Rachel and Will’s Ritz-Carlton Wedding
This past weekend, I returned to Duke for reunion weekend and it was such a blast! So, today I am delighted to share Rachel and Will’s wedding with you…a local couple who met at Duke! Hooray for the Blue Devils!
From the beautiful bride…
Although we grew up just miles away from each other in the DC area, Will and I didn’t meet until our sophmore year at Duke and we started dating at the end of our junior year. Five years later, Will proposed the week before I left for 3 months working in Uganda. I was so excited to get started wedding planning and a friend suggested that I read District Weddings , which I checked from Uganda every time I had internet access. By the time I got home I still had a year left before our chosen date and my mom and I had already booked a planner, a venue, a photographer and a band.
We picked the Ritz-Carlton because we needed a big space and they are known for great food, which was the most important thing to me. We worked out a very personalized menu that included a heavy cocktail hour with a bunch of passed hors d’oeuvres, a great cheese table and a latin station featuring tacos, ceviches, margaritas, and guacamole made right there. The photographers couldn’t even get a picture of the latin station because there were so many people crowded around it. In addition to our red velvet wedding cake, the pastry chef put together a dessert bar with sweet and savory desserts like strawberry-basil truffles and snickers macaroons. At midnight we had dance floor passed milk shakes in mini metal cups and french fries and sweet potato fries.
Some of my favorite decor was in the flowers. The aisle had rose petals in a lattice design that got all blended as we walked down the aisle. The escort cards were on a table paved with white and yellow carnations. I also loved how the roses in the dining room looked like beautiful candlelit mounds of color. The string quartet played version of pop songs, Songbird, and Here, There and Everywhere (my parents’ wedding song) during the processional and You Are the Best Thing for the recessional. Because Will is part Scottish, I surprised him by have a bagpiper lead us into the ballroom for our introduction. We thought that the band, Free Spirit, did a fantastic job and really kept everyone on the dance floor all night.
I am especially proud of the cake topper which I made myself from polymer clay to look like me and Will. I got my dress at the Junko Yoshioka studio, where they combined a few dresses for me to make my dream dress, and I was so happy with it. The company who printed our letterpress wedding invitations is only online. I loved unique style of the calligrapher that they used for the invitation text so much that we had her calligraphy the escort cards, menus and programs too.
The fabulous vendor team:
Photographer: Bryan Blanken, Freed Photography
Planner: Ayran Kantor
Stationery: Bella Figura
Calligraphy: Debi Zeinert, The Blooming Quill
Venue: The Ritz-Carlton Washington DC
Band: Free Spirit
Floral: Amaryllis
Lighting: Frost Lighting
Ceremony Music: Ensemble Elan
Hair: Mindy from Andre Chreky
Makeup: Mimi Tran
Dress: Junko Yoshioka
Bridesmaid dresses: Amsale from Bella Bridesmaid
Video: Matheson Communications
Officiant: Cantor Maurice Singer
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