Our first wedding as an Engaged Couple!

We went to a wedding in St. Michael's, MD (think Wedding Crashers) and it was gorgeous!! The wedding was at The Oaks in August. The couple are local, so this was a semi-destination wedding. The setting was outside and on the water. The bride wore the most perfect dress that I absolutely fell in love with, and the groom wore a tan suit, pink tie and flip flops! The bridesmaids wore navy dresses and had pink flowers, while the groomsmen wore tan suits, pink ties and flip flops. The color scheme was so pretty!

Isn't she gorgeous?

Mr. CP and I always love a sunglasses-appropriate wedding!

The scenery was breathtaking!!! This made me wish I had decided on an outdoor wedding. Isn't it gorgeous?

Something this reception site is known for is the Adirondack chairs along the water. Mr. CP and I definitely relaxed and watched the sunset, after dancing all night!

The reception was a lot of fun, just like the newly married couple. They had a beautiful cake. Have you ever seen a full on cake "wrestling" match? I have!

Have you thought about an outdoor wedding vs an indoor wedding? What special things did you do (or are you doing) to make it look gorgeous? Have you considered a semi-destination wedding?

Mr. CP and I enjoying crabs in St. Michaels. A great perk of a semi-destination wedding is a semi-vacation ;)

Cue the Mission Impossible Theme Song...

I'm off tonight for my first recon mission...I mean wedding! wedding, since getting engaged. It's kind of a big deal because:

a) it's the marriage of two dear college friends
b) it's the first cocktail wedding reception I'll have ever attended!
c) first wedding at The College

So safe to say I'm be taking TONS of pictures, probably shedding a few tears, and taking lots of notes.

Also, a little UPDATE on my flower experiment: I purchased the flowers around 11am Sunday, had them in water around noon and they looked GREAT! when I went to work yesterday morning, but by the time I got home last night the hydrangeas were definitely done. The peonies are holding strong ( I did pick 3 brown petals of one of the blooms, but with no detriment to the arrangement) and the daisies and roses look like they are in it for the long haul. The roses blooms were about half open when I bought them Sunday, and were full on open by Tuesday evening. Full disclosure: we keep our house at 70 degrees (Mr. Fairfax is my lil' space heater).

Thanks to Gary on Picasa for the picture of Wren

Moroccan Vows from Rebecca Bouck - Part III

If you come from an ethnic background consider wearing native dress for some part of your day. It's such a great way to honor your heritage and if you don't feel comfortable wearing it all day then consider doing it for just the reception, part of the reception, or in day after shots. Your guests will probably be more impressed and fascinated by that outfit then they will be by your wedding dress and your parents will be proud.

Be sure to check out Rebbecca Bouck's blog as well. I've added it to my list so I can keep up with the beautiful things she photographs. If you watch reality T.V. you might also recognize this couple. What a happy ending story...you can see their wedding in her portfolio as well.

All photos below by Rebecca Bouck

Moroccan Vows from Rebecca Bouck - Part II

I love the idea of weaving in details either from your own culture or from the cultures of your favorite places. Think of adding in native instruments or singers, common flowers from the country, or traditional decorations. You don't need much to add the right flavor.

Rebecca's prices start at $4,000 which is pretty competitive for our area and considering the caliber of her work I think it is very reasonable. If you look at her portfolio you will see a wedding she did in Maryland so you know she's willing to travel to our neighborhood :) All photos below from Rebbeca Bouck.

Moroccan Vows from Rebecca Bouck - Part I

I ran across this beautiful wedding in the portfolio of talented Arizona based photographer Rebecca Bouck. The wedding was in Morocco and I love how the couple tied in Moroccan themes without being over the top. This is actually something that I think could be very easy to create even on this side of the world with the right accent pieces.

Clifton Inn Tour Part III

Lying parallel to the indoor veranda is the outside porch. We will be using the porch to set up the band and dance floor. Some of the tables you see pictured here and some of the furniture from the inside will also be placed on the porch to create a lounge area (no extra charge!) so that people that don't want to dance can still sit and listen to the music. I love that people will get to dance beneath the stars and if there is a threat of rain the Inn uses a clear plastic tent so people will still be able to dance beneath the stars (the tent is extra so cross your fingers for good weather.)

Some brides that rent the Inn use the porch for a happy hour or they set up tables for the actual reception and move the dance floor to the lawn below.


^View of the porch looking towards the pool/gazebo side of the house.


^This is the side of the Inn that has the gazebo and in the distance you can see the infinity/waterfall pool.


^View of the porch looking towards the garden side of the Inn


^This is the garden on one side of the Inn. Many brides set up chairs here and have their ceremony.

Clifton Inn The Tour Continues

Following on from my last post on my venue. If you keep on walking straight as you enter the front door you will walk onto the covered veranda. This was the room that sold me...I don't think you could find a more perfect space for one long table. The tables will be pushed together with openings so that people can get up to go to the restroom and the servers can serve people.

I like that all the chairs, linens, and china were all included in the price of the rental. They told me we could rent different chairs, linens, and china if I wanted but I love these chairs! I also know I'd have to pay out the nose to have something as cool as these if I were to rent them myself. And since I hadn't picked any wedding colors or themes when I first saw pictures of the place I decided to work with what my venue already had instead of coming up with colors that didn't work with my venue. White linens fit perfectly with my green/white colors and the sea glass colored china will also be complementary although I do have a choice to go with all white china as well.

Lesson learned: Save money by picking a venue that fits your theme/colors or build your theme/colors around your venue so that you don't spend a ton of money renting fuchsia linens and silver chairs to try to "transform" your venue.


^The view of the veranda from the far right. The veranda will seat about 60 people.


^View of the veranda from the far left.


^Connected to the veranda is another dining room which we will use for the extra 25 guests. They will be at one long table in this room. The room connects to the veranda in an L shape.


^Fiance and I will sit right where you see that man sitting so that we can see all our guests sitting down the one long table on the veranda and all our guests at one long table in the dining room.

My Reception Venue - The Clifton Inn

While we were in Charlottesville fiance and I also visited our reception venue...for the first time. Yep, that's right, fiance and I chose our venue and signed a contract without ever having visited it. That was about 9 months ago and we haven't seen it in person until now. I know that sounds crazy, but as I said before, fiance and I often have to live overseas for our jobs so we weren't in the country at the time we were doing a lot of our wedding planning. If I had waited until I returned to the U.S. I would have only had about 9 months until the wedding and I didn't want to wait that long and risk missing out on same great venues.

So how did we chose our venue? Very Carefully. We looked at a ton of pictures and read all the reviews of our site on TripAdvisor. I had a few requirements....it had to be small and intimate, no ballrooms, and it had to be able to accommodate one long table for all the guests. When we first looked at the Clifton Inn online I counted it out because it seemed to be beyond our budget. With the help of a planner, though, we were able to make it work. The main requirements for renting the Inn are that you have to rent all 18 of the rooms on the grounds for the weekend. This was too pricey for us, but since we are having a Sunday wedding we only had to rent all the rooms for one night instead of two. We also have a lower food/beverage minimum to meet then a normal Saturday wedding has. The lesson here is ALWAYS inquire...don't just assume you can't have something...a lot of places are willing to negotiate. That's not to say miracles can happen but if a place is a little bit more then your budget will allow then you should at least inquire to see what they are willing to do for you.

After negotiating the price of the rooms with the Inn we were able to rent the Inn for an equal price as you would pay for some of the nicer venues in D.C. The only difference is that instead of paying to rent a nice place in D.C. for 5 hours we get rooms for a large number of our guests and get the Inn for 24 hours. Oh, and did I mention that afternoon tea and breakfast is included in the cost of rental? We are splitting the costs of the rooms with the guests who will be staying there (the bridal party and close family members) but you could pay for it all yourself or have your guests pay for the rooms since they would be paying for accommodation normally anyway.


^Driving up to the Clifton Inn


^The front of the Inn


^Looking at the lawn from the front porch. Brides with large guest lists often set up a tent on this lawn.


^View right after you walk through the front door.

Over the next couple days I'll take you on a tour of the Clifton Inn. Fiance and I were very relieved at how great the Inn was...we feel like we really lucked out.

Keeping Things Small

I adore this wedding photographed by talented California photographer Chenin Boutwell of Boutwell Studios. Compared to most I'm having a pretty small wedding, just 75-85 people. I really want only the closest and most important people in our lives to be there and not people I know by six degrees of separation.

The couple below only had about a dozen people at their Fiji wedding but it was filled with unique and heartwarming traditions. The bride was escorted by Fijian warriors to a raft that took her across a bay to her fiance and wedding guests. The warriors then carried her to her groom. The local village choir provided the ceremony music and the couple invited people at the resort they were staying at to witness their traditional ceremony.

After the ceremony the wedding guests had an intimate dinner on a pier looking out on the Fijian waters. I'd love to achieve even a fraction of this intimacy. Check out Chenin's amazing blog, Afternoon Delight, for more pictures of this wedding.

All pictures from Boutwell Studios. To enlarge any picture just click on it.

A Change in Plans?

M and I had always planned on having a formal reception. In the one year and three months since we got engaged, I pictured nothing but peonies and sweetpeas, chairs covered in white with pink sashes, and all the typical wedding details. But when M and I first walked into Pinzimini, our favorite little restaurant in the Westin in Ballston, we started second-thinking our plans. Immediately, I wanted to know whether they hosted wedding receptions. Unfortunately, back then, there was no one to answer my questions and wedding planning took a back seat to other things such as the recent tragedy in my family.

Unbeknownst to my family, Michael had already taken vows in a Christian ceremony in Turks & Caicos (TCI), which I plan to post on soon, as I have some great tips on the island and resources for anyone planning a destination wedding. Nevertheless, we still wanted to celebrate our legal union with family and friends and have a “traditional” wedding. I am Italian-American. Needless to say, my family would KILL me if we didn’t have a formal ceremony and celebration. Although I’m sure our 4 days in TCI could not compare to anything, I know that the little girl in me would not be satisfied until I got to walk down the aisle wearing the white gown and veil I’d dreamed of all my life in front of the people who’ve meant the most to me all my life.

In any case, my thoughts of big floral arrangements and quaint ballrooms faded when we first set eyes on Pinzimini. It was more “us” than anyplace we’d ever dined at. It is an Italian steakhouse drenched in candlelight and bears no resemblance to any tired ballroom we’d been considering. This is not to say all ballrooms are tired. We are only having about 50-60 guests and so our options were very limited. Pinzimini holds about 120 people (from what their website says) and reminds me of the Italian restaurants I grew up eating in all my life in NY, only this is modern and edgy and PERFECT for my purposes. If you don’t believe me, take a look and bear in mind that the picture does it no justice.



So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard back from the events manager at Pinzimini and learned that we could indeed have our receptions there on August 11, the one year anniversary of our TCI ceremony.

Nothing is set in stone yet but we are working with the staff to find something within our meager budget. The only problem is that this throws a monkey wrench into all the plans I’d solidified in my mind in the time leading up to this. I cannot picture my Marissa lace princess cut gown with the (modified) sweet heart neckline coordinating with this room. Fortunately, I haven’t purchased it but I’ve been visiting it since last January and haven’t found anything that fit me as well since.



When I look at this room I picture something edgy and modern. I don’t see peonies. I see calla lilies.