A Colorful, Classy Wedding at John Marshall Hotel in Richmond, Virginia

Katie and Dan's summer ballroom wedding was colorful, classy and full of pizzazz. Katie Hammer (27, interior designer) and Dan Miller (28, P.h.D. candidate in microbiology) met in their junior year of high school, and although they went to junior prom together, they remained friends until two weeks before college. They dated for nine years before Dan proposed through a scavenger hunt on Katie's birthday. Katie and Dan wanted to hold their wedding indoors venues because their wedding date was in August and they didn't want their guests to feel uncomfortable in the heat. They chose to hold their ceremony at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and their reception at the ballroom of the John Marshall Hotel in downtown Richmond. A big plus for the John Marshall Hotel was that it could be catered by Katie's favorite restaurant, Homemades by Suzanne. Katie says she didn't want a themed hotel, but she did want her decor to resemble Kate Spade's aesthetic. Her inspiration were a pair of sparkly slingbacks with bows at the toe, which were her wedding shoes. She also wanted her bridesmaids to wear heels in different colors, which popped against their navy blue dresses and hydrangea bouquets. Katie took much longer to pick her own dress, but she eventually chose a trumpet style wedding dress with lace details. She carried a bouquet of white freesias, hypercium berries and pink and fuschia peonies. Dan and his groomsmen wore gray tuxedos and blue bow ties. The groomsmen wore navy vests and craspedia boutonnieres while Dan stood out in a white vest and white rose boutonniere. The reception was lit by blue uplighting and decorated with chevron black and white table runners and centerpieces with silver vases of different heights filled with hydrangeas, craspedia, violets and red gerbera daisies. The four tier, white wedding cake was also Kate Spade inspired and decorated with white and gold confetti dots. As favors, Katie and Dan gave their guests personalized cookbooks that included recipes from their families and friends.