Alli & Mark’s Washington DC Themed Wedding at Keswick Vineyards

Images: Jodi Miller Photography

I really love when couples self-submit their weddings to my blog because they are usually readers that have a similar outlook to me on the DC wedding scene (or really just weddings in general). Alli emailed me last month, excited to submit her DIY, DC themed wedding that took place at a gorgeous winery in Charlottesville and I know you guys are going to love it too! The darling yellow & grey colors, the DIY projects, and the DC Metro table names – just to name a few! Check out all the images and details from Alli & Mark!

Mark and I are about as nontraditional as you can get – who meets on the Metro and then gets married? We wanted our wedding to reflect that as well.

We chose Charlottesville because we wanted to get away from the city, but still be equidistant from our families in North Carolina and Michigan. I go to Charlottesville every year to visit family during Christmas, so it feels like home, and Mark has always loved it because it reminds him of his college town of Ann Arbor, MI. We looked at seven vineyards in one day, but once we saw Keswick Vineyards, with its beautiful white estate, it’s “Edgewood Room”, which was the name of the street where we first lived together, and its views of the rolling hills, we knew it was the place we wanted to get married. The theme of our wedding was very easy to come by since we met on the DC metro; all of the details really figured themselves out from there.

After trying on many so-called “traditional” wedding dresses, I fell in love with one with a modern twist – the back was cut out and it had a trumpet shape – completely opposite of the romantic lace dress I had in mind. I also didn’t want my girls in traditional bridesmaids’ dresses, so they were welcome to wear different versions of a casual grey dress and yellow shoes with whatever hair, make-up and jewelry they were comfortable in (they are all incredibly beautiful, so I knew none of those details would make any difference)!

The grey and yellow was only really used in the wedding party attire and my yellow shoes.

I started my wedding day with a morning yoga class, led by my bridesmaid (and friend since kindergarten), with all of my girls – bridesmaids, flower girls and cousins.

The wedding coordinator at the church was my Aunt Karen. With my cousin on the drums and his bandmate as pianist, they performed music by Sigur Ros to accompany us all down the aisle. Two of our best friends read scripture and my cousin Avery read a passage from the Velveteen Rabbit.

CLICK INSIDE FOR THE REST OF ALLI & MARK’s WASHINGTON DC THEMED WEDDING!

The groomsmen donned grey ties from Divine Domestication on Etsy. Mark wore Metro token cuff links by another business on Etsy, and I found custom bridesmaids’ purses from Jenna Lou Designs, also on Etsy.

Our very talented friend Kristy sculpted my Hoffman hairpiece and made the flower girl baskets as well as flowers for their hair. She also embellished our dessert table with adorable decorations and a cake topper that looked exactly like us! She also added to the décor in the gazebo and helped me make streamers for our exit that night.

Before the reception got into full swing, the guests enjoyed a game of corn hole with boards custom-made by our friend Zack and bean bags embroidered with our initials compliments of Mark’s mom.

It was difficult to incorporate the colors I wanted (yellow and grey) with the metro line colors (blue and orange). We met on the blue line, but Mark was really “supposed” to be on the orange line at the time. We wanted each table to be named after a stop on the blue and orange lines, so we used brown metro pylon replicas as centerpieces. Since they were brown, orange and blue, the rest of the table décor had to be really simple.

To really make the reception scream “DC Metro”, my dad created 15 metro pylons out of 4×4 wooden posts and electrical tape to serve as centerpieces for the tables. Our friend Alex deejay’d throughout dinner and dancing with playlists we made before the big day.

We purchased weathered wooden frames from Michaels which held the “Metro Matches” article that featured how Mark and I met and placed them on every table at the reception. There was a Metro map on an easel that held the escort cards. At the entrance to the reception, the guests picked up the Metro ticket escort card with their name and “stop” and found their table by the name of the blue or orange line stop.

Our dessert table was overflowing with cakes, cookies, brownies and cupcakes homemade by our family and friends. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

We entered our reception to Sleigh Bells’ “Crown on the Ground” which resulted in the best picture of the day – we did not plan our actual first dance! We opted for a sweets table instead of the usual wedding cake. There was no bouquet or garter toss, and to save money we decided to fore-go the traditional flower center pieces on the tables, opting for the metro signs instead.