Real Capitol Weddings: An Introduction

I am super pumped to be blogging on my very first Real Capitol Wedding. When I was engaged, most of my days were spent gawking and pouring over “Real Weddings” on major wedding blogs (unless my old boss is reading this, and in that case I was actually working. Very hard.) I was enamored by the pictures I saw…but then I got to the point where instead of happiness, I started to feel dread. How could I ever hope to have a wedding that looked even a fraction as cool as these “Real Weddings”? I don’t have a million dollars to spend, and although I want to DIY things, I am really not THAT crafty. And wait a minute, how REAL are these weddings anyway?

With my blog’s version of wedding picture posts, “Real Capitol Weddings”, I hope to keep my mission alive, focusing more on real, authentic, couples that did things on a budget or planned a wedding that reflected who they truly were, not just because it looked cool. I want viewers to look at these weddings and see the true emotions of the couple, and feel the moments of their big day.  I want couples to see these pictures and only feel happiness, not feel the dread I felt when attempting to compare my visions to the other “real” weddings.

One of the best sources I had found for planning my unconventional wedding was the Offbeat Bride.  On the website, owner Ariel states that weddings are not a competition.  I loved that. I couldn’t have said it better. I think sometimes couples get a bit wrapped up in the presentation and production of it all.  They lose touch with what really matters on their wedding day.  When Andy and I were faced with making decisions for anything involving our day, we always asked ourselves; does this really matter to us or someone in our family? Is this truly important to our relationship? Often times asking ourselves these questions made the decision fairly easy to make.

All of this leads into my very first Real Capitol Wedding post (check back a bit later for the full post).  Emily & Rich, an awesome couple from Virginia, set out to find “something outdoors and casual, like our style”.  They found vineyard weddings to be out of their price range and did not want to deal with the hassle of an ‘a la carte’ wedding. Knowing what they wanted and keeping in mind who they were, Emily & Rich were able to plan and throw a stunningly beautiful, cool, and laid-back wedding without breaking the bank.

Hopefully you are as excited to read more and see all the wonderful pictures (courtesy of Julie Napear Photography) as I was to write this post. Check back later today!