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

Check out the post here!

They posted our wonderful artichoke bouquet from my upcoming book about eco-friendly weddings!  They sourced the photo back to one of our earlier posts – gotta love a well-done BLOG!   Thanks casasugar!

photo by Documentary Associates

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

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!)

Cheers, Katie Martin

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

Click here for how to listen!

I heard that Barbara from The Observatory was their photographer – so I am excited to see those photos!  I loved Claire’s color palette of ice blues, lavenders and cool greens.  Her bouquet was definitely the favorite that I made this past weekend!

Then Stephanie and Kevin delivered our striking monochromatic deep red floral designs to Marie for her wedding at Holy Trinity in Georgetown and their reception 101 Constitution’s rooftop terrace (by the way, catered by Avalon Caterers!)  Here is a peek at their centerpieces consisting of burgundy dupioni silk covered vases filled with bursting peonies, mini calla lilies, tulips and roses:

Arney, Tara and Charlie consulted and delivered flowers and installed lanterns at the GW River Farm for Claire S.’s wedding!  Here is Claire’s beautiful and traditional bridal bouquet:

Miguel, Chrishaun, Lauren and I had a fantastic time while consulting and doing the chuppah and floral designs for Susan and Matt’s ceremony at the Historic 6th & I Synagogue. The ceremony was followed by a festive and fun reception at the Woman’s National Democratic Club complete with our blue and pink colored glass candy jars filled with 30 different types of candy! I was able to take a quick sneak photo of their ceremony for you!  Eli Turner will have photos for us soon!  We also had the pleasure of having Chris Dunn play classical guitar for both the ceremony and cocktail hour.  If you have not had a chance to hear Chris play, he is truly THE classical guitarist in the Baltimore-Washington area!  We loved working with Susan from the beginning and truly enjoyed the day!  Mazel Tov Susan & Matt!

Then Tinica and Jeannine were at the Omni Shoreham for Leila’s wedding!  We do not have any photos from that wedding yet!  We did not do the flowers for them, but helped to coordinate their large and elegant Persian-American wedding!

Yes – all of the above was on Saturday!

Then – we went back to the Omni Shoreham on Sunday for Susanna and Ariel’s wedding!  All I can say is that it was fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!  A truly cultural event with both Susanna’s Chinese culture infused with Ariel’s Jewish traditions.  Complete with a fabulous (and auspicious) gold and red dragonfly (a symbol of summer and happiness) embroidered topper for their chuppah and yarmulkes to the exciting performance by Lion Dancers at the reception. The bride changed her dress twice during the reception (as is customary in traditional Chinese weddings)!  There are so many details from this wedding, I could probably write a small book about it.  I don’t have photos yet – but Jennifer Domenick and Mary Gardella Hester of Love Life Images were both there to capture the moments!  I will post their wedding photos and more photos from the above weddings as I receive them from the various photographers over the next couple of weeks!  

More to come, Congratulations to all of our couples this weekend! – Katie Martin

Check out the wikipedia entry here!

Congrats Katie!

We are excited about the Earth Day Green Wedding being highlighted in District Weddings Blog!

Take a look by clicking here!  

Love her blog!

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***

• We now offer wall backdrops.  We designed this concept last year with one of our clients that is getting married in September.  More comprehensive and interesting than a typical pipe and drape backdrop, it creates a romantic mood and endless possibilities for making your wedding unique and interesting. The wall panels come in 8 feet by 2 feet wide combinations.  They are boxes making them heavy enough to withstand wind for outdoor ceremonies and we currently have 3 panels in our inventory.  We have the ability to make as many panels as you want with our in-house carpenter.  We cover each panel in the fabric of your choice!  Soon we will have swatch samples for you to choose your color!  However, keeping in tune with how original our brides our – we will use whatever fabric you desire.  Bring in a swatch of fabric with your appointment!  We can match your linens, bridesmaids dress or your venue colors.  We even had a bride bring in a swatch of her bedroom’s wallpaper!  Here is a sample of what the 3 panels look like next to each other.  We used them at both the Washingtonian’s Bridal Show and the Washington DC Couture Wedding Bridal Show in January. As you can see, we have shelves for the panels (customized to your liking) and the ability to hang photos!  The shelves can hold actual vases full of flowers or votives.  How do you want your backdrop to look?  After the ceremony – reuse them as a photo backdrop for your guests and more!

• Our 10 x 10 foot pergola style mandap/chuppah that we introduced to our inventory last year has won raves and is now being offered in a smaller 6 x 8 foot option.  The pergola style mandap/chuppah gives your ceremony structure a signature style.  Style the beautiful (and sustainable) wood with fabric, curly willow or flowers to make it yours!  Here is the 10 x 10 foot model.  The 10 x 10 foot size is wonderful for reusing after your ceremony to dine and entertain under!
• New recycled glass lanterns and sustainable material lanterns have been added and more coming soon to inventory in various colors and styles!  They are hanging in the mandap above.  Here is a close-up!

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

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

1st thing – hire a wedding planner that knows who is really green and who is not.  There are a ton of wedding professionals that say they are green for marketing purposes but have no concept of what the philosophy is behind being green.  It is not just about using green products and organic foods.  It is also about giving back to the community and not being wasteful along with a slew of other guidelines depending on the type of wedding professional that you are looking for.  As a wedding planner and a florist, I see a sea of waste after a wedding and it is always our goal to reduce waste before it happens and reuse, compost or recycle what is not not used or wasted after a wedding.  We can give you creative ideas on how to do that for your wedding.  There is not a formula for a green wedding – it is more about your general attitude towards your wedding prior to the planning process.  Find like-minded vendors to go with your philosophy as you start your life together!

If you can’t afford a wedding planner (or think you can’t) – make sure you read as much as you can before get started! 

I tip my hat to those that are really interested in doing it right!  Check back often for weekly green tips!

We had a wonderful time last Friday helping Dana to pick out her green wedding dress by Adele Wechsler at Promise for the Savvy Bride!  Jessica’s store is right on the same block as our office – so it was super easy to just pop over to the store!  Take a look at the fun photos taken by Tom from Documentary Associates.

Robin Fisher was there from Polished to help Dana find the best dress for her and her sister as the maid of honor.  Finding the right style for your wedding day can be tricky – but not with this dream team!

I just sat back for the ride.  It was very fun to watch Dana try on the dresses sent overnight from Adele directly to make sure Dana had the perfect dress for her eco-friendly wedding.  The Eco-Couture bridal gowns are amazing and full of fun details and sophistication!

A no!  THAT IS NOT THE DRESS SHE PICKED!!!!  That will be secret until the day of the wedding!  Stay tuned – more updates and meetings are planned.

Katie

Check out the fun post about our Washington DC Green Wedding Winners on District Weddings DC!

http://www.districtweddings.com/planning-a-green-wedding/ 

Thanks Devon!  We love your site!

Talking about Green Weddings in DC is our passion!

Check out our blog often to see updated about Dana & David!  We have several meetings planned and the wedding is coming up soon!

We are meeting with them on Saturday to go over their wedding plans.  Then we will walk them over to Promise for the Savvy Bride to try on her eco-couture wedding gowns by Adele Wechsler!

We are so excited for them!

Check out all the green vendors at:

www.greenweddingconsortium.com/DCGWC

Stay tuned for the upcoming Washington DC Green Wedding Consortium’s blog where we will be documenting all of Dana & David’s plans….in the meantime – check back here!