Mara & Jimmy’s Springtime Washington DC Wedding at Josephine Butler Parks Center

Images: Sweet Bespoke Photography

As projected on Monday, it’s been a rough week in politics. Many of my small business owning friends are terrified of what the GOP Tax Scam passing means for them, and I am so upset by the lack of concern/care from our politicians about CHIP funding. To top it off, the unexpected 1-vote victory we thought a VA delegate had, was overturned by a GOP panel of judges, and now that sits at a tie. 2016 was long but 2017 has felt longer. I can’t say I am sad to see this year go.

However, life is full of both ups and downs, and with every sad report I read, I also get to be reminded of the LOVE that exists in this world and our city, with each real wedding I get to share. Mara & Jimmy’s wedding, coordinated by our own rockstar coordinator, Kara, is full of love and light and beautiful Springtime details. They stayed true to their heritage, their personalities, and executed a simple DC wedding flawlessly. Enjoy the smiles & love in each of these images.

Most of the details we chose for our wedding were intended to highlight the venue itself – we loved it so much we really wanted it to shine and to not have focus drawn away from it by flashy decorations. For example, we went with white table clothes and simple flatware with a just a pop of color from the flowers.

The bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen’s tuxedos were spring colors to be seasonal, but subtle and understated, again to really let the Josephine Butler Parks Center back-drop really shine.

Our favorite part of the ceremony was when our officiant each shared lists of things that we wrote that we loved about the other. He said that he loves that I change the words of popular songs and sing them to our dog, and I said that I love patient he is with me when he tries to explain the difference between the 4 remotes we have for one television.

Jimmy and I both very much identify with our heritage mine being Italian and his being Greek. Olives and the olive tree symbolize peace and unity and are prevalent throughout Greece and Italy so we thought it was a great symbol of our two families and cultures coming together!

The only DIY detail we had at the wedding was our escort board. What I loved most about making it was spending a day with my maid of honor and one of the bridesmaids, walking around Michaels and coming up with endless ideas of how to put it together before landing on canvas, ribbons and shimmery card-stock. I didn’t feel the need to save the escort board itself, but putting it together is definitely one of my fondest memories of wedding planning. It can be a stressful process planning a wedding so I’m glad that we have that memory of a really fun day in the midst of all of it.