An estimated 1.8 million people attended the 2009 Inauguration weekend. On that same day, January 17, 2009, friends and family gathered from around the world at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City to celebrate the marriage of Sareh Khajehnouri to Ali Shojaee.

They met four years prior when their love for charity work brought them together in January of 2005 at the very same hotel where they would later marry. Ali was smitten from day one. He tried relentlessly to dance with Sareh at the event, but she would only dance with him in the company of three of her friends. Ali left that night saying that "this was the girl he was going to marry."

They were engaged soon thereafter and Sareh, an artist herself, knew right away that she wanted to incorporate traditional Persian influences in an elegant and sophisticated way. Preparations were carefully handled by Sareh. She chose her wedding invitation incorporating her love for Persian calligraphy and Persian miniature art and the next step was to find someone to design a couture Persian Sofreh ceremony.

Traditional Iranian wedding ceremonies are centered around an elaborate spread of symbolic objects called the Sofreh-ye Aghd. Sareh enlisted sofreh designer Poopak Golesorkhi who created a lavish and luxurious sofreh surrounded by hundreds of candles. After the ceremony, which was officiated in both Farsi and English, guests enjoyed an assortment of beverages, hors d'oeuvres and traditional Persian sweets.

While guests mingled their photographer, Len DePas, was able to capture the intimacy of Sareh -- in her beautiful strapless gown from Exquisite Bride -- and Ali’s day by shooting them in the boutique hotel and then throughout the vastness of the Pentagon City Mall, which was surrounded by red, white and blue.

Sareh and Ali returned to the hotel to make their grand entrance into the grand ballroom bedecked with regal gold candelabras filled with beautiful cream roses. Sareh and Ali danced their first dance to the same Persian band who performed at the charity event back in 2005 and this time the only people on the dance floor were Ali and Sareh.