Tour de Cake Topper

I think the details in one's wedding are such fun. Everything about your personality and your fiance's personality come out in all the little things, from the invitations to the cake toppers.

With that being said...

The Tour de France is starting on Saturday! (Go Garmin and Astana--and Lance!) .

So what does this have to do with my wedding? Nothing, except that Mr. Charleston and I are huge cycling fans (more him than me---he's the one who actually rides with a group every week) and I wanted to incorporate his love for bikes and cycling into our wedding somehow. One of my students did our save the dates:

I loved it so much (as did Mr. Charleston) that I wanted to make the graphic of the girl and boy on the bike our cake topper. Since I have done most of the big things (venues, dj, photog, etc) I am now working on all the details, like cake toppers and centerpieces.

I found this awesome vendor on Etsy, Mountainbrook, who makes these awesome wood silhouette cutouts. I sent him a picture and he made our cake topper for us! Here is what it looks like:

It came a few weeks ago. It looks super great and I cannot wait to see it on top of a cake! Now all I have to do is find a cake!

So what are your details? I have had friends who have done D.C. totes since they were DC natives. Some have organized "DC Food Stops" for a wedding weekend where did they a tour of fun dc eateries like Ben's Chili Bowl, Five Guys, and Art and Soul. One idea that someone had was serving their mom's chocolate chip cookies and milk during the cocktail reception. I think anything that you can do to really make the day special is worth the extra effort. Good luck with all the planning!

Oh, and have a happy 4th of July weekend! Have fun and be safe:-)

Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland Park

It's official! Were married! We just got back from Hawaii and I have a lot to share. Ill leave you with a few pictures until things settle a bit.
All photos were taken by our guests.

The day started with hair, make-up and a delicious brunch. I was calm as could be! (even I was surprised by this!)

And then it was time to get in my dress and see my man!

While we waited, I got a little anxious....

ok maybe a lot anxious!

After we saw eachother it was picture time! Note to all brides: DO NOT sit on a Piano....there is a finish and it made the back of my dress BLACK! Thank god for a bustle!

My beautiful Bridesmaids!

The Ceremony was perfect. I had fake eyelashes though, which do not work well with a veil...just FYI :)
And we were married!

Mr and Mrs Cleveland Park!

My favorite picture, our first dance. How sweet is this picture!?

The dreaded chair!

Our cake, with our bobblehead cake topper

Yes, I did it....I just couldnt help myself!

Our wedding was everything I dreamed of!

The Hotel Wedding

Almost immediately after Mr. CP and I got engaged, I was overwhelmed with the planning. Where do we start? What should we do? I decided, we should begin with setting a date and picking a place, which go hand in hand. We knew we wanted a hotel wedding. Originally, I pictured gorgeous botanical gardens, and an outdoor setting, with mason jars of fresh lemonade, but with my hair frizzing in an ounce of humidity, our families not being local, plus that special something about stumbling upstairs after a wedding, we realized a hotel was perfect for us. So we looked at a few places.
We began with Cherry Blossom season. YES! Gorgeous! I loved this idea because it represents DC so well, plus, I had visions of beautiful bunches of pink everywhere.... However, my hopes and dreams were crashed when I realized this was not possible. See, we are Jewish, and a Rabbi won't drive to marry us until the sunsets on the Sabbath, which realistically puts a Saturday wedding, from the months of March-October, beginning at 9:00 pm. That didn't quite work for us. This caused a lot of arguments between me and my parents, about the level of religion we wanted in our wedding, but I did want a traditional wedding, and it meant so much to my parents, so I gave in.
We decided on a Sunday, May 24, 2009 (Memorial Day weekend) to be exact. The venue search began. On a Sunday, it is not "Shabbat," any more, and the Rabbi can come at anytime. Plus, we get an entire 3 day weekend to enjoy the wedding festivities. The only downside is people telling me it is rude to have a wedding on a holiday weekend. To them, I simply, say, "It's rude for you to tell me that." The conversation usually ends there. No, I am kidding, but people do say that to me, all the time!

The first place we looked at was in Crystal City, VA. Mr. CP loves Virgina, and even though I am a MD girl, I agreed to a VA venue. The first stop was a pretty hotel, the main room was gorgeous, but the "feel" of the hotel was more like a conference hotel than a wedding hotel. I had trouble picturing our wedding there, plus, they host "Rolling Thunder" Memorial Day weekend every year, which is Veteran's Motorcycle group. This led to endless jokes from my dad, "Instead of Black Tie, we can have Black Leather!"

(I took these)

The next stop was in Old Town, Alexandria and was on the lower end of our budget. I do love Old Town, and we know we could get some gorgeous pictures with the cute streets and the water. However, it needed a lot of renovations and wasn't in the best shape. The halls looked dirty and the main room was not so pretty. It was exciting that with the difference in price, we could do so much more fun details, but it didn't feel right.

(I took these myself)

The last place of the day, after much frustration, was another Hotel in Crystal City, The Crystal City Marriott. Almost immediately after walking in, I knew this was right. I saw vibrant colors in the lobby, and a long spiral staircase and could actually picture myself getting married here. Almost immediately after we arrived, the front desk person offered to help us. The service was amazing from the very second we got there, and only got better.




source for both of the above images

(I took the 2 pictures above)

Then we went to the ballroom. I love the hallway that leads up to the room, and at the time, thought it would be where the cocktail hour would be. I later found out, they have a totally separate room, but I still love the hallway.



The ballroom doesn't have windows, so I know I will need to make the room gorgeous in another way. We need an exceptionally large dance floor so there is plenty of room for the Horah Dance! The wonderful staff at the Hotel, even offered to come in on their day off and set up the ballroom with 180 chairs, and a full dance floor, so we could see what the room looked like. When we got there, they even had chocolates and champagne for us!




Looks pretty big, right?

Then we got to see the rooms, and after this, it was a DONE DEAL!
Source for the above pictures

The staff was so accommodating, they made us feel really special. . They also gave us free suites and lowered the price for our parents. The food was great too! We are so excited to have our wedding there!!

Have you decided on a venue? Tell me what's important to you!

Video Titling

One of our wedding vendors, The Pros, just emailed to ask what we'd like to have our wedding video titled. I had never thought about this, but now it seems to be such a huge decision. I want it to be more than "Glen/Allen Wedding", but not quite so wordy as "True Love at It's Greatest Moment" a MIL suggestion. My thoughts so far:

• The Day Forever Began
• Endless Love
• Lady & Guy. . . Always

What does everyone else title their wedding videos? Any suggestions?

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - Why You Should Have a Receiving Line

In continuation of my wedding recap - Husband and I left the church and drove down the road to our reception site at The Clifton Inn.   For my reception I was sure of a couple of the things from the start and one of those golden rules was : There would be absolutely no MC/DJ type introductions of the wedding party or of Husband and I at dinner.   I hate these at weddings...I hate being part of them and I hate watching them...it always makes it seem like a circus or a production to me instead of a nice gathering of friends and family. I was going for intimate and warm not Price is Right "come on down!" 

What I wanted instead was something that is kind of going out of fashion...a receiving line. I really wanted to greet people at the door of our cute Inn and welcome them to our reception...as though I was welcoming them into my own home. I wanted them to feel a personal connection immediately and not stand around waiting for the bride and groom to make an appearance.   All over the wedding world I see comments about how horrible receiving lines are, but I think that's probably b/c most people don't do them right.   

I think in order for receiving line to be successful you should adhere to a two key rules

1) You need to have a small wedding.  Sorry, but receiving lines take too long and get jammed up if you want to say hello to each of your 400 guests. Part of the reason people hate receiving lines is because they have to wait around. And really if you have a large wedding then intimacy isn't probably one of your main goals to begin with and the receiving line would just seem mechanical cause you couldn't actually spend time talking to each guest. 

2) It needs to be just you and husband.  This might be controversial especially if your parents are hosting but when you start adding parents, grandparents, wedding party, etc. then that's what slows the line down and people are standing around and waiting again.  Plus many guests may not know your parents or your maid of honor so they will probably feel awkward having to shake their hand and say some niceties.  But everyone there knows either you or your husband and they are all their too see you, so no one feels awkward saying hello. 

The bonus of the receiving line is that you don't have to go around table to table later, since you've already talked to everyone at least once....this means that you and Husband actually get to eat! 

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace 

^Waiting at the door of the Clifton Inn as our guests arrived

^Hugging and laughing with Husband's extended family

^We were lucky that there was only one way into our reception site so all of our arrivals were staggered since they had to drive in one-by-one. We never had a line of people waiting. 

^You might recognize this couple from Ben's awesome travel blog The Flashpacker and from their wedding last November. 

^Still more hugs!

^Our photographer was able to catch pictures with us and many of our friends and family during the receiving line. The artsy shots are great, of course, but honestly these types of pictures are what your guests will probably put in a frame or print out for themselves. And if you live in Chicago and are looking to buy or sell a house then make sure you contact that smiling face above! 

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 - Walking Down the Aisle

After we were done with a few pics of just us, it was time to start the ceremony. 

^Here are the beautiful wreaths from our florist Blue Ridge Floral Design 

^I told our florist that I wanted green and white wreaths, but that I wanted them to look "modern" which for me meant not having traditional wreath florals like roses and hydrangea. I think she did an awesome job. 

^And here is the inside of our tiny little chapel 

^This is the view from the front looking out the door 

^Our pew florals, which I also loved.  Also from Blue Ridge Floral Design 

^Here come the guys!

^Waiting outside the church 

^I love this pic of my nephew! He escorted my Mom

^Waiting to head into the church 

^Here I come! The families, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and flower girl came before but for the sake of brevity I'm skipping to the key moment 

 

^Fiance watching me walk down the aisle 

^Coming down the aisle. One of my friend's husbands had just whispered something like "you look awesome"...which is why I'm looking at him and not at my groom! Haha 

^Now my eyes are where they are supposed to be! For such a short aisle it still seemed like a long walk when you have everyone watching you

^Finally, we're ready to start the ceremony! My flower hair clip is from Etsy seller Ella's Alley. When I bought it in Feb it was only $9! Her prices have gone up a bit but they are  a steal compared to some of the other hair clips people are selling for upwards of $100 or more. I just didn't see the point in spending that much money and I was thrilled with how my little $9 flower came out. 

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/Accomodations - The Clifton Inn