Decorating the Outdoors

Our venue has a breath-taking landscape. We're marrying at Oxon Hill Manor and the patio, the garden, the view, is all stunning. Full trees outline the property and right beyond where we'll say our vows is a glimpse of the Potomac River and the National Harbor. It's beautiful!

See for yourself:

{Photos by me}

We definitely want our guests to see this and to enjoy it. We've come across a few photos (thanks to my online Oxon-Hill-Manor-Real-Weddings savengers) of what other couples have done to this space, but we're still not quite sure what we'll do.

There's so much natural beauty (whether our wedding is in the spring or the fall) that we shouldn't have to do too much. Nevertheless, we've considered almost everything from archways to flowers, to umbrellas to fans, and we're not sure what the best look is. As most of you know, archways are a common focal point, but I'm not crazy about them. What do you think? Do we have to have something at the end of the aisle?

Check out pictures of this real wedding that show Oxon Hill Manor's garden transformed into a stunning ceremony site:

{Photo credit: Regeti's Photography Blog}

Here are a few pictures of what we have in mind:

For the Focal Point:

{Photo credit: Mathieu Photography Blog}


{Photo credit: The Knot}

{Photo credit: The Washington Post}

Decorations and Extras:

{Photo credit: Martha Stewart Weddings}

{Photo credit: Quite Cannon}

{Photo credit: The Knot}

Are you decorating your ceremony site? Have you thought about having an arch, canopy, or cross? Share your thoughts about this topic and of course, suggestions are welcome :-)

Ceremony musings plus: random DIY tip

I'm enjoying this lull in planning right now. I feel like I could get some things done and out of the way but I don't have to, and that's very pleasant. Probably once we get past the holidays I will enter the urgent-oh-crap mode but for now I'm enjoying just focusing on whatever I want, for however long I want.

Random I WANT: Gruyere and Black Pepper Gougeres. Found on Etsy - they're sold out but I just bet you can convo them for a new order. I've been looking for an idea for a "pre-ceremony finger food type thing,"I think this would be perfect.. (source)

Last night Mr. Fairfax and I had a really great little ceremony planning session. We went through the vows and ring exchange wording sent to us by our officiant, changed 'em up a little to our liking, and then went over the other pieces we'd come across that we'd like to work in.. it's very exciting. A couple times we said things out loud just to make sure they sounded ok and a little thrill went through me, like Wow. This is what we're going to say to each other. Weee! It's very exciting. Just need to figure out who we'll ask to read the special pieces we've picked out. Do you have special readings you'll ask friends/family to read during the ceremony? How did you go about choosing the readings/who would read them?

We've also decided we're totally stealing the Jewish wedding tradition of the yichud. I first heard about it on A Practical Wedding and it just seemed so darn perfect, I can't believe all wedding traditions don't include this. It might be the 15 minutes I'm most looking forward to.

This weekend I also set my mom on her projects - hand-painting our aluminum tins we'll use for favors, and designing a hand drawn map that we'll give to the guests in their welcome bags in their hotel rooms (she won't have to hand draw each one, I'll have them printed from her design). It's great having an artist mom! So glad I'm able to include her in these things so I don't have to feel bad for shooting down her veil ideas.. :)

Random tip: if you are doing any DIY paper pieces (program, invites, table signs, etc.), and you have not heard about Impress, go check it out! I heard about it a long time ago but only recently re-discovered it and immediately bought a bunch of stuff. I can't wait till it arrives so I can start stamping and punching every scrap of paper I have lying around..

the ceremony: probably the important part

So far we've been focusing mostly on The Wedding as a whole, researching vendors, thinking about decor, working up tentative schedules and figuring out attire for the wedding party. Etc. But I know the whole point of the day is to, umm, get married, so I want to make sure the ceremony is just right for us.

We're not doing a religious ceremony, so we don't have a pastor or anyone we already know who could perform the ceremony for us. Luckily there is a whole network of celebrants/officiants out there who perform all kinds of ceremonies, and we're in the process of narrowing down our choice now (you can also search on WeddingWire.com and see reviews from other couples).

So far we've only managed to meet one prospect, but I'm trying to set up a meeting with at least one more person so we can compare. I really liked the first woman we interviewed, she seemed very experienced and gave us a ton of information about how we can personalize our ceremony. The only problem is that she's in Hyattsville, MD and we're having our wedding in Fairfax so her driving back and forth 2 nights in a row (once for the rehearsal) really adds to our carbon footprint, which I'm Trying to keep to a minimum.. So I'm trying to find someone a little more local. Anyone else going the non-religious route? Book your officiant yet? If so please share recommendations!

We know we want about a 30-minute ceremony, and we don't want to write our own vows but we still want it to be personal to us. Pretty silly? I just know myself (and the mister) and I know we'll both get stressed out over making them perfect (how to find that perfect balance between sweet and sappy? funny and meaningful? too much pressure!) and we'll over think everything and in the end I'll never manage to express in my own words how much he means to me and if I feel like I've fallen short I'll feel terrible. So I'm trying to find quotes and poems and exerpts that will explain things for us, and hopefully our officiant will put it all together with everything else she'll learn about us and our relationship and create a cohesive and meaningful ceremony.

If you are planning to write your own vows I think that's amazing. I've seen some great resources out there for ideas on how to format them, but since I wasn't thinking of writing my own I didn't take note of the sites.. I will try to find some and update this post later.

Bare Necessities

So tonight after a lovely dinner with the Future In Laws, we were going over the guidelines from the church that we recently received. The church recently redid them so they've changed a little since we got engaged last June.

The Future MIL finally noticed, as she's seen my dress, a little stipulation in the Church's guidelines...

"In keeping with the nature of the Sacrament of Marriage, all members of the wedding party must be dresses appropriately for church.
In particular, this means no strapless dresses or bare shoulders/"spaghetti straps" for the bride or any member of the wedding party, unless a jacket or sweater is worn over them."

Freaders, this is a problem.

My dress. Is strapless.

And freaders? I love my Church, I respect God and all that schtuff and for Mass? I would never wear a tube top or something like that. But freaders? THIS? Is my wedding gown. All paid for in it's beautiful strapless glory. And I'm going to be stubborn because that dress? Would not look nearly as lovely with a shawl or a sweater. No. Way.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to purchase shawls or pashmina's for my gals, thankfully it'll only be for the ceremony. But still...I just hope and pray (har har) that our priest doesn't say "oh no sorry. You'll have to wear a shawl...blah blah blah. I won't marry you blah blah blah."

Because you know, this is definitely something that could have been brought to my attention back in like...June when we signed up. Because this? I would have noticed. In the guidelines we only briefly got to skim over and didn't receive a copy of until a week ago. Oh bless you Church, for You and I, might have some issues in the coming months.

But contrary to my father's suggestion, it is FAR too late to be changing anything else major in the wedding like the location (another post for another time).

Have you had any issues with your religious ceremony? Are you having a religious ceremony that has similar guidelines? How did you comply/rebel?

Flexiblity & Meltdowns

One thing I have learned throughout this whole process of planning a wedding is being flexible. Flexible with your "needs" and your "wants". Flexible with places, people, etc. Flexible with the knowledge that the meltdowns aren't a matter of "if", but "when". Large or small, meltdowns happen.

Today I have also learned that I need to be flexible with blog monikers. For example, my name here is Miss JeffMemorial. Well Miss JeffMemorial is now just a name and not indicative of anything wedding related. Instead of the setting for a stunning outdoor October wedding ceremony for myself and the Mr., it is now merely a place I highly recommend to tourists. (Really, it's gorgeous. And don't forget the paddle boats!)

This is where we insert Miss JeffMemorial's meltdown of about two days ago.

It was a perfect storm when it came to the fruition of several issues at once... and it dumped all over my head.

Our wedding was initially set for October 10, 2009. Then we realized as we are wrapping up October 2008, there is no way we want to cram a wedding into the mix. It would have gone as follows: Our wedding on the 10th. Mr.'s birthday on the 18th. My mother's birthday on the 19th. MY birthday on the 26th. Halloween on the 31st. Plus throw in a birthday celebration for both of us with the Mr.'s family.

Needless to say, it was crowded. We were going to make due, though. Any later, and we run the risk of things being too cold, etc, and we didn't want to share our birthdays with the anniversary. October would just be... "filled with a little more extra love and stuff".

Then the hammer fell.

I can't even get into it. I was getting ready to submit our permit application for the use of the Jefferson Memorial's West Lawn, and tragedy struck. Tragedy struck in about eight million different ways and fell upon my shoulders at 12:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon.

No Jefferson Memorial.

I was panicked. I had no idea what the heck I was going to do. I tried to relax and think. After the haze of anger passed and I was able to lift my head up a little bit, I formulated a plan.

Mr. JeffMemorial and I attend an amazing church in the Columbia Heights neighborhood called All Souls. Literally, it's stunning. Have a look-see:



See? Stunning.

Now originally this was where we were planning on having our ceremony AND reception. (They have a hall in the Church.) We ran into a big financial issue and had to scrap it due to budget constraints. Since then we never looked back at the church, in spite of our love for it.

I started rethinking everything. We wanted a fall wedding. Well, October 10, while technically fall is still residing in that 70 degree zone, and the leaves haven't even turned yet.

With a hope and a prayer (What's up, Jesus?) I contacted the wedding coordinator at All Souls.

"Do you have November 7, 2009 open?"

And they did. We're meeting with the ministers this weekend, and somehow it's working out better than I expected.

So maybe, technically, I'm not really Miss JeffMemorial. What's great though is that I didn't realize how we're still ending up with the perfect wedding. We had written it off due to our budget but didn't realize that the only thing that was killing us was the reception cost. We didn't even see that this was doable.

Now we'll have the beautiful traditional indoor wedding, which I'm surprised to say I missed. I didn't notice, due to all the logistics I was trying to plan, that I really wanted to get married in our church. The organ. The big aisle. The grandeur and tradition of it. It sounds silly, but I remember there was a moment months ago when Mr. JM and I originally planned on getting married there. It was after the service, and we stood at the head of the aisle, where we would when we were getting married and it felt really right.

Anyway, while I was being sarcastic about learning to be flexible, I think I learned a big lesson this week: even if disaster strikes, it might be for the best.

Although I'm not gonna lie... I needed a strong drink after Tuesday's explosion. About three of them.

Our Pseudo-Destination Wedding

Hello Nearlyweds! I am Miss Glen Allen, the newest addition to your favorite blogging team. FI and I are getting married on Good Friday, April 10, 2009 in Glen Allen, VA, just north of Richmond. Our wedding will be held at Virginia Crossings Resort, a tiny, tucked away golf resort that we just love. Everyone always asks us why we're getting married in Central Virginia when FI is from NY. I am from NJ, and we live in Howard County, MD. So, here's the reason. A couple of years ago, I moved to the Richmond area to take a new job. Not long afterwards, we got engaged and the search began for the perfect location. Naturally, our families wanted us to get married closer their homes in NY or NJ. However, we have a fairly modest budget for our wedding. We are hosting the wedding ourselves, and we have no desire to pay the $200 per person that is so common at venues up north. We expanded our search to PA, where my brother lives; Maryland, where we both went to college (Morgan State - Go Bears!) and where FI still lived; and finally VA, my home at the time. We found that the farther away the venues were from major metropolitan areas, the better the pricing got, without compromising quality. I remember the when I discovered the perfect place. I was "working" one day, really looking at Virginia wedding venues online, when I stumbled upon Virginia Crossings Resort listed on a common wedding site. I visited the resort's website, and loved what I saw. I thought the round courtyard was just so cute and unique. They are also the featured venue for the NBC12 Dream Wedding. I looked at their address and thought, 'Wait! I live off of that street.' When I mapped it, I found that it was actually a mile away from my home. I went to VCR that same day, drove through the gates, and I was blown away. It has that WOW! factor that every bride can appreciate. You would never guess that this little piece of heaven is tucked right there. 20 acres of immaculately maintained golfers' and romantics' paradise, nestled in amongst new home communities and quaint villas, but still convenient to major highways, railways, and the airport. Their standard wedding package offers all the features that other places consider extra. Our wedding is costing less than $100 per person, and we are getting a great value. I never wanted to get married at some huge place where six weddings are going on at once. VCR is small enough that I will be the only bride on our day, which is great because I don't want to see anyone else in a white dress on my wedding day. Even our flower girl will be wearing yellow.

This is Virginia Crossings Resort. The building on the left holds the ballroom, meeting rooms, and restaurant. The building on the right holds the guest rooms. I will be walking down the long aisle from the center, mansion-style building.


We decided to have an outdoor ceremony in the round courtyard, and in the center building on the second floor, just above the columns is a beautiful little dressing room for the bride and her attendants. I'll be able to look out the window of that room and see everything and everyone in the courtyard.



Our reception will be in their Henrico Ballroom.

So after researching venues in 5 states, and DC, VA worked out best for us. Our wedding will end up being a pseudo-destination wedding. We live 2 1/2 hours away from the venue, and I love it! It's close enough to home and to our family that everyone can get to it with minimal travel expenses. None of our wedding guests live in Virginia, so the wedding can be a nice little weekend getaway for them. Also, since FI and I don't live close to the venue, it makes us plan our time well when we visit the Richmond area. We schedule several wedding meetings on the same Saturday, so we don't have to take time off from work. Since our vendors know that we live far away, they are more inclined to accommodate our scheduling needs. During these wedding day-trips FI and I take together, he is actively involved in every meeting, idea, and decision that day, and it works out well. We each have a great time and feel like we've accomplished alot in that day.

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - The Getaway

Because we were staying at the same Inn where we were having our reception, we weren't going to have an end-of-evening getaway, but I love the idea of getaways so we had one from the church to the reception.

I have to say that I LOVED LOVED LOVED our streamer throws that we used for our grand exit. They were so much fun for us and for our guests. All the testing I did trying to decide between paper vs. mylar, colored vs. monochome, and Favors You Keep vs. Aerotechnic paid off.

The multicolored, mylar streamerthrows from Aerotechnic were awesome and made for some really great pictures ...just as I had hoped! And the best part: b/c they stay attached to each person's hand it makes clean-up super easy...just gather the plastic pods and throw away.

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace

^Everyone lined up as we got ready to head for the car

^Streamers Away!!!

^It actually started to get difficult to move through all the streamers!

^And we only had streamer throws for about half the guests...imagine if we had one per person!

^It even looks great in black and white!

^Finally we make it to the car

^But the streamers are still attached!

^O.k. now we are streamer free and ready to take off

^This picture is awesome...it's Husband and I in one of the side mirrors

^And we're off!

To be 100% honest as much fun as our getaway was it didn't go 100% according to plan. I wanted the streamer throws thrown in the church as we walked down the aisle. And despite communicating that over and over again with our coordinator, that message did not get to our guests. Just another example of one of those things that the bride realizes is wrong and no one else does. Although Husband and I did have slightly confused looks on our faces when we walked down the aisle and no one threw anything, in the end...it worked out.

Next up: The Reception!

Vendors So Far:

Video- Monachetti

Photography - Linda Wallace

Hair/Makeup- Daphne Latham

Dress Designer - Vwidon

Dress Salon - Promise for the Savvy Bride

Shoes - Vera Wang new from Ebay

Bracelet- Carolee

Veil- Occansey Design

Purse - Belk

Hair Flower - Ella's Alley

Flowers - Blue Ridge Floral

Suits- Men's Wearhouse

Ties - Wild Ties

Socks - The Gap

Bridesmaid Dresses - Maggy London from Nordstrom

Flower Girl Dress- Rare Editions from Dillards

Sportscar - Sports Car Rental

Reception/Accommodations - The Clifton Inn

Getaway Streamerthrows - Aerotechnic

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - The Ceremony

Now it's time for the ceremony -

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace

^We began with the reading of i carry your heart with me

^In case you are wondering this is the look a bride gives when someone walks in late during the first reading

^But the groom is paying attention!

^Ok, I'm paying attention now too. Both fiance and I got a little teary during this reading

^Pastor Garth says a few words about why we are there

^Time for more readings - I loved that our readers stood up where they were sitting to read. The church was small enough that everyone could hear, so they didn't need to be at the front with a microphone.

^I like this shot of my dress and veil

^Once the readings were done we moved up onto the alter to do our vows and the ring exchange. Fiance was crying when he said his vows which I think got everyone choked up.

^Fiance putting my ring on my hand

^This is me putting his ring on. He has huge knuckles so I really had to force it on...it was pretty funny as you can tell from the looks on our faces.

^Our guests were snapping away

^The Kiss

^Fiance wiping his nose after the kiss... no one ever thinks that the groom might get emotional and need handkerchiefs so we weren't prepared with any tissues!

^It's official!

^Coming down the aisle

^Outside the chapel

^Now we turned to greet our guests and get all the well wishes

^Needless to say people were happy!

^There were lots of hugs and kisses all around

Next up...the getaway!