An Intimate Wedding at the Riggs Hotel

Alexa and Michael—she’s a corporate-­events manager, he’s an engineer—dated for seven years after they met as students at Johns Hopkins University. Mike proposed on the New Jersey beach where Alexa had grown up spending summer vacations with her family. For their fall wedding, the couple say they looked for a venue that could host the ceremony and reception indoors and that had “plenty of visual interest in the form of colorful decor and architectural details.”

Get more Washingtonian Weddings inspo

Newsletter | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

The Riggs hotel checked all the boxes. Wedding colors included sunflower yellow, powder and navy blues, blush pink, and emerald green, and the invitation suite was inspired by the ornate setting of Café Riggs, where they hosted a cocktail hour. To exchange vows, Mike donned his favorite blue suit and Alexa chose an unconventional champagne-hued wrap dress. Between dinner and dancing, the newlyweds arranged for delivery of gourmet Jell-O shots from the hotel bar. Personal details also included DIY wax seals on the escort cards; the bride’s entrance to “Slip Away” by Perfume Genius (the nontraditional processional energized the room, the couple says); and four elegant cakes—lemon, coffee, chocolate, and pistachio—that Alexa baked for a sweet end to the evening.

The Details

This wedding originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of Washingtonian.

Amy Moeller

Fashion & Weddings Editor

Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.