You've probably passed Grace Church in Georgetown a hundred times without knowing it was ever there. Tucked at the very bottom of Wisconsin Avenue, you've driven by it on the way to the AMC movie theater, or perhaps a drink at Chadwick's, or while circling the block fifty times trying to park at Washington Harbour.

But if I said "the cute little church with the red door," well, then you'd know it immediately.

That's how I've always thought of Grace Church at least.

Back when I started shooting weddings in 1999, Grace Episcopal Church was one of the first churches I shot in. All I remember from that event was the great shape of that front door--a beautiful, pointy arch--and, of course, the color. And a few years ago, when I was teaching photography at a school in Georgetown, it was the kind folks at Grace who let us stage a mock wedding there on a Tuesday afternoon. Each student had sixty seconds to come into the church and look for a good spot to make a portrait. Truth be told, all I wanted was for one student to notice how cool the shape of the windows were. At least a few of them got it.

Well, on May 28th, I finally got my own chance. Shay Wester, the man with the coolest of cool names, married Sarah Brown in a beautiful service here. I wasn't sure when the church was built, so I just paid a visit to their website and found out that a small wooden chapel originally existed at the site in 1857. But the neat quote comes a paragraph later, from a February, 1895 Evening Star article: "It is the only church here in a really poor district and whenever its pastor is not in the pulpit or fulfilling his own immediate wants he is out among his people dispensing aid to the unfortunate.”

Ah, yes, the poor district of Georgetown, now home to the downtrodden Apple Store and Ralph Lauren Polo. Funny how things change, eh?

But seriously, Shay and Sarah are the perfect couple for a church as quaint as Grace Church. Last fall, when the colors were gorgeous, they asked if I could shoot an engagement picture in and around their Capitol Hill neighborhood. We ended up wandering the vegetable stalls at Eastern Market, searching more for good light than brussel sprouts, and I was impressed with their unfailing politeness, their intelligence and, most of all, how wonderfully soft-spoken each is. (Not to mention that I share a love of France with the Brown family.) In a world of shouters, Sarah and Shay are delighful throwbacks, just like Grace Church.

To see a mini gallery of pictures from the wedding of Shay Wester and Sarah Brown, click here.

Take care,

Matt