple curly willow branches with words of love from the Paper Source.  This event was at the Decatur House and was actually on the cover of their brochure (another photo with our flowers is currently on the cover!)

More to come tomorrow!

(Photo credits – 1st – Amy Deputy, 2nd-4th – Katie Martin (me), 5th – Rodney Bailey)

Finally getting a chance to blog about one of our weddings from two weekends ago.  This lovely wedding at the Decatur House was small and intimate with lots of hydrangea and peonies for all to enjoy!  I love this simple bridal bouquet which smelled delicious with peonies, lavender, freesia and a touch of delphinium.

The maid of honor got this beautiful and elegant all white peony bouquet and each of the mothers got small nosegays of lavender.

We were able to use our pretty chocolate urns from Pottery Barn to set atop our own customized wooden pedetals.  The urns were filled with lush blooms of white, blue and green hydrangea.

The simple centerpieces had beautiful peonies, blue hydrangea and green dendrobium orchids.  Lot of candles were used both under the tent and in the carriage house.

Congrats to Vanessa & John!

So many friends and brides asked me what I did for Earth Day.  Was it some amazing project?  Another free wedding for a lucky couple?  Plant trees?  Nope – none of the above.  Well – we did go live with with the Eco-Beautiful Weddings Wedding Earth Day Mini Mag – which was fun for sure!

What I did do is talk about what Earth Day means to me to my child and together we did a couple of small things to help make the world a greener place.  I also remembered how last year I was coordinating Virdina and Kevin’s wedding on Earth Day (click here to see more photos from their wedding at the Decatur House).  Yes, as part of a team, we gave away a $50,000 wedding on Earth Day (for the second time) to help educate couples in the DC area that you can have a fabulous wedding that is eco-friendly and stylish.  I am pretty sure the message got across as over 62% of our couples in this past year have specifically come to our firm asking for some help in going green on their wedding day.

I have a confession to make to all of our brides and grooms: all of our couples get 100% eco-friendliness from our firm. We can’t change who we are!  We are green and we dig it – YEAR ROUND!  Not just on Earth Day!

So – a couple of brides and vendors asked me – Why no free wedding this year?  Well, the answer is simple.  We were able to show a ton of brides and grooms that going green can be stylish.  But on top of it – we were able to really show vendors how to go green as well.  We continue to educate vendors around the world on how to go green!

So this Earth Day, I tipped my hat to Virdina and Kevin’s 1st year anniversary and reveled in the fact that they had a fabulous wedding on one of the greenest days of the year!  My hope is that you are trying to plan your stylish green wedding and will look to us for guidance!

Happy Earth Day, Revisited!

(Photo by The Observatory)

Get ready for a whole week of eco-friendly inspiration for your wedding here locally in the Washington, DC area! We will be focusing on eco-friendly venues, floral designs, caterers, hotels and detail ideas all next week!

I will be on staycation with my son all week!  In celebration of Earth Day – my son and I will be out and about doing various projects together for Earth Day!  I would love to know how you are celebrating Earth Day!  Let me know below!  If you need help with ideas – I will be posting various websites links for you and your betrothed to get involved!

Have a great weekend!

(Photo by Documentary Associates of our signature purple artichoke bouquet)

My hopes are that this year, after reading my blog for a while, you will come up with some interesting ways to make your Valentine’s Day green.  This means – no buying 40 cards for your various friends or all of your children’s friends (if you are married already)  I have this very problem with my son being 9 years old.  This year, we are buying his teacher a gift certificate to her favorite store (she is the best) and giving all of his little school friends something other than paper.  A few ideas: Eco-friendly pencils, soy or recycled crayons (like the ones pictured here) and we are pondering a few other crafty ideas.

But I will make recommendations for some eco-friendly chocolate!

Divine Chocolate is actually based right here in the DC area – to learn more about their fair trade chocolates – click on one of the bars above and buy now to get them in time for Valentine’s Day!

When dining out for Valentine’s Day – check to see if your restaurant is Green Restaurant Certified or if they are using local farmers and fisherman for the freshest local fare while giving back to your own community.  I will try to create a nice list for you before Valentine’s Day for DC area restaurants that I frequent!

And last but not least, have the best eco-breath ever with Tom’s Wicked Fresh.  We are giving away a few tubes on the Eco-Beautiful Weddings Blog today (today is the last day).  It’s so easy – get over there to win (click below to find out how)!

Be sure to surf alllll the wedding blogs on Valentine’s Day as they will all be cooking up something cute for you that day.  They will be brimming with Valentines’ Day ideas and cute wedding ideas for your wedding planning pleasure.  We will surely have at least 2 more posts about Valentine’s Day as we know so many of you out there will get engaged that day!

Oh and since we are talking about the day of love…I am very excited on this 2/2/2011 as my nephew is being born!  Stay tuned for some gushing Auntieland photos with Lil Tommy the 3rd!

Cheers!

We are so excited about this new blog for Washington, DC area weddings!  A blog that really features how amazing our “wedding city” is!  On top of it being new, it is  also run by some of the most savvy wedding ladies in the industry (whom are also here locally in Washington, DC).  Nole and Julianne!  Nole runs the popular Oh So Beautiful Paper Blog and Juli has her amazing line of Garters called The Garter Girl (the first to have a specific eco-line by the way!).

Oh and it just so happens that one our weddings from last year is already on the blog!  Click below to see more of Claire & Adil’s wedding at Meridian House and see all the yummy ideas on United With Love!  A big congrats to Nole and Juli for putting together such a beautiful blog!

Meet Laura Swanstrom Reece of The Silken Thread!  I was thrilled to be a part of such a cute event for her 5th anniversary over at Frosting!  Not only did I get to meet the mastermind behind this incredible company, but got to see some good friends and catch up with Michelle of Frosting!

I absolutely love this concept of placing this embroidered monogram inside your wedding gown. This is great as a gift! My own sister-in-law had one just like it for her wedding day and she got it as a gift at her bridal shower!

So many of my brides hold a handkerchief around their bridal bouquet – this hemstich monogram handkerchief is also perfect as a gift or just to buy for yourself as a bride to pass down through the generations!  Since The Silken Thread is local it is fantastic for local brides – but you can also buy personalized embroidered items for any occasion right from her website!

Laura and her team were smart by having their party at Frosting!  The cupcakery in Chevy Chase is adorable and the cupcakes are divine.  They were featuring a gluten-free chocolate cupcake today.  I had the raspberry cupcake – as showcased by the staff here:

Since I know the lady behind the scenes – I was able to grab a few swag bags to give away to you!  I have one bag to give away as I already gave one away on Twitter yesterday.

Here is the catch – you have to tell me what you are doing to go green in your life and for your wedding (or wedding business)!  These keepsakes from Laura are true treasures and quality products that will last for generations.  These are not throw-away items and we love anything personalized for a wedding that will last for years to come.  Write in the comments section below about how you are doing something unique to go green and I will send the fab swag bag to you!  I will pick a winner on Monday!

Here is a cute photo of the swag bag from Anh Nguyen:

Good Luck!

Credits (from left to right)

Wedding Poppers

Bubbles

Birdseed packets

Pom Poms

Love Birds

Bio-degradable confetti

We have gotten a few chances to work with her and her associates!  I absolutely adore Andrea!  Her innovative photography and friendly approach with clients are always a fantastic combination.  She is also a member of the Washington DC Green Wedding Consortium as an eco-friendly photographer and she was selected to be on the Washington DC Couture Wedding Consortium!

Here are a few photos from a recent wedding in DC that Andrea took.

The couple…also cutie patooties!  Married at the Tabard Inn and portraits in Senate Park!  So wonderfully DC!

Check out the zipcar and her cute red shoes! I LOVE IT!

(bouquet by Phillippa Tarrant)

Congratulations to the couple and Andrea for being cutie patooties and having such a beautiful wedding day!

Cheers!

~Katie Martin

We are tickled GREEN!  We just saw that Carbonfund.org just posted about us on their blog!  We carbon-offset through them for our own company, but we also make carbon offsetting donations for couples as well with certain packages that we provide.  Learn about carbon offsetting your wedding by taking a look at their handy-dandy carbon-offsetting wedding calculator!  We also dig them as they are local!  Right here in Silver Spring, MD!

Take a look at their blog post about us by clicking on the logo above!  Thanks Carbonfund.org!

Happy Greening!

~Katie Martin

Met with one of my clients on Skype today as we were planning her wedding long-distance.  The details of her wedding are extremely important!  We have 300 guests guests coming to town for her wedding and we want to wow them!

So – we were on the subject of desserts and we searched the web for a few things together and fell in love with Sweet Paul’s blog!  A lot of these dessert concepts can be made with local farm fresh ingredients – giving them an eco-friendly edge!

One thing that is always important to me as a wedding planner is the style and creativity of my vendors.  We have a caterer that could master these dessert concepts – so I am excited.  Yum!

We pretty much heart Sweet Paul and his food styling!

Happy Planning!

~Katie Martin

]]> http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/wedding-planning/sweet-paul/feed/ 0 http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/products-of-the-week-2/ http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/announcements/products-of-the-week-2/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:13:25 +0000 Katie Martin http://www.eleganceandsimplicity.com/blog/?p=630 A few things that all brides, moms, bridesmaids and the guests should go out and buy!

First, all of us should be learning how to eat well!  So, here is a book I plan to pick up this week:

I am a huge fan of Sophie’s books and blog!  Click on the book above and buy the book online or found out more about the book!

I am a lover of totes!  Here is a great tote that everyone should have for your groceries or for just looking cute around town!  Click on the photo to buy!

I am about to buy a blouse from www.dreamsack.com.  While perusing – I saw these fantastic 70% bamboo – 30% Organic cotton towels on sale – Perfect for a destination wedding welcome bag (if they are in your colors) and on sale!!!

Stay tuned for more products!  I have a great new resource for eco-friendly invitations that are adorable!!!  Will post about them soon!

Happy Shopping!

~Katie Martin

Congratulations Claire & Adil!  Molly from Simply Vintage was a great help as their wedding planner and as always, we love working with her!  They really wanted eco-friendly flowers and they got them!  We love it when clients seek that out in their floral designs!

Cheers! ~ Katie Martin

Check out local Maryland wineries here!

Take a look at Virginia Wineries here:

Keep in mind that you can also have your wedding at some of these wineries and vineyards.  If you are a wine connoisseur, you have probably already thought of this.  Even if you are not into wine, you will find that wineries are some of the most beautiful places to have weddings!

Check out one of the weddings we did at Bluemont Vineyard in VA:

Check out Joe Portnoy’s photography website here!

Cheers to local flair!~Katie Martin

Things that a bride or bridesmaid should have…

Oh – the Kate Spade ring and bangle – love the color!!!!!!!!!!

And since I can’t wear high heels at weddings while I work – all my purple bound brides should have their rehearsal dinner dress complete with these Kate Spade shoes or have the bridemaids indulge in them for the wedding day! How yummy!

Fun eco-friendly bridesmaid gift!  Kudos to Coca-Cola for making eco-apparel! Check it out: www.coca-colastore.com

Hard to believe – but all of the above sexy and cute four photos come from one place – Enamore Ltd!  Oh the British are far ahead in their sassy ways!  All items are made from vintage and eco-friendly materials!

And last but not least – my favorite wedding professional of the week.  We have one of the most talented acoustic guitarists living amongst us!  His name is Chris Dunn!  Not only does he have his own CD, he teaches guitar too!  I have used his guitar services for many of my brides over the years and he is amazing. If you want fantastic ceremony, cocktail or dinner music – you must hire Chris Dunn!

Have an eco-beautiful wedding!

Cheers – Katie Martin

Amanda with Occasions helped to create a beautiful eco-friendly wedding buffet for the couple.  All left-over food scraps were placed into compost bins and the food was amazing!

Here are a few photos from the day:

The chuppah was adorned with purple delphinium and white and green orchids!  We will be using it again next week at the Westin Grand!

The bride choose beautiful shades of lavender and purple flowers with a hint of green (including local fresh English lavender, delphinium, freesia, roses and calla lilies).  While the bridesmaid (her sister) had a simpler bouquet to match her pretty burgundy gown.

We love being able to be creative!  Using deer moss and curly willow to create a real tree-like feel inside the mansion with the escort card table.

The centerpieces reflecting the escort card table and the bridal bouquet.

We always have a fun time creating interesting concepts for a real eco-friendly venue such as Woodend!  We will be there next week as well for Soneela and Walker’s wedding!

Cheers! – Katie Martin

We have them in both four and five feet heights.  The pedestals can used to either place a vase on top of them or (like in the photo of above) vases can be placed inside the pedestal to make the pedestal seem like a vase in and of itself!  We are using them at an upcoming wedding at the Ronald Reagan Building with manzanita branches!  Imagine the possibilities for your event!

Thanks to Documentary Associates for coming out and taking the photos for us!

I am extending the giveaway until August 15th!  We have a lot of clients coming in between now and August 15th.  I want to give all of those clients a chance to get a garter too!

Call today for your free consultation and come in before 8/15!  Click on her logo below to check out all the fun styles and her cute blog as well!

Cheers, Katie Martin

Our new structure gives us the ability to customize the size of the structure to fit your needs!  The basic structure is 6x6x8 feet as shown here:

You can attach greenery garlands and other fabric to the top!  We now can customize the top portion of the chuppah to fit the size of your stages.  We have a couple coming up that are 3×4 feet and 3×5 feet. One of the weddings we are customizing the top to accommodate a family tallit!

The structure is made of local, renewable lumber and some of the pieces of the wood that we have used for customizing the top has come from reclaimed wood that we have stripped and refinished – so it is eco-friendly as well!

Make this chuppah yours with fabric, flowers and size!  We look forward to being a part of your wedding day!

Cheers, Katie Martin

(Photo was taken by Steve Voss from Shulamit and Eric’s wedding at the Meridian House this past July 5th! – Congrats!)

Rachel, for her wedding next week picked these fun cards (so did Ameena for her August wedding)

We are doing this one for Sally – I love the Ginko leaves – which is a tree that grows all over Washington, DC!

If you are doing floral designs or consulting with us – you get an automatic 10% off!!!  Mention this blog post and get 25 of your envelopes addressed in calligraphy for free!

Red and Gold are auspicious colors in the Chinese culture…we used just a touch of gold in the pins on her bridal bouquet!

Oh, Jennifer and Mary – how I love you both!  Love this photo!!!!!  These dresses were so fun and the hydrangea and rose color combo gave a yummy sorbet look!  Look how cute this bridesmaid is with her matching nail color!  LOVE IT!

Just have to make this note here…carnations rock!!!  Look at our carnation pomander here!  Again, yummy!  We tied them to the back of the bride and groom’s chairs after the ceremony. Unfortunately it rained and we had to move the ceremony indoors.

The bride changed her dress twice at the reception which is part of the Chinese wedding tradition.  Here is her beautiful 1st wedding gown.  I love the detail of the bow that had stunning, rough eco-friendly edges. Love, love, love the dress!!!

Here she is dancing in her second dress, a red and gold Chinese gown with the phoenix and the dragon embroidered on the dress.  Absolutely beautiful.  This was a surprise for the groom!

Find out more about Chinese Wedding Traditions in my upcoming book: The Everything Wedding Book, 4th Edition! 

Here she is with her her groom in her 3rd gown!  A stunning orange evening gown!

Everyone’s breath was taken away by the Chinese Lion Dancers!

The couple, so genuinely dedicated to each other and their traditions, had a day full of delightful Jewish and Chinese fanfare.  From the festive dragonfly kippot for the wedding party to the Horah!  The wedding day began with photos followed by the Jewish ceremony of the Bedeken and Ketubah (Jewish Wedding contract) signing.

Next was the wedding ceremony underneath the chuppah with beautiful music played on the Chinese guzheng.

The bride and groom were wrapped in the groom’s tallit by the mother of the groom, who performed the ceremony.   I absolutely adore this shot of the bride and groom.  Simply in love.  

Of course, no Jewish wedding is complete without Horah dancing!!!

There are so many other details from this wedding…but I will wait to post them to the website at a later time!  Congratulations to Susanna and Ariel!

Mazel Tov!

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!

Brides are always shying away from the typical gifts and finding new ways to delight their bridesmaids.

If your Maid of Honor is in to art, check out this local artist:

Angela Aveta’s edgy photography prints. Here is a fun one I am thinking about buying:

Have a make-up lover or the one bridesmaid that always looks on point?  Check out this refreshing line of make-up made up of eco-friendly ingredients that can be found at Sephora.

Trying to find a great and stylish idea for a gift is always easy at Fitzsu!  Here are a few of my favorite items:

Have fun shopping for your ladies and check back for more favorite things!

***Katie Martin***

Soon – I will be launching the Green Love Events website (a 100% eco-friendly wedding division of Elegance & Simplicity Wedding & Event Designers, Inc.)!  We had a preview available of our services at the Washington DC Couture Wedding Consortium Bridal show.  However – we have changed the logo!

Here it is:

Stay tuned for the launch of the website featuring our flowers, Photography from Love Life Images & Documentary Associates, Sound from Disc Jockeys on Call & MyDeejay.com, Bridal Fashion and Style from Promise for the Savvy Bride and Polished Image & Style Consultants.  It will be your one stop shop for an unforgettable Eco-Friendly Green Wedding or Event in the Greater Washington DC and Baltimore Metro Areas!

* Katie Martin