Paul & Angie’s Offbeat Glen Echo Park Maryland Wedding ~ Part 1

What happens when you take a fun-loving LA couple, and have them throw a wedding in DC, at one of my favoritest alternative DC wedding venues, ever?!

Easy. You get one of the best, alternative wedding features on my blog, to date.

This one is going to be Good, people (with a capitol G). So good that we’re actually going to split it up into a two-parter since there are just too many fun, offbeat, and personal details to focus on.  Thanks to the awesome wedding photographers, Joe & Katye, of The Happy Couple I get to share this amazing, offbeat DC wedding with you!!

I am fairly certain that is the most awesome picture ever and I would be happy just being able to share this one picture alone. Lucky for me (and you) I have plenty more to share, starting with a bit about how Angie, Paul, and how they met.

By the time we got married, we’d been together over 12 years.  We met while at college in St. Louis and were friends for a couple years before we started dating in 1999. After graduating, we lived together in Northern VA for a few years before moving to Los Angeles where we currently live.

We love vintage and mid-century decor. We love tiki and rockabilly themes. We love bright colors. We love our family and friends.

A tea length dress, Mohawk, and an alternative, antique brooch boutique? this is my kinda wedding!

In love with Paul’s blue chucks and Angie’s gorgeous green wedding shoes.

You can plainly see why  I am so obsessed with Glen Echo Park … what other DC wedding venue gives you shots like this?!

Click inside for the rest of Part 1 of this amazing, offbeat Washington DC wedding at Glen Echo Park!

More from Paul & Angie:

We don’t consider ourselves “traditional”, and we knew we didn’t want a “formal” wedding. After looking at a few location options in Southern California, we realized nothing really suited us.

Paul grew up in the DC-area and we lived there together for a few years, so many of our friends and family live in the area. On one of his visits back, friends suggested that Paul look at Glen Echo Park in MD. He fell in love with it and I was sold based on his excitement alone. I think he had me at “carousel rides during the reception”.

 

As for our ceremony, we knew we didn’t want cookie-cutter text, but we really didn’t know where to start. We found an amazing officiant named Jessie Blum (http://www.eclectic-unions.com/). Though Jessie wasn’t our officiant, she worked with us to write a ceremony that suited us. With her help, we were able to create a ceremony that perfectly reflected who we are as a couple and what influences we wanted to pay tribute to.

We’re big tea-drinkers, so she even helped us create a “tea ceremony” element instead of unity candle ceremony. And she made herself available as a resource for our officiant. We also opted not to have a bridal party, since we considered everyone at the wedding our bridal party. This not only helped to keep the ceremony small, it also kept us from having to choose among our close friends.

We’re lucky to have many talented and generous family and friends who helped us pull off our big day. A good friend agreed to be our officiant. My sister and brother along with two friends did ceremony readings for us.

Love the emotion in this shot! Beautiful. Touching. Amazing.

I love the fact that Paul & Angie took so much time to really make their wedding ceremony not only unique, but completely their own. I wish more couples would do this!

Be sure to tune back in tomorrow morning for Part 2 of this amazing, offbeat Washington DC wedding ~ including a “first carousel ride” in lieu of a first dance, and some amazing reception shots!