Weddings

This Summer-and-Citrus-Themed Wedding Included Modern Design Touches and a Theatrical Spin

The cocktail-style reception included a menu of dishes from various Union Market food vendors.

Katherine and Casey met when she and her friends signed up to play a “mega­game” (“think multiple board games played at one time by 32 players in teams,” Katherine says) that Casey designed. She didn’t win that day but did end up with his phone number. Their June wedding at AutoShop at Union Market was a theatrical spin on a modern­, summer/­citrus-themed wedding.


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Each space at AutoShop was filled with bold flowers—“so much oomph and wonder!” says the bride—from the ceremony on the balcony to the vignettes at the reception. In one area, a bartender made custom gin-and-tonics with a “magical cart of add-ins”; in another, an interactive guest book included a vintage phone booth; elsewhere, flowers cascaded out of a baby grand piano. At cocktail hour, professional “peddlers of whimsy” Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell of Happenstance Theater entertained. The newlyweds wanted to achieve “a giant party,” so they skipped some traditional elements and planned a cocktail-style reception with Union Market food stations: La Jambe charcuterie, TaKorean tacos, Fava Pot Egyptian street food, Al Volo pasta, Bidwell sliders, and Laoban dumplings and spring rolls. Dessert included wedding cake plus bourbon bread pudding from Puddin’, followed by late-night sweets from District Doughnuts.

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The Details

 

Planning and design: Ida Rose Events & Design

Florist: Sweet Root Village

Invitations: Emily Baird Design

Caterer: Occasions Caterers

Cake: Buttercream Bakeshop

Hair and makeup: Amie Decker Beauty

Bride’s attire: Carolina Herrera, Carine’s Bridal (ceremony); Sottero and Midgley (reception)

Groom’s attire: Indochino

Music: The Palmer Family (ceremony); Neel Madan (cocktail hour); The Revels from Élan Artists (reception)

Videographer: Shutter & Sound

Photographer: Alicia Wiley Photography

Welcome boxes: Marigold & Grey

This wedding originally appeared in the January 2023 issue of Washingtonian.

Amy Moeller
Fashion & Weddings Editor

Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.