Images: Pop Wed Co
It’s FRIDAY! We made it. Woof what a week. Maybe it’s the whole pregnancy thing but this week just kicked my ass! Andy & I will be wrapped up in baby classes all weekend, but I am kind of excited for them! Hoping you all have a fantastic weekend too (how could you not? It’s the WEEKEND!). For Friday we have a super fun & awesome Washington DC elopement wedding from my favs, Pop Wed Co. Taylor & Nate didn’t want to spend a fortune on their wedding so they opted for a pop-up elopement instead. Naturally they picked the BEST elopement company in DC too. Here are all the amazing pics and details – have a great weekend!
From the couple:
We went to high school together, and actually our younger brothers played baseball together for years when they were kids. Taylor’s mom used to point out Nate at the baseball field and say how cute he was and that they should date. Then a few years later, our German teacher and Taylor’s mom told us each that the other wanted to go to the prom together and essentially tricked us into being each others’ dates. We went, and started dating shortly after…that was nine years ago!
Why they wanted a pop-up wedding instead of a traditional wedding:
We knew we didn’t want to spend a lot, and didn’t want a lot of stress. We weren’t really sure what that would look like until we saw the Pop Wed Co. piece in the Washington Post back in the summer; after investigating further, we knew a popup wedding fit our budget and sounded so cool and easy. Plus, good pictures were really important to us, and Maggie’s pics from previous weddings were so awesome!
Since we had to keep it small, and our family is not local, we limited it to parents, siblings, and our good friend/sorta-maid of honor. That gave us a good core group that included all the most important people but wasn’t too cumbersome to wrangle and lead around the city!
In the spring our parents are also hosting a reception in Pittsburgh (back home) for our extended families so they’ll have a chance to celebrate with us too. It worked out really well and is the best of both worlds.
Advice for other couples planning a more intimate or pop-up wedding:
The planning process was overall pretty easy, and we were lucky to have families who supported our popup vision. Advice for prospective popup couples: you WILL have to explain the concept to everybody, all the time, multiple times, because easy weddings blow people’s minds. This breaks all the rules! But there are no rules, and in the end almost everyone will think it’s a very cool idea and many will confess to wishing they’d thought of it when they got married.
Click inside for SO MUCH MORE awesome from Nate & Taylor!!
We chose the Portrait Gallery because it allowed us to have some natural light and a spacious setting without going outside in February. Plus, Taylor works at the Smithsonian, so it was kind of a cool nod to that without being too cheesy. Plus, we absolutely loved the idea of getting some art in the background of our pictures. We’re not really huge art buffs but especially the modern art is just so cool and makes for really interesting photos.
Other details like colors just kind of fell into place because we liked them. Taylor found her dress at Kate Spade, and then started looking there for shoes and fell in love with the pink ones. that guided the slight pink theme. We chose navy for Nate’s suit since it felt more casual than black or grey. Nate is a big fan of Adidas Superstars and has had some loud colored ones in the past, so we had to give him some shoe pizzazz with the laces.
Taylor changes her hair color up a lot, but chose the dark purpley red shade since it added some pop but still was classic looking. For the flowers, Taylor looked at ideas on Pinterest and chose a few she liked, then took them to Fatima at Foggy Bottom Whole Foods floral department. She asked a few questions about likes and dislikes, but I told her to do whatever looked good and had a little color. Nate’s pocket square was a gift from our Maid of Honor and it’s handmade from the Etsy shop Lord and Lady Co.
