This Intimate, Modern Winter Wedding Featured a Short Standing Ceremony and a Candlelit Dinner

In March 2020, after years of this friend attempting their set up, Rebecca, a product manager at Capital One, and Kevin, an engineer for the Navy, were introduced by a mutual friend at a birthday party. They hit it off—she thought he seemed genuinely kind and fun-loving, and admired his dedication to his semi-professional Ultimate Frisbee career; he was impressed by her entrepreneurial spirit, the great relationships she had with her friends, and how she didn’t take herself too seriously. In the days that followed, Rebecca was preparing to leave for a solo ski trip in Colorado, and in “less than five text messages,” she says, Kevin—“a man of action”—booked a trip to join her. Unfortunately the pandemic struck before the Colorado slopes could serve as their official first date spot, and they instead scheduled a first-date hike in Rock Creek Park. Just under four years later, Kevin proposed at their Capitol Hill home over Sunday brunch.

For their wedding one year later, the couple hosted nearly 80 guests for an intimate weekend-long wedding celebration, starting with a Valentine’s Day welcome party at the Doyle Bar in the Dupont Circle Hotel and ending with a Sunday afternoon sendoff of golf and darts the Muni, in Logan Circle. 

One of Rebecca’s favorite parts of the wedding day was the nontraditional ceremony entrance: guests mingled with cocktails upon arrival, and then a violinist playing an Irish wedding jig—a nod to Kevin’s heritage—parted the crowd to lead Kevin and their families into the ceremony space, followed by the rest of their guests, for a short standing ceremony. Rebecca—wearing a redesigned version of the wedding gown worn by both her mother and grandmother—ascended the staircase with her parents and processed through an organic aisle to meet Kevin. 

The modern wedding design featured a color palette of dusty blue and artichoke green with black and white accents; centerpieces that included fruit and single-stem florals tied with ribbon; and a candlelit dinner. To keep things lively, they say they kept the ceremony short, skipped speeches, and chose the “world’s best DJ.” In addition to signature cocktails (gin martinis and Old Fashioneds), the reception included shots of Jameson on a shot ski made by the groom’s uncle, and espresso martinis that paired with a heart-shaped chocolate Lambeth cake for dessert. Late-night chocolate chip cookies to go fueled the walk to the afterparty at Tilt inside Black Jack. See the photos of their big day below.

Wedding Details

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.