I wasn’t supposed to shoot Kerry + Matt’s wedding. But Hurricane Irene changed my plans. My Rehoboth beach wedding was postponed due to the storm so I was happy to join Toni Sandys in documenting their day. And it was rainy and windy and generally what you’d expect from what turned out to be only a tropical storm. And it helped that they were getting married at Carnegie Institute in DC where you don’t need to be outside to make pretty pictures! Their wedding had a lot of help from friends and family who set up and decorated the venue and even were instrumental in “creating” Kerry’s bouquet (her 4 aunts each had a small bouquet that they present to the bride just before she began her walk down the aisle with her dad. Kerry planned the day herself and there was not shortage of fun details. Included were a Skyline chili station, a gelato cart, maroon and orange and blue and orange ribbons (Virginia Tech-Matt; Florida-Kerry) tied around some of the glasses, a signature drink called a Tropical Storm (that name may have been a last minute addition) and 40 oz Pabst Blue Ribbon beer bottles. But there were a couple things that particularly stood out during their reception. First up, the surprise tango.  No one knew that Kerry and Matt had been taking tango lessons. So they start their first dance, the music is bland and boring. They look at the DJ like there’s been a mistake and he puts on some punk music that makes Kerry hold her head and Matt dance around enthusiastically. Finally, the light dawns on her and Kerry finds her bridemaids who unfasten the bottom of her dress and Matt has his guys hold his glasses and wrap him in a Hokies flag. The meet in the middle and proceed to do a romantic tango to the cheers of their guests. It was great fun to watch. As the night progresses Kerry and Matt did venture out to the site’s portico and down the steps into the rain. If you look at the photos, you’ll see that the umbrellas are doing almost no good at all! But the one surprise I didn’t know about came at the end of the night. Most people in the face of a torrential downpour would have skipped the sparkler send off but instead they decided to just go out to the side portico and go across the building rather than into the rain. Or so I thought. They made it halfway across through the sparklers when they saw some of Kerry’s relatives wearing their bathing suits (caps and goggles included) standing in the rain with sparklers forming a path down the steps. So off the couple went, into the rain, hugging their family in their bathing suits and off into the rainy night. As I keep my personal list of wedding firsts, guests in swimwear may have just climbed to the top of the list!

Wedding and reception: Carnegie Institution for Science

Caterer: Catering By Uptown

Flowers: Petal’s Edge

Hair and makeup: Jouvence Aveda

DJ: Bryan George