I thought Meredith & Matt really deserved to have a beautiful wedding day given the bravery of choosing a mid-November date.  So when the big day dawned and the weather was unseasonably gorgeous, I felt so happy for them!  Meredith & Matt’s wedding was tinged with a beautiful vibrant shade of pink, which gave everything a wonderfully celebratory feel.  Their reception at The Fairfax at Embassy Row Hotel near Dupont Circle was so much fun – we were thrilled to be a part of it!

Wedding Planning: Laura Ritchie of Events in the City

Hair: Beautiful Hair by Beverly

Makeup: Kim Giammaria of Beauty Mark

Dress: Watters

Ceremony: St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Washington, DC

Florist: Da Vinci’s Florist

Reception: The Fairfax at Embassy Row Hotel

Music: NightLife Band

Cake: Fluffy Thoughts

Cupcakes: Georgetown Cupcake

Christine + Justin are such zen people – they’re so easy to be around and so comfortable together that being in the room with them just makes you feel relaxed.  Seeing them so full of happiness on their wedding day was such a treat!  We had a ton of fun taking photos in Dupont Circle before heading to the gorgeous Dumbarton House in Georgetown for their ceremony and reception.  Everything couldn’t have been more perfectly lovely than it was!

Dress: Paloma Blanca

Makeup: Leah McKay

Hair: KC Felton, The Elegant Artisan

Getting Ready: Hotel Palomar, Dupont Circle

Ceremony & Reception: Dumbarton House, Washington DC

Florist: Rick’s Flowers

String Quartet: Sage String Quartet

DJ: Ed Witles, The Elegant DJ

Cake: Fluffy Thoughts Cakes

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!

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.