When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, I can say with confidence that sophisticated and elegant Virginia weddings don’t come to mind, but instead a burst of emerald green and a pint of Guinness”that’s not just me, right!? Inspired by the holiday (and the parade in Old Town Alexandria on the morning of their wedding!), Danielle and Andy added touches soft greens and pinks to sweeten up their wedding day at Hotel Monaco. (But, before you go on, make sure you check out their super sweet, traditional wedding ceremony!)  Sweet Tea Photography was on hand to capture all the lovely details, including the their food stations inspired by Baltimore, Maryland and Austin, Texas, the hometowns of the bride and groom respectively. Crab cakes for the win!

From Danielle: After booking our date and venue, we learned that there was a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Old Town that same day. Lucky for me, I had already picked the bridesmaids dresses and they were emerald green! So we drew inspiration from that and incorporated greens into the flowers and cake.

We wanted to pull together the cities where we grew up (Danielle from Baltimore and Andy from Austin, Texas) and the city where we met (Durham, North Carolina) to create our menu. We had three custom stations: A Maryland crab cake station with shrimp skewers, fry cones with vinegar, and a mixed green salad; A Texas taco station with three types of tacos and guacamole and chips; and a North Carolina BBQ station with pulled pork sandwiches and macaroni and cheese.

Andy had recently gotten into woodworking and we were trying to come up with an idea for a unique guest book so I asked Andy to make a bench, paint our initials and wedding date on it, and then we had our guests sign it. It turned out great and we have it in our apartment now. It is so fun to look at all of the notes on it!

Danielle’s wedding planning advice for other DC-area couples:

During the day, make time for a few moments that you can share with your husband. Immediately after the ceremony, we had about one minute to ourselves, and right before we were introduced at the reception we had another quiet moment. The day will rush by and there will be a million people that you talk to, but it’s really special to have these special moments with just the two of you.

Thank you so much Danielle and Andy for sharing your wedding ceremony with us! The following Washington DC area wedding professionals contributed to their wedding:

Ceremony Venue: Saint Mary Catholic Church
Reception Venue: Hotel Monaco
Photography: Sweet Tea Photography
Floral Design: Highway to Hill
Stationery: Paper Source
Calligraphy: Just Write Studios
Bridal Attire: Maggie Sottero from The Bridal Boutique
Jewelry: BHLDN
Hair and Makeup: Bridal Beauty Associates
Bridesmaids’ Attire: Bill Levkoff
Groom and Groomsmen Attire: Men’s Wearhouse
Band: SuckerPunch
Cake: Alexandria Pastry Shop

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Photo Credits: Sweet Tea Photography