Katie and Ryan were married on the VERY popular wedding date of 10/10/10, so they’ve been waiting for this blog post for a LONG time!
I absolutely LOVED this wedding — from the setting to the flowers to the band, it was absolutely PERFECT — they even ordered perfect fall weather for the day!
The ceremony and reception were held at Ryan’s parents’ GORGEOUS vacation home in Purcellville, Virginia. This property was so beautiful and idyllic I wanted to ask his parents if I could have MY wedding there! I mean, just look at that lake!! And check out this picture from the ceremony. How perfect is that?!
But let’s back up…to the day before the wedding! Katie and her bridesmaids made their way over to Fields of Flowers, a local “Pick Your Own” farm in Purcellville. The girls picked the flowers for the centerpieces and the bridesmaids bouquets, and the owners made Katie’s bouquet and the boutonnieres for the guys:
The morning of the wedding, Katie got ready at Ryan’s parents’ house, which is just as cute inside as it is out — I mean, check this out!!
I want that window in my house!!
Like many of our couples these days, Katie and Ryan decided on a “first look.” We HIGHLY encourage that couples do this. Not only does it make you more relaxed, it gives you more time after the ceremony either to spend together just the two of you, or to mingle with your guests.
Sooner than you knew it, it was time for the ceremony to start! If you ever wonder if you’ll still be emotional walking down the aisle after having a first look, you need only take one look at Katie’s face here to know the answer is still YES!
I absolutely love the emotion on her face in this shot! You’ll see later on that Katie’s face does NOT hide her emotions well — and on their wedding day, her emotion seemed to be mainly ELATION!!!
After the ceremony, Katie and Ryan went back upstairs for some alone time, while guests made their way to the back yard for cocktail hour:
Other than each other, there are three things that I think Katie and Ryan love the most. They love them SO much that they made sure their wedding showcased all three. The first is wine. These two LOVE wine. I mean…LOVE. They were engaged at a winery in California, and at that winery, they purchased two magnums of wine to serve as their guest book — how cute is that!?
(Note the vase of corks used as decor…I have a feeling those were obtained the old fashioned way…by drinking!! LOVE these guys!)
(p.s. signs tell people what to do! If that sign hadn’t been there, people would have been like “wow, big bottles of wine…cool” and would have walked right past them!)
We had a few visitors at cocktail hour…Good thing they were dressed for the occasion:
Soon, I went and disturbed Katie and Ryan’s adorable ‘couple time’ and they came to the cocktail hour for their first dance:
Next was my favorite part of the wedding — and not just because we came up with the idea together ;) And not just because I’m TOTALLY stealing it for my own wedding someday…but because it was AWESOME. I know that receiving lines are “out” these days — in fact, in my 4+ years of being a wedding planner, I have NEVER had one! So most people do “table visits” with their guests. But Katie and Ryan wanted to spend as much time partying as possible (you’ll see why shortly…it has something to do with one of their ‘loves’), so we came up with this “pseudo-receiving line, but not a line…” Yep, that’s what I’m calling it.
Because cocktail hour was in the back yard, and the tent for dinner and dancing was in the front yard, it was the PERFECT set up for this. Katie and Ryan went to the front yard, where we had set up a table with the guests favors and escort cards:
Of COURSE the escort cards were wine themed — a waiters’ key (aka corkscrew) that I use on a regular basis now with a cork in it, holding the escort card. Favor and escort card in one — LOVE!! And, if you look closely, you’ll spy one of their other loves in the corner of the picnic table…wait, here it is closer…
(More details on that shortly…)
Katie and Ryan stood at the escort card table along with a server with a tray of champagne. I was in the backyard, and would go around to small groups of people, and quietly ask them to make their way to the front yard for dinner. Usually we’ll make either a bigger announcement, or we’ll go around to groups quickly, telling them all to go to the dinner area. However, by doing this, Katie and Ryan could welcome small groups, spend a few minutes with them, and hand them a glass of champagne to celebrate with!
By doing this, guests aren’t stuck waiting in line, and Katie and Ryan didn’t have to rush through dinner to do table visits — it was PERFECT!! Feel free to steal this idea…it’s okay 
Dinner tables were named after places near and dear to the couples hearts…
This table description, though, leads to the love I hinted at earlier…
Yep, Katie and Ryan are Skins fans. In fact, they are SUCH huge Skins fans, that Ryans parents, as soon as they found out they were having the wedding at their house, planted burgundy and gold mums along the front sidewalk! I mean, that is dedication!!! (It helps that those colors are PERFECT for fall!) They also bought more mums for the escort card table, which went great with the little signed helmets.
You can see more hints of their colors EVERYWHERE, from Katie’s purse:
To the flower in her hair…
to the M&M’s Ryan’s mom had specially made for the day!
However, and I don’t know what they were thinking when they planned the wedding on a Sunday in the fall, but the Redskins were PLAYING DURING THE WEDDING! In fact, it was like pulling teeth to get people out of the house!
However, with a crowd of guests full of Skins fans, no one would miss any details of the game. I saw eyes glued to iPhones and small TV’s throughout the cocktail hour. Katie, being such a detailed bride, thought of everything, and we had an iPod ready and attached to the speaker system should the Redskins pull out a victory. And, as if the perfect weather and the fact that they had just been married weren’t enough, the Redskins made Katie and Ryan’s day even MORE perfect by doing just that.
And with the announcement that the Skins had won, the speakers blared “Hail to the Redskins” at full volume, as the crowd cheered along!
After sitting down to a delicious family-style dinner provided by BasiKneads, everyone was really ready to party. Luckily, Katie and Ryan’s third love, 80’s music, was represented in FULL force!
Guys, if you EVER need an 80’s band, THESE are the guys to book! They’re based in Virginia Beach, but are MORE than happy to travel! Their name? Oh, of course it’s a perfect 80’s name…The Deloreans!
These guys were AMAZING! Every last one of them had the PERFECT outfit on, their singing was awesome, and the crowd went CRAZY for them! I loved them all, but my favorite might have been the male lead, who I swear was a dead ringer, both in looks and sound, to Billy Idol (swoon…)
I think Katie might have been swooning too…check her out here like she just got pulled up on stage, Courtney Cox style!
The guests, no matter how old or young, LOVED these guys — the dance floor was CRAZY packed all night!
Okay, the wedding planner was a little scared at this point that “Billy Idol” was going to come crashing to the ground…where is the nearest hospital to Purcellville anyway?!
Remember how I mentioned Katie’s expressions? I would be remiss if I didn’t include a small montage…
Oh…did I forget to mention the cake? Oh yeah, it was only made by one of the most famous, most awesome cake bakers around…Charm City Cakes. Not familiar with the name? Um, hello? How about Ace of Cakes? Heard of that little show??? I thought one of my assistants was going to tackle me when the delivery van showed up to see the cake!
So Katie and Ryan’s cake was, of course, wine themed. It had wine labels all over the cake, from various wines they love and various wineries they’ve been to. They even had a sign explaining what all the labels meant!
And on top of the cake were “Katie and Ryan” pouring a giant bottle of wine!
I was SO AFRAID of them cutting this cake! Not just because it was so gorgeous, but I was afraid when they started cutting, the whole thing would topple over!! Luckily, the Charm City Cakes crew had given me instructions, and Katie and Ryan did a great job!
There’s a reason these guys are famous. Not only was the cake unbelievably intricate and gorgeous, it was freaking delicious! It’s a year later, and I still think about that cake. It was full of fresh fruit, and the cake was moist and delicious! I wanted more. Lots more. Sadly, it was gobbled up so quickly. I miss you, delicious cake…so does Katie…
I CAN NOT end this post without talking about Katie and Ryan’s incredible photographers. This couple drove out from Indiana, with Janelle more than just a little bit pregnant, to photograph Katie and Ryan’s wedding. Janelle went to college with Ryan (or they were in a travel program together? It’s been a year, people, give me a break on the details…) and so she was the first person Ryan thought of to photograph the wedding, and I’m SO GLAD he did! I know you’re in photo overload, but let me close with a few amazing portraits from Janelle and her adorable husband Shane, the duo behind HappiNest Photo!
And I’ll leave you with one last picture and say HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATIE AND RYAN!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations and Best Wishes for many more happy Redskins seasons together!
