Hillary + Tyler | Meridian House DC | Featured on Once Wed

When Hillary and Tyler started planning their celebration, they knew a few things that they wanted: an elegant wedding, to be surrounded with those they loved, and to wed in an English country estate with ivy growing all around it. At least they were able to check off the first two items on their list, even if a European getaway didn’t work for the guests. And lucky for us, these images are overflowing with beautiful ideas and stunning style.

“We’d been together for nine years by the time we married, and luckily our styles mesh rather well. The very first thing we did was sit down and draw up a list of words that defined our dream wedding and decided how we wanted to feel that day, rather than exactly how we wanted things to look. The most important aspect was that we and our guests feel joyous and relaxed–even in gowns and tuxedos. To that end, we hired a super-energetic brass band to parade in and out (we walked out to The Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” which we constantly sing at home), made sure there was a ton of delicious food and wine flowing, designed our entire (very short) ceremony to be as personal as possible, and had our first dance to the incredibly upbeat “Happy Together” by The Turtles. We both accidentally saved (read: procrastinated) our vow-writing for the morning of the wedding. That could have been a disaster, but instead it meant that we unleashed a torrent of happiness and excitement into the vows.

There were so many nods to our passions and the little things about life that excite us. We both nearly overdose on tea every day, so we served it to our guests to keep them warm during the ceremony. Tyler is a whiskey fiend, so we had a tasting table. Hillary is a Martha Stewart nut, so she designed and made (with some serious help from her mom) some fun ribbon wands for the kids to wave on their way in; the place cards, which were inspired by botanical drawings and labels; the tassels attached to the bookmark save-the-dates; and about a thousand little stamped cocktail stirrers and donut bags.

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