Sara & Matt’s DIY, Modern Purple Whittemore House Wedding in Washington DC

[Images: Linda Wang Photography]

Tiffany of Simply Breathe Events sent over this DARLING modern Washington DC wedding today! Sara & Matt picked the delightful Whittemore house for their venue, and while it’s more of a traditional place, they upped the modern factor with their style choices and bright purple color palette. There are SO many fun details from this DC wedding feature.

We looked at A LOT of wedding venues. We really wanted a space that felt intimate and warm, and wouldn’t require us to do a whole lot of decorating. We knew pretty much from the moment we walked into Whittemore House that was going to work for us. We knew it would feel cozy, and we could bring our personal touch to it without having to do up the whole space.

I wanted to keep the colors simple so they would make the rest of the details and decisions easier, not harder. I chose a range of purples matched with gold and ivory, thinking purple was a flexible palette that wouldn’t clash no matter what shades came out. The bridesmaids got to choose any purple dress they liked, and they came out pretty different!

Click inside for the rest of Sara & Matt’s adorable modern DC wedding at the Whittemore House!

Honoring our families was a big theme throughout the wedding, and we incorporated as many family items as we could: Sara wore her grandmother’s necklace and bracelet, the chuppah was her grandfather’s tallit (prayer shawl), the glass Matt smashed was part of his parents’ wedding crystal (shows you how much it gets used!), and the cake topper was from Matt’s grandparents’ wedding almost 60 years ago! We even put a picture of them cutting their cake next to ours so everyone could see the connection. Even if everyone couldn’t be there in person, we wanted to feel their presence.

The direct translation of the traditional Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings) really didn’t jive with our sensibilities, so we found a middle ground. We found a modern interpretation of the blessings that was approachable and meaningful to us, then asked each member of our wedding party to read one blessing. The Rabbi chanted the original blessings in Hebrew, so guests who are used to that got to hear the familiar tunes. It turns out our Rabbi has a beautiful voice — double bonus!

Sara’s parents were in charge of the chuppah, and they got really excited about doing it right! We wanted to keep it simple, and really authentic. They cleaned and restored her grandfather’s tallis (prayer shawl), and got four different kinds of wood for the poles representing their wishes for us: oak for strength, poplar for flexibility, walnut for beauty, and African Mahogany for adventurousness.

After multiple failed starts at invitations, Matt suggested Typecase Industries, which Sara came across while wandering through 52 O Street at the first Capitol Romance wedding workshop. We were thrilled to go local and small business, and they did a beautiful job creating something special and unique for us, featuring Sara’s Vespa! We absolutely loved the letterpress effect, and working with the gals at TCI was just a joy.

We wanted our wedding bands to be simple, but still really special. We did a wedding band workshop, where Matt made Sara’s ring from scratch, and carved some detail into it. At the same time, Sara resized Matt’s grandfather’s ring so that he can wear it and have that connection to family history.

During the hecticness of the pre-wedding week, Sara’s mom found time to bake a challah from scratch, which we used for the blessing over the bread. The blessing was performed by a friend of Sara’s from high school, a key member of their Jewish holiday circle in DC.

Sara’s parents also took on the table cards, and they really went above and beyond! They scoured through piles and piles of family photographs, and paired up pictures of Sara and Matt at similar ages. The numbers may have been weird (to capture the best pictures, of course), but the cards were a big hit!

We really wanted a photobooth but couldn’t believe how expensive they were, so we decided to DIY it. Sara found software and set up her camera and laptop, along with an inexpensive photo printer and a bunch of dollar store props. The printer made doubles of everything, so guests could keep one set and leave the other in the guest book with a note. They came out SO GREAT, and we had a blast looking through them the next day.