We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This Color-Drenched Art Museum Wedding

Veronica, a senior campaigns director at The Hub Project, and Andrés, a bilingual outreach coordinator at the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, met as staffers on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. Their courtship started with a series of unofficial dates—including one visiting the Renwick—and eventually, Andrés proposed at a Virginia winery. Afterward, they celebrated with family and friends in Andrés hometown of Santiago, Chile, where they made their wedding bands together with a local artist. Their May wedding at the Renwick later was one for the books.

“We really wanted to showcase the art in the museum and let guests enjoy the space,” says Veronica. “The Smithsonian museums are one of our favorite things about DC and we love bringing guests to them when they visit. Guests traveled from Chile, Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland and all over the U.S. to attend—we really wanted to show these guests our city and the Smithsonian is such a big part of that!”

In pure DC fashion, the couple got stuck in a presidential motorcade on the way to the wedding at the Renwick, where the ceremony—in English and Spanish—took place under a larger-than-life woven sculpture by Janet Echelman in the grand salon, which was flipped for the reception while guests enjoyed cocktail hour in the side gallery.

The colorful, dried flowers—different, eco-friendly, and a nod to the museum’s focus on American crafts and sustainability, says the bride—were Veronica’s favorite detail of the day. Andrés says his favorite details were the family wedding photos they displayed, and the cake topper, which sat atop the wedding cake of Veronica’s maternal grandparents, who were in attendance after 60 years of marriage.

Other details inspired by the space included the fashion—bridesmaids dressed in coordinating colors, the bride carried a colorful clutch and wore lime green shoes, and guests were encouraged to wear bright hues, too; a neon green bar; and the colorful napkins, menus, and matchboxes that featured the words “Dedicated to Love” as a nod to the phrase “Dedicated to Art,” which is inscribed in stone on the front of the museum.

See the photos from the wedding day below.

The Details

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.