Are you in the fall spirit now after seeing Renee and Ryan’s ceremony from Jen + Ashley Photography? Hope so! Now, if one thing’s for sure, Renee has one awesome, and talented, mom! Her mom put together all the centerpieces together and baked two of the wedding cakes! And it must run in the family as Renee and Ryan created a fun mad lib guest book and all together they assembled the caramel apple favors. Now that’s some serious DIY-ing right there! I also love that they paired traditional fall colors with a mint green in their reception tent for a refreshing twist.

From Renee: We wanted to have outstanding food and wine, and we really wanted everyone to have fun on the dance floor. My husband surprised me by singing “Kiss” by Prince to me! Not only did he do a fantastic job singing a difficult song, but I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the performance!

We created and printed our own “guest mad libs” which we used for our guest book, we arranged some of our center pieces using white pumpkins as “vases”, and I surprised the Groom with unique cake toppers (a goat and a black cat) that were reflective of a long-running inside joke of ours, which many guests were also privy to!

My mom made two of the cakes on our dessert table, she also put together all of the centerpiece flower arrangements. The fact that so many of our details were put together by us made the day feel extra special!

Renee’s advice to other DC-area couples:

Focus on the details that are important to you, but remember that your guests will not be nearly as critical as you are so don’t let that be something that stresses you out too much. In terms of budgeting tips: Don’t hesitate to consider buying some of the “rental” items online yourself- for example, renting tableclothes/napkins is almost twice as expensive as buying brand new ones online! In terms of the organizing/planning process, we found it helpful to write a To Do list for each month which helped us to continue to chip away at both the big and small details that way it didn’t all add up at the very end (trust me, you’ll have enough to do in the last few weeks even if you were super organized the whole time!).

The following Washington, DC area wedding vendors contributed to Renee and Ryan’s wedding:

Venue: Keswick Vineyards
Caterer: 20 South
Photographer: Jen + Ashley Photography
Flowers: Bouquets by A New Leaf Florist and Centerpieces by the Mother of the Bride
DJ: Derek Tobler
Cake and Other Desserts: Hot Cakes and the Mother of the Bride
Hair: Event Hair by Lauren
Makeup: Heather Mills
Bride’s Dress- Wtoo from Betsy Robinson’s Bridal

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: Jen + Ashley Photography

Submitted via Two Bright Lights