Meg & Erik’s Washington DC Wedding at The Embassy Suites & Maggiano’s

Images: Michelle VanTine Photography

Oh there is SO much to love from today’s real Washington DC wedding brought to us by the lovely Simply Breathe Events & Michelle VanTine Photography. A modern ceremony & reception setting with the most gorgeous shade of purple for their color palette and decor. But really, what gets me the most here is the story behind this wedding & couple: Tiffany shared that working with them was like working with your 2 closest friends; they love DC and wanted to incorporate that into the wedding, as well as, honor their family members every way they could. You guys will love this one.

From bride, Meg:

We are both from the DC area, and really wanted to incorporate our love of DC into our wedding. I grew up in Germantown, MD while my husband grew up in Chevy Chase DC, so we felt having a metro theme was totally appropriate! We named our tables after various metro stops that had meaning to us (i.e. Cleveland Park was where I lived when I first moved to DC, my husband went to school at U of Md, and my father used to work near the Farragut North metro station) We provided explanatory notes to showcase why we chose each metro stop. We also chose to use replica paper fare cards as our place cards to tie everything together!

We chose to have our wedding in Friendship Heights because it had a lot of meaning for us. My husband used to live there, so we spent quite a bit of time in that area (and at Maggiano’s!) going on dates and just hanging out. We wanted a venue that was easily accessible for both our friends who lived in the city and our relatives who traveled from as far as Alaska, and we felt that the Embassy Suites and Maggiano’s were the perfect combination!

Our guests could park their cars and walk to the ceremony, and if they wanted to explore the city, hop on the metro. Our ceremony space at Embassy Suites spoke to us because we loved the openness and brightness of the space. It felt like we were outside even though we were indoors! I was way too type A to have an outdoor ceremony and Embassy Suites was the perfect compromise! We chose Maggiano’s because we LOVED their food and knew they would provide us with quality food at a reasonable price, even when making the food for 135 people. Turns out we chose right- our guests raved about the food all night and the next day!

I chose Calla Lillies for my bouquet and my bridesmaid’s bouquets because they were my mother’s favorite flower. My mother passed away in December 2011, and I felt the Calla Lillies were a lovely, yet subtle, way to pay tribute to her.

One of my good friends had two charms made for me to hang on my bouquet- one with a picture of my mom and one with a picture of my dad. It was like they were able to walk down the aisle with me even though they couldn’t be there. It meant so much that she did that- it was such an incredibly amazing gesture.

Both of my parents had passed away and instead of walking down the aisle by myself, I asked my best friend Colin to walk me down the aisle. Having Colin walk me down the aisle was special in so many ways- not only is he my best friend (and basically my brother at this point), but my husband and I met thanks to Colin (and Colin’s older brother). My husband’s best friend is Colin’s older brother, and Colin, his older brother, and myself all went to college together.

CLICK INSIDE FOR THE REST OF MEG & ERIK’S MODERN DC THEMED WEDDING

My husband is Jewish (though I am not very religious), so we incorporated some of the Jewish wedding traditions into our wedding, including stomping on the glass and getting raised in chairs during the reception!

Having our first look and some of our wedding photos in the five metro tunnels that converge directly below Chevy Chase Pavilion!! The moment we chose Friendship Heights we knew we HAD to have some photos down there.

My favorite part though was our first dance- Ghostbusters! We had absolutely no idea what we were planning to do, so we just went with the flow once the music started! It was a blast!

The biggest DIY was our centerpieces. My uncle is a woodworker and when I told him my idea of having metro station posts as our centerpieces, he was super excited to make them for us. They turned out better than we could have imagined!

One of my good friends (who, conveniently, is a graphic designer) custom designed our save the dates, invitations, table cards with the explanatory notes for us. We told her the style we wanted and she knocked it out of the park!

Instead of having a custom wedding cake, we chose to go with a cheesecake provided by our venue. We bought a cake topper that said “Finally!” because we took over 2 years to plan our wedding and get married. We’d been subject to our fair share of comments about our long engagement, and thought the topper was the perfect touch!