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Nicole and Carl probably the most unique wedding I’ve ever done. From the order of things, to the herbs used in place of flowers to the non-traditional ceremony, everything about this wedding screamed “Nicole and Carl,” especially the location, the AMAZING Patapsco Female Institute.

(All photos, unless otherwise noted, by photographer Nat Wongsaroj)

The Patapsco Female Institute is a former girls’ finishing school in Ellicott City, MD which was later a hospital for wounded World War I soldiers. What remains of the school are the gorgeous stone ruins and blue steel beams that made up the beautiful building. The lower level has “rooms” with gravel floors, which were perfect for Nicole and Carl’s cocktail hour, which started off the evening

Yep, that’s right, the cocktail hour STARTED the event, not the ceremony! I actually loved this, as Nicole and Carl got to mingle with their guests and have a relaxed day.

The “flowers” (which were mainly herbs) were provided by Willow Oak Flower and Herb Farm. They smelled AMAZING!! And I’m dying to visit their farm, which is supposed to have these amazing gardens, and a drying barn with tons of dried herb decorations.

This photo of the bride’s pomander (which she carried in place of a bouquet) is by the sister-in-law of the groom, Emily Smith. Emily is AMAZING with detail shots — I was so grateful to have her there for her help and for all of her amazing detail shots! If anyone needs a “2nd shooter” to do some detail stuff, let me know and I’ll pass along her info!

After the cocktail hour, we invited guests upstairs to the “dining room” for dinner. They found their seats on these “luggage tag” cards, which were hand stamped and typewritten by Nicole and Carl.

Photo by Emily:

The symbols on each card were the “table names” — Wood, Sheep, Bricks and Grain — anyone know what that’s from? It’s from this great board game called Settlers of Catan! I LOVE this game — it was so funny when I realized what they were doing — I knew we were a good fit

See the centerpieces behind the table pictures? More fragrant herbs, in lots of cute jelly and mason jars!

Dinner was catered by the delicious Beefalo Bob’s! YUM! I love a BBQ wedding, and I’ve had quite a few this year!

OMG, that’s making me so hungry! It was SO YUMMY!!! This place is the real deal — they brought this awesome smoker right out to PFI and smoked the pit beef right there on the grounds! I even watched as they shucked the corn right there — LOVE fresh food catering! It’s amazing what these guys did with no electricity or water!

Check out the adorable bib! Nicole and Carl provided these AWESOME bags as favors — I’ve used mine a few times already for groceries! They screenprinted them themselves — without a screen printing machine! They had a roller, a laser cut stencil (made by a Baltimore Etsy seller!) and a group of friends to help — I need to get some friends like that! Inside the bags were a timeline/program for the evening (which was so sweet, as it thanked all the vendors!) and a dinner “emergency kit” with a bib, handi-wipes, and a mint. Too cute (Photo by Emily)

I LOVED how we did the tables! We had plain white linens on them, but then they were covered with Duck Cloth (cut by Nicole and Carl), then topped with a cute runner, which was hand sewn by Carl’s mom, and then adorable rustic cloth napkins, which they found at Ikea! Carl’s mom tied EACH NAPKIN with raffia — how sweet! They were all delivered to us in a huge suitcase!

Also on each table was bug repellant — THAT NICOLE MADE HERSELF!!! Talk about DIY! What a crafty bride, I love it! (And it smelled WAY better than any commercial bug spray out there!) (Photo by Emily)

Nicole and Carl snuck away with Nat during dinner for a few photos of just the two of them:

After dinner, guests made their way to the ceremony site, which had a chuppah that was made by Carl and set up by the couple’s brothers and sisters in law.

Friends of the couple played the guitar and banjo for the processional and recessional (my favorite part was their recessional — Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” — I told you I loved these guys!!)

And the ceremony was officiated by two family friends

After the ceremony, we made our way to the AMAZING front of the house for champagne toasts.

Then it was back to the cocktail area to cut the DELICIOUS cake by one of my favorites, Heidelberg Bakery!

Oh, that’s right — they had photo cakes instead of a traditional wedding cake! They also had cookies by Pastries by Randolph (also dangerously close to my house) and macarons from Patissierie Poupon, which has locations in Georgetown and Baltimore (but, strangely, no web site)

Guests mingled for a little while longer as the sun set, lit by rope lighting strung by Grand Rental Events (photos by Emily)

Then it was back to DC, where guests continued to party at the Omni Shoreham and Open City across the street, which also hosted brunch the next day.

Congratulations, Nicole and Carl! We definitely need to hang out in Baltimore soon!

It is no secret that Glen Echo is probably my favorite wedding venue. I love everything about it, from the AMAZING Emily Mah Rogers, the venue coordinator, to the GORGEOUS carousel to the wooded areas all around the park, to the fun neon lighting and little touches everywhere, I just love love love it. However, probably my favorite thing about Glen Echo is that it inspires the most adorable weddings! I guess it’s because the types of couples that get married there are already awesome? (See Hallie and Matt and our very own Cristin, who better be blogging her wedding pictures soon, because they are INSANE!!!) Whatever it is, I see the cutest ideas come out of weddings at Glen Echo.

When Beth and Robert walked down the aisle as husband and wife, I had them get straight into their Zipcar (yes, that was their wedding day transportation — Zipcar!) and head over to Glen Echo, immediately followed by Cassidy and the bridal party. I always like to make sure that, even if it’s just for a few minutes, my couple has some alone time immediately following the ceremony, plus Beth and Robert wanted to do all of the bridal party photos at Glen Echo — this killed two birds with one stone!

See why I had to break it up into two blog posts? Cassidy did TOO good a job on the pictures — I couldn’t choose!

There are just so many amazing locations at Glen Echo for pictures — this is in front of the old trolley at the front of the park

Beth took this opportunity to be…Beth

And show off her gorgeous dress…

I’m loving the amazing light Cassidy caught here!

There are also gorgeous wooded areas at Glen Echo to take pictures:

I LOVE this shot of Beth and Rob on the bridge into the park — I’m trying to figure out where Cassidy was standing to take this picture, though?!

The group then headed over to the carousel to take a few more pictures

I don’t know why it seems funny to me that they had to wait in line to ride the carousel, but it does

I love that Beth and Rob shared a horse lion

Then it was off to the reception…with a brief stop at the Cuddle Up

Guests were treated to a DELICIOUS BBQ dinner from Matters of Taste. Having gone to college in North Carolina, I’m very picky about two things — pulled pork BBQ and sweet tea. Matters of Taste delivered PERFECTLY on both fronts! I think I probably had 10 glasses of sweet tea that night!

(Do those lanterns look familiar? We brought them over from the ceremony! Good reason to have a wedding planner — to bring things from the ceremony to the reception!)

After Beth and Robert quickly ate their food (something I make sure EVERY bride and groom do at their wedding!) they held a modified tea ceremony.

I like that they did this as guests were eating. I’m sure it’s not the traditional way — but it allowed them to have private moments with everyone, while others were eating, so there wasn’t too much down time either!

After dinner and the tea ceremony, though, it was on to the dancing!!!

DJ Steve with Jan Davis Entertainment ROCKED the house that night! This was the first time I had worked with Steve and I hope it won’t be the last. He was AWESOME! As an added bonus, he comes from a family of DJ’s, including his gorgeous sister, who came to assist him that night!

I mean, you know it’s a good party when this is your bride on the dance floor!

During a break in dancing, Beth and Rob cut their cake from one of my favorite bakeries (which is DANGEROUSLY within walking distance to my house!), Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe.

I’m not a big cake topper person, but I thought theirs was really cute!

After they cut the cake, it was served along with a “North vs. South” dessert buffet — Whoopie Pies vs. Moon Pies! (I’m a Whoopie Pie girl, which in Pittsburgh we call Gobs!)

Beth made the cutest signs to put all over the place! She had them for the dessert buffet, the bathrooms, the bride and groom chairs — SO cute!

Cassidy, yet again, did an amazing job getting detail shots! The parasols my assistants and I hung before I went off to the reception…

The cards Beth and Rob created explaining the tea ceremony, along with the favors, which they bought in Malaysia

The family photos we strung up with clothes pins and, when I realized Rob had left the clothesline at home, fishing wire from my emergency kit:

The carousel tickets…

And of course the centerpieces. I LOVED these centerpieces — I’m always looking for non-floral centerpieces for couples who are looking to save money — Beth and Robert are reselling these lanterns to recoup some of the costs, but they could easily be reused in your house or yard

Finally, we had the bubble send off …

And I love this last shot of the newlyweds walking off…to their Zipcar

Congratulations, Beth and Rob! Thank you SO MUCH for choosing me to be your planner — I had a blast!!!

We kicked off wedding season this year with a gorgeous multicultural wedding in Arlington. Chris and Marie were married on what started off as a cloudy day, but brightened up in time for group pictures outside, taken by the super fun Daniel McGarrity.

Marie had her hair and makeup done in the house she grew up in. Cori Campbell came up HUGE in the hair department, by doing Marie’s trial the weekend before, and traveling all the way from West Virginia to be in Potomac by 8:00 in the morning! Makeup was done for the girls by the AMAZING Lori Nansi, who then came to the hotel later for the reception to refresh Marie’s makeup and give her a “nighttime” look — what service!

After a traditional Indian ceremony at the bride’s parents’ house, the bridal party and family made their way to Arlington to the beautiful Cathedral of St. Thomas More

Marie’s bridal party had beautiful teal lenghas:

All of the flowers were provided by Jen and Nate’s florist, Maryam Flowers. We LOVE Maryam, she is SO amazing!

I’m seeing more and more cascade bouquets these days. Have you noticed that?

After the ceremony and family photos at the church, the bridal party, transported by the wonderful drivers at Limos, Inc. (Call Elissa there…she’s AWESOME!), headed off to the Library of Congress with Daniel and Neil from Blue Sky Films, one of our favorite videographers. (Here he is in action with his assistant later in the evening…)

I LOVED the pictures from the Library — what a great idea for a photo location, Daniel! (Caution…slight photo overload ahead

After the visit to the Library of Congress, the bridal party headed to the Sheraton National for the reception. Their rooftop ballroom has a great view of the city, especially of the Pentagon and the Air Force Memorial.

(This picture is from the hotel’s web site, just so you can see the view!)

When she arrived at the hotel, Marie made her first costume change of the evening, from her white wedding dress to her traditional sari, which was a gift to her from Chris.

She wore this during the first dance and toasts, but, seeing as how she had trouble moving in it, she soon switched to her lengha.

Marie’s cousin, who is a priest at the Vatican, was supposed to perform the ceremony, but due to the volcanoes earlier that month in Iceland, he wasn’t able to get a flight…or so Chris and Marie thought! Her cousin was able to get there in time for the reception — and he brought with him a blessing from the Pope! WOW!

Chris and Marie had a DELICIOUS cake from one of my absolute favorite bakeries (which is dangerously close to my house) Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe

And, of course at the reception, we had more gorgeous flowers from Maryam! (These pictures are from me, not Daniel)

Thanks to all of the wonderful vendors who made this day great!