Glamorous Old Town Alexandria Wedding

Do you remember how you felt as a child the night before Christmas? The excitement and anticipation of opening all of the gifts you asked for? Well, that’s how the week before the wedding felt for bride Lindsay. “Even though I picked out the flowers, dress, decor, and food, and essentially knew what everything would look like, I never saw it together so it was still like opening the biggest gift imaginable. As I fell asleep, I knew I’d wake up a brand new woman. My 2 best friends slept over that night with me in the presidential suite of the hotel. We danced around and listened to Beyoncé and talked about how exciting the day was going to be and how beautiful we all looked, it still didn’t hit me. We put on my dress, the photographer took pictures, we continued to dance to Beyoncé, and it still didn’t hit me. Shortly after taking several pictures, there is a knock on the door. It is the second photographer, and she asks if we are ready for our first touch pictures. My future husband was right behind the door. The photographers took special care in making sure we wouldn’t see each other, ‘Stand here,’ ‘Don’t move there,’ ‘Its ok, he can’t see you.’ I reached my hand to the side of the door, and he reached his, we found each other. He grabbed my hand and held it, my hand started to shake. It was as if every emotion I had for this man ran up our hands and into my heart, and finally, it hit me. Today, I’m getting married to the kindest, smartest, finest man I know. ” Lindsay and Donovan had a gorgeous wedding in Old Town Alexandria. Take a look at their stunning photos captured by our talented Pretty Perfect Partner Ashleigh Bing of Shoot Happens Photography:

The Ceremony

“As we wait fully dressed and ready to go for directions to leave the suite, my bridesmaids and I just sat and talked. I was comfortable, I was calm, I was happy,” said Lindsay. “There was no running around, no last minute fixes, no craziness, and no stress. It was finally time to walk down the aisle. When the door opened, the room was ethereal, the backdrop was a crisscross chiffon, the flowers were beautiful, the singer belted out a perfect version of Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable”, and there was my fiancé. The tears made another appearance, but this time they couldn’t be stopped. I managed to make it through the ceremony and we finally said I do and jumped the broom! Well, I bunny hopped and he did his best impression of Michael Jordan dunking from the free throw line. We are married!”

The Reception

Next stop, the reception. All of a sudden you hear the infamous beat that precedes “Cash money taking over for the 99 and the 2000.” The room went crazy as the bridal party entered the room to the instrumental of the classic Juvenile song “Back that thang up”, including our parents. “We came out dancing to Jay-Z and Kanye West “N**** in Paris”, an ode to our upcoming Parisian honeymoon, said Lindsay. “The next 4 hours were a blur but live forever in all of the saved snapchats, Instagram videos, pictures, and conversations I’ve had with my family for the past 3 weeks. When it ended, all I could think was “This was the best night of my entire life.”