Rustic Wedding Charm on a Horse Farm {Kristina and Mark}

Sometimes with weddings it truly is about the location, location, location. This was true with the beautiful wedding of Kristina and Mark last weekend on Kristina's family home and horse farm in Potomac. The gorgeous rolling hills set the stage for the event and the home's tree-lined drive and white fence were even featured on everything from the Save-the-Dates to the menus to the itineraries.

From the start, the bride wanted a wedding that wasn't like every other wedding she'd attended. She wanted hers to be fun and very personal and full of great details. We decided to play with the space we had and really take advantage of the gorgeous pasture behind the house. After the ceremony at St. Bartholmew's Catholic Church in Bethesda, guests enjoyed a cocktail party that featured croquet, boccie ball and a live painter. Ladies could shed their heels and slip into brightly colored flip-flops for the lawn party, and everyone loved trying out the old-fashioned photo booth from PoshBooth. Susan Gage Caterers provided delicious hors d'oeuvres including favorites like mini heart-shaped grilled cheese, petite burgers and fire shrimp while listening to beautiful harp music from MSE Productions.

Local painter Patricia Rice captures the beautiful wedding landscape as guests look on. After the wedding, the bride and groom have a work of art to remind them of their wedding day!

After finding their names on the giant chalkboard propped against a tree (custom-made by an artisan I found on Etsy), guests moved into the dinner tent where Ociana had created beautiful floral arrangements in warm autumn colors to go with the dusty peach linens, brown hemstiched linen napkins and woven rattan chargers. Guests feasted on yellow tomato gazpacho, filet mignon, corn pudding, and three different flavors of wedding cake.

The bride's dog, Carmel, joined the wedding and sat calmly by the Mother of the Bride during dinner!

After dinner, the amazing band, Simply Irresistible, took the stage and blew everyone away. I work with a lot of bands and these guys from Atlanta were phenomenal. Not only were they talented and high-energy, they were so nice and easy to work with. French tennis star and singer Yannick Noah (the bride comes from a big tennis family, to say the least) took the stage to serenade the bride and groom and had everyone dancing and singing.

When the band finished, the party didn't stop. Guests enjoyed hot donuts from Talk of the Town that were made on-site then moved to the after-party around the pool where DJ Andres spun dance music until the wee hours of the morning. This was one fun party!

Laura