Danielle & Braxton’s Offbeat, Bright Green Wedding in Alexandria, VA

            The story of how we met can vary anywhere from “with a group of church friends” to “at a bar” based on who we’re talking to.  We did in fact meet at EatBar with a group of friends from church and immediately hit it off.  I am most comfortable in jeans and a geeky tee with my mismatched socks and favorite chucks with mismatched shoelaces, whereas he’s most comfortable in khakis and a polo with his boat shoes.

Somewhere in there are two of the craziest, most awkward, but also most organized people you will ever meet and this is what made planning our wedding equally a blast and, at times, difficult.

How Braxton proposed:

Braxton proposed on December 10^th and the following day we had a 7 page Google doc written out with just about everything we could think of that needed to be done.  This helped us out tremendously in that never once were we feeling like we had to rush.  I ended up getting really sick the week before our wedding and while I wanted to be up doing things in all honesty there was very little that needed to be done.

LOVE the fabric flower bouquets!

More on the awesome fabric flowers:

I really enjoy finding ways to try and be crafty so almost everything was handmade by ourselves.  While discussing our initial thoughts on flowers we concluded two things.  There should probably be some.  And they should have petals.  From there I ended up scouring the internet for alternatives/cheap flowers for the bouquets and boutonnieres as we knew those were the only flowers we cared about.

I ended up coming across a tutorial for making ribbon roses and from there the decision was made, all of the bouquets and boutonnieres would be ribbon roses.

Why they chose bright kelly green & slate grey as their color palette:

            We picked Kelly Green and Slate Grey as our colors mostly because we couldn’t decide and didn’t really care.  I happened to be wearing a Kelly Green shirt that day which we both decided we really liked and it’s actually ended up becoming one of my favorite colors.  From there we wanted something to tone it down and picked the Grey.

While most would have used the Green as an accent to pop against the Grey I fell in love the Green so much I tried to use it for the most part.

Click inside for the rest of Danielle & Braxton’s kelly green & grey Northern Virginia wedding by Rebekah Hoyt Photography!

How they chose their Northern Virginia wedding venue:

After an exhaustive search for venues, looking at everything from parks to hotels, we stumbled upon Collingwood and after wandering the property briefly immediately knew it was where we wanted to marry each other.  The ability to have the ceremony right by the Potomac River, while not an initial requirement, became one of its biggest selling points, immediately following the fact that the reception could be indoors.

More on their offbeat wedding decisions:

We started off with a very clear desire that people looking at pictures afterwards should recognize that it was our wedding without knowing beforehand.  We managed to accomplish this through pulling our individual interests into as many aspects as possible.

I am a huge movie buff so instead of table numbers each one was a movie.  Braxton loves going to wine tastings and learning more about that so the centerpieces had to incorporate wine bottles, and yet we were determined that this not be a “vineyard” wedding or a “movie premiere”.  It had to be us and we are not just one thing.

Check out how Danielle & Braxton kept their siblings and family incorporated in their wedding:

Contrary to traditions we did not ask our siblings to be a part of the bridal party but we still felt very strongly that they have parts to play which emphasized their importance in our lives.  Braxton’s sister read scripture during our ceremony.  My sister and brother-in-law greeted people and handed out programs.

Instead of a father-daughter dance we did a brother-sister dance.  And the entire reception was MC’d by my other sister.

We also had grandmothers on both sides who had passed away as well as my own father so we placed 3 roses on the table with our guestbook in memory and I placed a locket with my father’s picture inside around my bouquet so that he could still, in a way, walk me down the aisle.

They kept their friends closely involved in the wedding day too!

 Because I am a Music teacher and enjoy arranging, I arranged all of the music for the ceremony, including Queen’s You’re My Best Friend as a flute duet for our exit!

Two friends of mine who play the flute were asked to play for the ceremony.  Other friends from church as well as previous roommates helped out in innumerable ways from running the sound, to hair and make-up, to setting the reception hall up, as well as all the prep work in the months and weeks leading up.

Everyone came through splendidly and not a thing seemed out of place.

Because there was a long walk from the house where I was getting ready to the location of the ceremony we purchased parasols for myself and each of my bridesmaids.  As we walked towards the ceremony location they kept me hidden until the last moment.  This was probably the aspect I’ve received the most compliments on.

 There were many offbeat/nontraditional details.  Because I am very rarely ever not seen wearing my Converse shoes, Braxton bought me the most perfect Christmas gift ever, in a pair of Kelly Green Converse for our wedding day.  I purchased Grey Converse shoes for each of my bridesmaids to wear during the reception along with Kelly Green laces.

 We replaced the traditional giftbook with a book listing 1001 movies everyone should see before they die and asked our guests to sign by their favorite movie.

 Our favors were bookmarks which doubled as place cards and we turned it into a little scavenger hunt.  Each bookmark had an icon.  Each table card had an icon, the movie title associated with said icon, and some facts about the film.  Guests then had to match the icons to find their table.  From all we’ve heard this worked great!

Once guests were seated they found paper airplane templates waiting for them at their seats with directions on how to fold them.  Because our venue did not allow seeds, rice, sparklers, or numerous other items and my father was a rocket scientist it was a creative way to have another piece of him at the wedding while making for an awesome getaway!

 I also ended up crocheting around 15 clutches for my bridesmaids, moms and sisters, and friends who were helping out.

When I write it all out it seems like [we did] a lot and there were definitely times when I felt like my life was just one wedding project after another.  But because we managed to time things well nothing was ever last minute and I love being able to look back at all of the personal touches we had.

And we love being able to share it all here! Thank you so much Danielle & Braxton for sharing your super fun & offbeat Northern Virginia wedding! A special thanks again to Rebekah Hoyt Photography & Two Bright Lights.