You guys, today’s wedding in Maryland is just cute, cute, cute in every sense of the word and full of personality!  From the adorable bride (and her equally adorable short wedding dress!), to the fun DIY details throughout the ceremony and reception, to the stunning floral arrangements, Christine and Stephen’s summer wedding is 100% fun.  Photographer Sarah Culver sent over the gorgeous images from the day, and Christine is also here to share some of her inspiration and thoughts from the wedding!

From the bride, Christine: We wanted our wedding to be a celebration of our relationship and reflect our joy in committing our lives to each other.  We realized that the wedding was an important event but that it was only one day of a lifetime together.  We wanted to make sure that everything we did meant something to us when we looked back on it in 20 years.

We actually chose to marry on our 5 year dating anniversary in a private courthouse ceremony in DC and then have a wedding party at a more convenient time during the summer.  We loved being already married as it cut down on the nerves!  We did have another exchange of vows that we wrote ourselves for the second ceremony.

When it came to decorations, we decided to combine our love of natural elements and all things sparkly.  The ceremony was outside at the Lodge at Little Seneca in Boyds, MD, and we decided to keep the decorations simple by making fabric poms out of muslin and styrofoam balls to hang from satin ribbons on garden hooks lining the aisle.

For the reception, the amazing flowers and mirrored vases from Crimson and Clover Floral Designs sat upon pieces of burlap at the center of each table.  My sister helped make a glittered cupcake tower and moss initials, which added to the natural charm of the wood and stone of the lodge.

We found that DIY projects allowed us to be creative and save money.  We made a Save the Date video to email to all their guests that included our love of cooking and slide shows. We stocked up on a variety of papers, ink, and glitter from Paper Source and made our invitations by block printing an image of us dancing on the back.  I continued with my love of glitter by making glittery table numbers that each represented a number of special significance to our relationship, like 16.3 inches of snow on the ground at our mutual proposal.  Glitter even made it onto the program fans we made!

We’re both big music lovers and were very particular in our wedding playlist.  The entire wedding party walked down the aisle to “I Love N.Y.E.” by Badly Drawn Boy.  The recessional was “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.  Our first dance was to “Naive Melody” by the Talking Heads.  We opened up the cocktail hour with” Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” by Bruce Springsteen and started dinner with “Electric Feel” by MGMT.  We ate our cupcakes to “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow and then opened up the dance floor with “Young Folks” by Peter, Bjorn and John.  We made CDs as wedding favors, filled with music from the day and our relationship.

We had a lot of fun creating everything for the wedding!  Neither one of us is very crafty but with the help of the internet and being inspired by other people’s creativity, we were able to do it all in six months without losing our minds!

Thank you so much Sarah and Christine!

The following Washington, DC area wedding vendors contributed to Christine and Stephen’s wedding:

Venue: Lodge at Little Seneca Creek, Boyds, MD
Photography: Sarah Culver
Catering: RSVP Catering
Cupcakes: Georgetown Cupcakes
Floral Design: Crimson and Clover
Wedding Dress: Romona Keveza with a belt from Modern Trousseau
Birdcage Veil: Veil Artistry
Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin
Groom’s Suit: J. Crew with a tie from Thomas Pink
Groom’s Shoes: Johnston and Murphy

Don’t forget to visit our vendor guide for more fabulous Washington, DC area wedding professionals or our real wedding gallery for more beautiful Washington, DC area weddings!

Photo Credits: Sarah Culver