Deanna & Rikki’s Rustic, Heartfelt & Intimate Washington DC Wedding

“We don’t feel wholly comfortable in the limelight and we didn’t want our wedding details to overshadow the significant commitment we were about to make.”

I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday. It’s been an adjustment to say the least, into my new project at the day job and things in my personal life are a bit crazy too. I’m going to need to re-adjust my blogging schedule a bit and not leave these massive real wedding posts until 9pm the night before ;) Anyway, this real DC wedding feature is going to knock your socks off – ok, and let’s be honest, probably tear up, so hold onto your butts.Douglas Pettway Photography sent me this one a few weeks ago and I literally wrote back to him “now THAT’s a REAL wedding feature” the second I finished reading Deanna & Rikki’s write-up. These two lovely ladies poured their souls into their wedding day, with handmade details, custom vows, and even a brand new last name that they decided upon together (more on that later). You really won’t want to miss ANY image or any of the write-up that these two shared.

Deanna & Rikki’s Rustic, Handmade, Heartfelt & Intimate DC Wedding

Vendors:

Photographer: Douglas Pettway | Flowers: Eastern Market Vendor | Officiant: Friend | Placements: Handmade by couple

Rikki and I both wanted our wedding to reflect our personalities and our relationship.  We don’t feel wholly comfortable in the limelight and we didn’t want our wedding details to overshadow the significant commitment we were about to make.

A little backstory: if it were up to us, we would have gotten married in Oregon (Rikki’s home) on top of a mountain.  But, since that wasn’t possible, we wanted our atmosphere to reflect our love of the outdoors.

Before the wedding day, I was able to pull off the biggest surprise of both our lives, which is truly remarkable because I can’t keep anything from Rikki.  Her brother lives in Oregon and was not going to be able to make it to DC for our wedding.  So, in sneaky fashion, I arranged for his trip and even caught Rikki on video after seeing him for the first time.  We both still cry each time we watch it.  Seeing DC through his eyes, a combat veteran with a brilliant heart and mind, reminded us how privileged we are to be in this place.

With a total of 14 guests (plus our two sweet pups), we walked from our house to the Capitol Building where we were surrounded by our closest friends and family who witnessed the best day of our lives.  In the shadow of the Supreme Court, we reflected on the institution of marriage and our gratitude for being granted this right.

It felt important to us to take a moment of silence to acknowledge the many couples who are not yet afforded the chance to marry.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything so beautiful as that…

We wrote our own vows (that were eerily but unsurprisingly similar) and exchanged rings on which our respective fingerprints are engraved.

Click inside for SO MUCH MORE of Rikki & Deanna’ amazing DC wedding ~ including all the awesome handmade details at their intimate dinner reception!

Our vision was “modern rustic” or at least, that’s what Pintrest calls it! We sewed our own placemats, table runners, welcome sign and even made bandanas for our pups from burlap.  We customized each with a hand stamped letter “C”.  More on that choice later. We had a blast buying mismatched plates from Goodwill that provided a homey and vintage feel.

 Rikki’s best friend created two beautiful arrangements from flowers she found at Eastern Market while one of my best friends politely asked neighbors if we could “borrow” their gorgeous cherry blossoms and tulips.  Globe lights and white candles lit our yard as a perfect playlist (created by another of our best friends) of our favorite songs played in the background.  This wedding was truly made possible with the love and support of our family and friends.

After the ceremony, we ate incredible BBQ, drank home-brewed beer, and laughed until we cried.  And then cried some more! Since we didn’t have a formal bridal party, we asked each of our guests to write their own toast that would double as our “guest book”.  We heard the most touching, genuine, and heartfelt words from the people we love the most.  After the tears subsided, we gathered around the fire pit, made S’mores, and laughed even more.  It was the perfect day.

Rikki and I believe that sharing a last name further validates our marriage under law.  It feels important to us to share that with our future children.  So, in thinking about what we might choose, we scoured each of our heritages to find the perfect name.  However, we could not find a language that truly captures our egalitarian approach to marriage.  We decided that Latin, being the foundation for so many languages that our ancestors shared, was worth exploring.  When we came across the Latin word for “heart” we knew we’d found the beginning of our family.  One of our best friends added these additional definitions that seemed to fit us so perfectly:
1) heart
2) intellect/judgment
3) mind/soul/spirit
4) souls/persons (pl.)
5) sweetheart

We are now The Cor Family.

^SO MUCH AWESOME

I mean that was amazing right? Seriously, probably one of my favorite wedding features EVER. Thank you Deanna & Rikki for sharing your amazing day with us and thank you again to Douglas Pettway Photography for sharing the images of this real Washington DC wedding.

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