Hanna and Jamison // Woodend Sanctuary Wedding, Chevy Chase, MD // DC Wedding Coordinator

I had a lot of great weather luck this year (so far...fingers crossed for the rest of the fall!). But no day can compare to Hanna and Jamison's wedding in early June. It's doubtful any DC'ers will remember, but it was a ridiculously gorgeous day - not a cloud in the sky and zero humidity - a rarity in these parts (in fact my wedding last year on this same date was 98 degrees and humid as all get-out).

So. It was perfect that Hanna and Jamison had a morning ceremony followed by an afternoon luncheon reception at Woodend Sanctuary. I've also decided the weather knew Porter Watkins was going to be photographing this wedding. Cause her photography style meshed so well with the venue and the light. Every. single. picture. is stunning. The ceremony under the trees, with gorgeous altar decor by H Bloom was serene and lovely. Guests then moved up to the portico area for cocktails where they also found some DIY flags with their table information, as well as one of Woodend's trees wrapped with personal family photos (big thanks to my assistant that day, the incomparable Crystal who I'm devastated has moved to Boston. BOO. Bostonians: hire Miss Fete now).

In addition to the ceremony decor, the florist also hit it out of the park on the reception decor. Beautiful, natural arrangments and a really stunning runner for the head table. Main Event once again did an amazing job with the luncheon buffet and impeccable service. Because it was a luncheon reception, there wasn't any dancing (mostly - some of their friends may or may not have created their own impromptu dance party). Instead they rented their own sound equipment and played a Spotify playlist throughout the reception while people mingled after dinner out on the lawn, some of them playing bocce or croquet!

Couple of other details I need to mention is the bad ass cake by Room 11, and the great ceremony and cocktail music by Randy Barrett Trio.

On to the ridonkadonk photos - Enjoy! And hop to it, any upcoming DC brides and hire Porter Watkins ASAP! She not only produced these excellent pics but was a total pleasure to work with.

Congrats again Hanna and Jamison!!

Hanna and Jamison's Vendors:

Venue: Woodend Sanctuary

Coordinator: Katie Wannen, The Plannery

Photographer: Porter Watkins Photography

Ceremony and Cocktail Musicians: Randy Barrett Trio

Caterer: A Main Event

Cake: Room 11

Florist: H Bloom

a new addition

I have a small (literally) announcement to make. Though I do hope to be adding more staff to The Plannery in the future, for now, we'll just be adding a baby girl to the Wannen family! Wanted to share the happy news that my husband and I are expecting a baby in January 2015.

And yes, this does mean some changes around The Plannery. I'll be taking a real maternity leave from January through April (except for those clients I have that are getting married in May! You, I'll be working with in April). In addition, though business in 2014 was booming (yay! and thank you!) I'm going to be cutting back on the number of weddings I book for 2015 for obvious reasons. I want time to settle in to this new life and enjoy being a Mom (while still being a business owner). I do plan on ramping things back up for 2016. But my availability in general will be much more limited for 2015 (so contact me now if you want me! I'm already quite booked up).

Looking forward to our new addition and some big but exciting changes!

Wes and Brian // Hotel Monaco Wedding, Washington, DC // DC Wedding Planner

I’m not really sure where to begin with Wes and Brian. They hired me for full planning - after a hilarious meeting in which one of them forgot what secret word they were going to use to indicate to the other that they liked me and wanted to hire me on the spot. So I left and then immediately got called back to their beautiful apartment with the news that I was hired!

From there, things just got better. We did site visits at which Wes bought a painting from a gallery. I learned they were going to have a Best Man and a Best “Bitch”. We drank lots of wine over photographer meetings. We complained about people who shall not be named. We basically had a blast.

Wes and Brian originally wanted to do a courthouse ceremony but after seeing the sad trellis that adorns (if you can call it that) the DC courthouse, decided to do an intimate ceremony at the War Memorial. After some post-ceremony photos, they had a cocktail hour and blow-out reception at Hotel Monaco in DC. Wes and Brian settled on gray and red as their colors (Brian may or may not be from Ohio, and red is a lucky color in the Chinese culture), and Mike Bell from MyDeejay rocked it along with Emily from Love Blooms and her modern floral arrangements.

So sit back and enjoy these fantastic images from the super talented ladies at Paired Images. Some of my favorite moments include:

• Jess from Paired Images stepping up and tying their bow ties cause they’d forgotten to research how to do it. She is the sh*t.

• Wes and Brian’s gorgeous cake from Fluffy Thoughts and their adorbs cake topper.

• Me wrangling big, red balloons. And being super relieved when one that had escaped due to some rough play by the kiddies popped mid reception rather than float into Hotel Monaco’s beautiful dome (whew).

• The insane, raucous dancing.

So thrilled for these two - Congrats again, Wes and Brian!!

Wes and Brian's Vendors:

Wedding Planner: Katie, The Plannery

Venue: Hotel Monaco, DC

Photographers: Paired Images

DJ: Mike Bell, MyDeejay

Florist: Emily, Love Blooms

Cake: Fluffy Thoughts

Uplighting: I Want Ambiance

Photobooth: SillyShotz

Balloons: Balloon Affairs of Frederick

Susannah and Zach // Hendry House Wedding, Arlington, VA // VA Wedding Coordinator

Susannah and Zach got married this past May on a gorgeous Sunday. They originally had hired me to do Month-of Coordination only, but Susannah's family suffered an unfortunate tragedy prior to her wedding, so they hired me to jump in and take on some of the extra tasks to lighten their load. It was my absolute pleasure and it was wonderful to get to see such joy on their wedding day after tough times.

Susannah and Zach had their ceremony outdoors under a DIY chuppah (which they made themselves - and nailed). After the beautiful ceremony, guests had cocktails outdoors on the Hendry House patio and then moved to the tented reception for dinner and dancing! Some details of their reception I loved included their guest book - they had guests write on blank library cards and file them away in card catalog drawers. They also got a non-traditional wedding cake from Alexandria Pastry Shop which was just gorgeous and perfect for the season. And I have to mention Susannah's dress which was a stunning modern number. I was obsessed with it - had I found it when I'd been dress shopping for my own wedding I probably would have worn it myself! She was so beautiful.

Susannah is a twin, and Zach has two twin brothers! So don't worry if you're seeing double in some of these excellent photos from Olivia Jacob. Enjoy - and congrats again, Susannah and Zach!

Susannah and Zach's vendors:

Wedding Coordination: Katie, The Plannery

Venue: Hendry House

Caterer: Main Event

Photographer: Olivia Jacob

DJ: Anthony, MyDeejay

Cakes: Alexandria Pastry Shop

Flowers: Little Shop of Flowers

Ceremony musicians: Cherry Blossom String Quartet

Ilona and Evan // Decatur House Wedding, Washington, DC // DC Wedding Planner

Ilona and Evan hired me for partial planning - so I've been working with them for quite a while. I started with them last year to help them find their venue and nail down all their major vendors. Then I finally reemerged in March to do Month-of Coordination for them. I love this couple. They had some super fun elements to their wedding that made it so personal and unique and they and their whole family were a joy to work with. Big thanks to Chris Zarconi for the lovely photos!

They really wanted to embrace the DC in their DC wedding - so after some separate getting ready shots, they took some great couples portraits and bridal party shots around the monuments in DC.

Meanwhile, we were setting up the Decatur House for their ceremony and reception. As a couple they loved to travel so they used all of the National Parks they'd been to as a jumping off point for the reception. The tables were all named after specific parks, and Emily from Love Blooms did customized (and stunning) arrangements for each table to reflect each state park (not to mention the rocking bouquets you saw above - I ADORED those bouquets). They picked natural colored linens (blue, greens, and browns). Their escort cards were mini succulents, and their table map then turned into a guest book (they got this map off of Etsy, of course, and I loved it! Great idea).

Their ceremony was also filled with some fun quirks, including a reading from "Oh, The Places You'll Go" with choreographed tricks by the bridal party!

This wedding also featured yet another mascot! My 2nd mascot in May! This time, it was a surprise not only to all the guests, but to the groom as well! Ilona decided to surprise Evan by having the Orioles bird come out during cocktail hour. It was awesome and so much fun! Meanwhile guests drank their signature cocktail (a mint julep) while playing corn hole and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Everyone then moved back into the carriage house for dinner and dancing. Main Event created a delicious meal, including a special grilled pineapple dessert station to honor their love of Hawaii. Ilona’s father gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard and I’m not gonna lie, I flat-out cried.

After dinner Mike Bell from MyDeejay KILLED it. The dance floor was packed all night long and I have to say - it was packed with people of ALL ages. Which I loved.

Congrats again Ilona and Evan!!

Ilona and Evan's vendors:

Wedding Planner: Katie, The Plannery

Venue: The Decatur House

Caterer: Main Event

Photographer: Chris Zarconi Photography

Florist: Emily, Love Blooms

DJ: Mike Bell, MyDeejay

Ficus Trees: Plants Alive!

Kate and Jeff // Stroga Wedding, Washington, DC // DC Wedding Coordinator

Kate and Jeff kicked off my busy wedding season this year with a DIY wedding at Stroga. I loved their wedding because it was so diverse and is a great reminder that you can easily merge tradition with some other non-traditional choices. Mad props and big thanks to Edward Underwood for the great photos of Kate and Jeff’s big day!

They began with a Catholic ceremony at Holy Trinity in DC, but followed with a fairly non-traditional reception. Rather than have a traditional caterer, their wedding was catered by a restaurant, Kabob Bazaar! They brought delicious Persian cuisine including hummus, dips, falafel, kabobs (of course) and salads. One quick note: because this wasn’t a traditional wedding caterer, we needed to hire extra catering help for the venue set-up as well as keeping tables clean and bussed, and over all service assistance (for example, asking the tables up to the buffet). The staff were all people I’d worked with on a previous DIY catered wedding and they were fabulous. Could not have done it without them! In addition to the food, Kate’s family DIY’d the flowers, as well as the table runners. They also hired a separate bartending service to take care of the bars.

After dinner and some toasts, the infamous and fab DJ DMac kept the dance floor packed.

It didn’t hurt that in addition to some personal fatheads of Kate and Jeff (which were freaking hilarious), they also had a special guest appearance by Teddy himself.

I’d helped coordinate this surprise for the guests and it was AWESOME. When Kate first gave me the news I freaked out because, obviously, Teddy is my most favorite Nats mascot. The Nats mascot folks were so easy and great to work with and people loved dancing with Teddy and taking photos.

Fatheads, Teddy, Bride sunglasses, cake smashing, breakdancing kiddies, Adams Morgan bride and groom photos… this wedding rocked.

Congrats again to Kate and Jeff!!

Kate and Jeff's vendors:

Coordinator: Katie Wannen, The Plannery

Venue: Stroga

DJ: DJ DMAC

Photographer: Edward Underwood

Food: Kabob Bazaar

Bar Service: Mixology Bartending Service

Cake: Baked and Wired

Melissa and Tashia // Josephine Butler Parks Center Wedding, Washington, DC // DC Wedding Planner

In case you couldn’t tell, wedding season hit. Hence the silence on this here blog. The good news, however, is that the photos from the rad, beautiful and fun weddings I worked on this spring are rolling in and I have one of my favorites to share with you today - Melissa and Tashia’s Hollywood glam wedding at Josephine Butler Parks Center, with photos by Chris Ferenzi.

I met Melissa and Tashia way back when at last year’s Say I Do Expo (which I was sadly unable to attend this year due to another wedding). They hired me to help them nail down some of their major decisions and vendors, and then work with them on month-of coordination.

Here’s the thing about Melissa and Tashia - they are one of the sweetest couples you’ll ever meet. Their love for each other is truly palpable, they’re both insanely smart and ambitious, and they’re just a joy to be around. Not to mention - I finally got myself a bride in pants!!! (in case you weren’t aware of my obsession, see here). And good grief, what a hot bride in pants Tashia was (and that vest, and that lace… I could go on). Melissa rocked it equally hard with a stunning dress that featured a bolero she removed for the reception (hot hot hot) and those smokin’ red lips. She also had ridiculously hot shoes that somehow weren't photographed but trust me when I say they were beautiful. I had to get that out of the way cause I was completely obsessed with their bridal attire.

Ok.

Melissa and Tashia DIY’d a lot of their wedding and you’d never freaking know it. Melissa’s mother did the flowers (can you believe it?), Tashia’s cousin DJ’d, and they created all their own signage and a great record guest book!

After some getting ready pics, a first look, and fun family and bridal party shots, they had their ceremony. Filled with tears, laughter and rainbow tissues, it was simply beautiful. I can’t get over the smiles on their faces.

Cocktails were followed by a delicious meal by Main Event Catering - and then they danced and danced and danced.

I’ll let the rest of the photos speak for themselves, except to mention that M&T hired Tiny Paper Portraits to do hand-cut portraits for their guests. It was a huge hit and they were such a pleasure to work with. Such an awesome, classy alternative to the photo booth. Get on that, people.

Congrats again to Melissa and Tashia! You're such a beautiful couple, inside and out.

Melissa and Tashia's vendors:

Wedding Planner and Coordinator: The Plannery

Photographer: Chris Ferenzi

Venue: Josephine Butler Parks Center

Caterer: A Main Event

Make-up/Hair: Modern Bridal Studio

Cake: Sweet Black Orchid

Silhouette Artist: Tiny Paper Portraits

DIY Ipad Photobooth

Per my blog post last week, I recently helped throw my mother's 60th birthday party. We were definitely on a bit of a budget, so we decided to try and DIY a photo booth - and I was pretty happy with the results. I thought I'd share how we did it for any of you wanted to roll up your sleeves and take on this project - the results were great and we were thrilled with how much fun it added to the party. I already owned an iPad, so we decided to not worry ourselves too much about super-high res images, and instead focused on the fun and ease of doing an iPad photo booth. My stepfather also already owned a tripod, so I bought a fairly simple (and cheap) iPad tripod attachment and voila! Our photo booth was already halfway there.

My sister did the hard part. We knew the venue would be dark, and the iPad doesn't have a flash, so rather than rent lights - she DIYed them. We used this video tutorial and they came out really well. My sister made some adjustments from the DIY tutorial. Since people were actually going to SEE these lights, she wanted to make them look a bit nicer. She took a little more time to cut the cardboard to the shape of the lampshade, to tape it with clear tape, to use white Velcro on a white lampshade with white fabric.....to make it look a little more presentable.  All in all, each one took her no longer than 30 minutes or so to make. So with an hour's work, we'd saved a lot of money (my sister is the best).

For the backdrop, the venue had a really ugly sign up that we wanted to cover anyway. So I bought some silver fringe curtains from Oriental Trading company and we wrapped it in the corner of the room - thus covering some of the ugliness while also creating a simple but very festive backdrop for the booth. Because the venue was an old train station, it already had built-in benches wrapping around the room, so we also used that and didn't need to worry about stools or other seating. I thought it turned out really well!

We pooled our own Halloween costumes and created our own bucket of props including oversized sunglasses, a feather boa, some hats and funny sunglasses. It was rad.

We used the Insta Booth app. You could pick how many photos were in each "strip" as well as the length of the timer between shots. You can also apply different filters (which we opted not to do) but they had a ton to choose from. The photos aren't super-high res.  If you care about that, then this option probably isn't for you. But overall I found this to be a great, very cost-effective solution. With the iPad tripod attachment, the curtains and the light box materials, we ended up spending around $100 - much less than a $1,000 professional photo booth. And if you do it for a day-time party, or in a well-lit room, the light boxes shouldn't be needed.

The pictures were, in my opinion, pretty hilarious and awesome! Enjoy!

Emily and Zach // Woodend Sanctuary Wedding, Chevy Chase, MD // MD Wedding Planner

First of all, I dare anyone to view that picture, above, and not pray for rain on their wedding day. Take in that gorgeous, stunning photo (by the truly talented Amber Wilkie) for a moment and then we can move on.

Ok.

I did partial planning with Emily and Zach - they were most stressed about finding a venue, so I helped them find and secure their venue, gave them some resources for the rest of their planning process along with some vendor recommendations and then reemerged this past February to do month-of coordination. This was the first wedding of my 2014 season and it was amazing. It helped me realize that while I adore and love month-of coordination, I get way more emotional when I'm working with clients I feel like I know because I have watched them go through the whole planning journey. Plus, it didn't hurt that Emily and Zach are basically the best and nicest people you'll meet. So. I got quite teary at this wedding, I'm not gonna lie.

After some prep at their own homes/hotels, both of them finished getting ready separately at Woodend with boutonierre pinning and dress putting-on. Then, they did their first look  (unfortunately inside because of the rain - but with these two? who cares). Also, Emily's dress was to die and she was the hottest.

We moved the ceremony to the tented area due to the rain (which we flipped to reception during the cocktails - big props to Main Event and their staff for getting that done so smoothly and flawlessly). And what a way to start my season. Not only did the ceremony open with the fabulous officiant Maureen Burke saying "Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us togethaah today" (PRINCESS BRIDE REFERENCE WHATTT), but it moved on to a very personal, wonderful service. Teary grooms and dads get me every time.

The chuppah and all flowers were done by Shelly at B Floral Event Design and I loved her arrangements, especially with the bird table numbers Emily and Zach put together. People then ate, drank, gave speeches (which I missed because I may or may not have been out buying more wine. Reason #204,568 that you should have a wedding coordinator. Just saying), and then danced their booties off.

I was so happy for this beautiful couple and wish them all of the best in what will undoubtedly be their wonderful mawwage.

Emily and Zach's Vendors:

Event Planning and Coordination: Katie Wannen, The Plannery

Venue: Woodend Sanctuary

Photographer: Amber Wilkie

Caterer: Main Event

DJ: Evan Reitmeyer

Officiant: Maureen Burke

Hair/Make-up: Carolyn Berry, Modern Bridal Studio

60th Birthday Party

My Mom turned 60 last week. She requested a party so I of course stepped up to help plan it along with my step-dad and sisters. She specifically wanted to dance - she's an amazing dancer (has been her whole life) and so I knew this would be an important part of the night for her. Because of the dancing, we opted to go for a slightly more casual venue, but one where we'd have complete control and no noise complaints! We rented a local Lions Club - something everyone should always keep in mind when looking for affordable venues. They aren't always the prettiest, but they're very low-budget and they generally don't have a ton of rules! Using a private room in a restaurant won't allow dancing, and doing the same in a hotel means higher cost.

The Lions Club we rented had a lot of wood paneling - it's actually an old train station. We decided to work with the venue and not go super-high end with the decor - keep it simple and lighten it up with some flowers, christmas lights, ivory linens and silver votives. We were definitely on a budget - so we opted to spend our money on the food and drinks. We hired a local caterer to do one stationary appetizer (cheese and fruit display) and some tasty passed hors d'oeuvres. We also had them create a signature cocktail, "The Kendra" (my Mom), which was a ginger Tom Collins and was really delicious.

In all other aspects, this was very DIY - and I'll be doing some follow up posts to go into more detail about our DIY projects in the hopes that they help other people with their own endeavors! We strung christmas lights ourselves and created a christmas light clothes line where we hung photos of my Mom from throughout her 60 years. We also created a DIY photo booth - and it was such a hit. I know it's not as high res or high quality as what we might have gotten had we hired a professional - but everyone had a blast!

My sister and step-dad did a Michaels run and bought all the other decor items - votive candles, vases for our DIY bouquets, and other goodies. We ordered cupcakes from my Mom's favorite bakery and I created a fun DIY cupcake topper (more on that to come).

My husband and I labored over the playlist and I think we did a pretty great job. We got some requests from my Mom, and built a cocktail playlist for the first hour, then created a separate dance playlist for the next 2 hours. The crowd was a mix of young and old. We had my 87 year old grandfather there and my cousin's newborn! So we created a good mix of new and old dance songs - focusing on a lot of great 80's tunes mixed with some motown/oldies and current hits (for the record, Pharell's "Happy" is what officially got everyone on their feet. That song rules).

By the end of the night we were all a sweaty, happy, slightly drunk mess - in other words, very satisfied party-goers. Happy 60th MA!!