Bridesmaids Carried Bouquets in Woven Baskets at This “Ultimate” Garden-Party Wedding

Mutual friends introduced Claire, a client-experience manager, and Brent, the sommelier who owns DC’s Maxwell Park wine bar, Pop Fizz Bar, and Trouble Bird. Just a year and a half after a first date for tapas at Estadio, Brent hired a cellist to play Bruno Mars’s “Marry You” in the National Portrait Gallery atrium while he proposed.

Last summer, they hosted 90 guests for a wedding they imagined as “the ultimate garden party.” Shades of pink, with some blue, and American-grown florals in woven baskets set the scene, where details included paper-butterfly escort cards; a “pour one out” station where guests tipped a glass of bubbly in memory of a loved one; an ice-cream station (toppers featured an image of Brent’s son, who couldn’t attend); and, at each table, an individual cake that the guests who had been together the longest were invited to cut as the newlyweds sliced theirs. Naturally, the pair focused on the wine selection—“Who needs a signature cocktail when you have Brent Kroll’s private wine cellar in attendance?” says Claire—including their favorite white wine from Greece. At the end of the evening, the newlyweds made a splash in the pool—in full wedding attire.

The Details

This wedding originally appeared in the August 2024 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.