When I think back on Vicki + Mike’s wedding at Carnegie Institution in downtown DC, it’s all a blur of laughter, color and beautiful traditions.  Vicki has a fantastic blog, Crowning Victoria, which is all about “one girl’s journey to live like a queen.”  And on her wedding day, Vicki did just that!  Everything was spectacular and gorgeous – I fell in love instantly with the jewel tones that dotted every detail of the day – and Dana was crazy about the peacock feathers!  Vicki + Mike both have wonderful and welcoming families and the mixture of traditions was just beautiful.

Getting Ready: DoubleTree by Hilton

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Carnegie Institution of Science

Wedding Planner: Tracy Leaman, Events To A T

Hair & Makeup: Brie Cafferty

Dress: Melissa Sweet for Priscilla of Boston

Florist: Edge Floral Event Design

Catering: Windows Catering

Band: Time Machine

Thanks to my mother, an avid gardner, I usually know all of the flowers I see on a wedding day, but this gorgeous beauty  had me stumped.  Steve, from Edge Floral Event Designers, who provided all the gorgeous arrangements for the wedding, told me that it’s a garden rose.  Love it!

Vicki gets her finishing touches and heads excitedly downstairs to see Mike.

It’s great shooting with two photographers so you can get multiple angles!  Thanks to Dana for these second two gorgeous first look shots!

A quick moment in the library before heading out for wedding party photos…

In case of rain, Vicki came prepared with none other than peacock feather rain boots!  Happily, it didn’t rain, but we had to get a shot of these great boots!

Everyone trooped over to Meridian Hill Park for photos – it was a little hot, but well worth the gorgeous shots!  Thanks to Dana for the great shots of the guys!

Back at Carnegie, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room during the Bedecken ceremony.

So, because Vicki is an avid and talented blogger, she has lots of blogging and tweeting friends!  As I was photographing the ceremony, I noticed the guest in front of me was live tweeting the details of the wedding!  I loved this – it says “Lots of sniffs! Mike made everyone cry and the groomsmen, bro and..”  I checked in to find out who the tweeter/guest is and find out how the sentence ends.  The tweeter is Vicki’s friend Ali (you can find her @LuckiestGirlEvr) and the sentence ends “…eddie too!”  Reading through all of Ali’s play by play of Vicki’s wedding was so much fun!

As Vicki + Mike went upstairs for a few minutes to themselves, Dana grabbed this great shot of them peeking over the railing at their guests below!

Instead of table numbers, each table had a jungle animal – fit in with the peacock feathers and bold colors perfectly!

I met Christine + Justin recently in downtown DC for a fun session running around U St.  We started at Tabaq for a drink and then headed out.  The weather kept threatening thunderstorms, so we were prepared to duck into the closest bar, but luckily, it never rained!  I loved Christine’s dress – so colorful and fun!  These two are so sweet and easy to be around – can’t wait for the wedding at Dumbarton House in September!

This was a sort of funny moment, but I loved the energy in the shot!

We headed back to Justin + Christine’s house for some photos in their gorgeous backyard with their adorable dogs!

Beth & Ben had the most gorgeous and heartfelt ceremony at Woodlawn Manor in Sandy Spring, MD.  It was a bright, beautiful, sunshine-y day and everything felt so fresh and full of summer!  Beth & Ben are super easy-going people who just love to laugh with their friends and their joy really infused the whole day!  And thank you, as always, to my second photographer Dana, who always does an amazing job!

Venue: Woodlawn Manor

Wedding Planning: Simply Vintage Events

Caterer: Windows Catering

Beth & Ben had old family photos arranged around the manor – it was such a wonderful personal touch!

Beth and her honorary bridesmaids – what a great idea!

Dana and I loved these little pixie straws they had for the specialty cocktail – lemonade, muddled mint, vodka & club soda – yum!

Lawn games at the cocktail hour?  Excellent!

Are these not the most beautiful salads you have ever seen!?

And instead of a cake, they had an ice cream buffet, which was absolutely perfect for the hot weather!

These two super cuties were so much fun to spend the morning with yesterday at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC!  The weather was absolutely perfect and in addition to enjoying some sunshine, I learned all about the joys of pine cones, bubbles, heavy gates, maracas, and how very tasty rabbit-shaped snacks can be!

I love how she sticks her tongue out the corner of her mouth in concentration as she leads her family down the steps – too cute!

The W Hotel in Washington DC is, in my opinion, one of the coolest hotels in the city!  The decor is so fantastic – modern, but interesting, with fantastic pops of color – I could just live there!  When I met Jessica & Adam, I felt like we could just chat forever.  They’re both sooooo easy-going and relaxed.  And they are such interesting people who know how to have fun – definitely the kind of people I like to know.  Dana and I were really excited to photograph two such great people get married in such a gorgeous spot!  Many thanks to Dana, my second photographer, and Karmen, who did such an excellent job assisting with the photobooth!

Getting ready, ceremony & reception venue: The W Hotel, Washington DC

Hair & Makeup: Salon Daniel

Dress: Ulla-Maija from Hitched

Shoes: Badgley Mischka

Florist: MultiFLOR

Cake: Fancy Cakes by Leslie

Charities: Fisher House Foundation and Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Band: Swiftkick

The next couple photos require an explanation.  So, during the ketubah signing, the rabbi read the words, which were just so sweet and beautiful and touching.  And the more he read, the more Jessica cried.  In fact, everyone in the room was holding back tears!  So when he finished reading, he turned to Adam & Jessica and said something like “Is that what you asked for it to say?”  And Jessica, who clearly wished she weren’t crying so much, shouts out jokingly “NO, that’s not right at all!!”  Everyone burst out laughing, and crying even more!  It was just one of those perfect moments!

The ballroom looked just stunning – so simple, clean, elegant and absorbingly romantic.

Jessica & Adam met in Las Vegas and I love that they used this Vegas wine glass as their Kiddush Cup!

The Obamas even sent a special note of congratulations….  ;P

The guests had a blast with our photobooth – lots of silliness, joking around, well-wishing, and a couple scandalous chalkboard messages that had to be censored from this blog!  The photobooth is such a fantastic way to get really fun photos of all your friends and family.