Classic Museum Wedding in DC

We love this absolutely classic féte hailing from an illustrious museum in our nation’s capital today. This Washington DC wedding was photographed by one of our favorites, Lisa Blume, and it is elegant and so special and timeless. According to Kelly, she couldn’t take her mind off of the National Museum of Women in the Arts’s design and sweetly, how she could picture traipsing down the staircase to meet her dear dad at the bottom to walk her down the aisle to her beau Jamie (tears!). Speaking of tears, we had to mention this touching detail. Kelly needed to have her grandmothers there in some way, so to commemorate these wonderful women in her life, she shipped in two paintings from North Carolina of them and had her grandmother’s tea cup in her bridal suite. Endearingly, the teacup was a gift her grandmother gave to her sister for her wedding.

After the ceremony, wedding planner Tabitha from Roberts & Co. Events transformed the same space as the ceremony into a beautiful reception area. It was complete with tall trees and beautiful white floral centerpieces as classic as the wedding itself. B Floral Event Design wreathed flowers like dahlias and roses around candles to create a soft ambience for the guests. Without a doubt, this wedding is total bliss.

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Classic Wedding Dresses
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Tall Wedding Centerpieces
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Museum Weddings in DC
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In their own words

How did you meet?

I had been invited to my sister’s friends birthday party and the birthday party was being held at Jamie’s row house. He was DJing the party and I remember thinking “that is the frattiest DJ I had ever seen.” I was very relieved that he had more going for him than DJing…and that he wasn’t actually fratty. It truly did feel like a connection right from the beginning.

What is your proposal story?

Our proposal story was filled with lots of surprises! Over the summer, Jamie was planning on going down to North Carolina, where Kelly from. He told her that he was getting in on Friday but really he had driven down a day earlier to get dinner with her parents to let them know that he was planning on proposing and to ask for their blessing.

The whole time Kelly thought he was driving down that Friday and even remembers texting him asking when he was getting in, little did she know that he was less than a mile away the whole time. 

Fast forward to the end of July. Jamie got home from work and made up some excuse to go to the roof/party room with Kelly. He had secretly reserved the roof top a while back but when they got up to the roof there were random neighbors who should not have been in the reserved space. Jamie was a bit flustered but kept his cool. He then asked Kelly to go outside even though it was raining. His exact words were “just go with it”. He then proposed in the rain on their roof overlooking the Washington Monument. They celebrated and when they walked back inside to the party room his family, her family, and friends were waiting and yelled surprise. Jamie’s final surprise was getting her family there from North Carolina.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

We decided to skip on the wedding cake. Jamie loves pie…he really loves pie and his birthday is on 3/14 aka Pi Day. So we went for mini pies from Pie Sisters instead of a wedding cake. Our main focus was on our friends and family having a blast. DJ Dan was amazing and held the dance floor throughout the evening. Jamie, who is neither a good nor confident dancer, ended up sweating way too much on the floor, especially because I think all of his high school friends just want to dance with each other.

With regard to planning, we wanted the experience to be personal yet relatable to our guests. Where we could, we wanted to put in almost anecdotal instances of our interests and life together. We had a puzzle guest book because Kelly loves puzzles; we had pictures from our parents and grandparents weddings; Jamie’s uncle was the officiant and told stories of each of us and our relationship; Jamie is very into wine and we had a bottle of Barbaresco during the wedding which Kelly had made into the groom’s cake the night before.

We had our sisters give the toasts who are our best friends; Jamie recorded a song he made up on the piano with one of his high school friends that his mother loved and they had their mother-son dance to his composition; Kelly wore her mother’s gorgeous wedding veil; Jamie had his father and his best friend from growing up as his best men. In general, we wanted it to be about not just us but we know we couldn’t be who we are without those closest to us. We felt it was necessary to have our friends and family woven into the fabric of the day. We probably splurged on the food from Occasions Caterers. It was fantastic though!

What were your favorite parts of the day?

Jamie: This is definitely cheesy, but my favorite memory of the day (and maybe my life) was seeing Kelly walk down the steps of the museum to meet her father at the bottom to walk her down the aisle. I was so close to losing it, and normally I would (I’m a crier) but I just wanted to soak it in. Every second of that will be with me forever.

Kelly: Walking down the aisle with my dad was one of my favorite memories from the day. I tear up every time I think about it because it is a moment that I will cherish forever.

My other favorite memory was the last song of the night. We requested to have “Want You to Want Me” by Jason Derulo to play as our last song. I have loved that song since the first time I heard it. I remember listening to it on repeat when I would go running. Its a song that you just want to get up and dance to. And having it as our last song of the night was perfect. It ended the best day of our lives on a high note.

Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?

On your wedding day take a moment to enjoy all the people that are there. You get to see people from all walks of your life talking, dancing, celebrating  and it is a beautiful moment.