Kelly and Laurie actually spent the first few months of their wedding trying to figure out how to marry without a wedding. In the end, they decided on an intimate wedding in Baltimore with just a handful of their favorite people.
Tell us, how did you meet?
K: We have been together for coming up on four years. Laurie and I met on Tinder! I was on Tinder for a whole five days (just looking for some “summer fun”) before I matched with Laurie, five days after that we met in person, and the rest is history! Sometimes I feel like I should be the poster child for online dating- “Find your wife in less than a week of swiping!”.
I think it’s a modern love story for the ages.
…and your engagement?
L: I lured Kelly to the Sagamore Pendry hotel under the guise of her meeting up with friends. What I didn’t realize was right before this Kelly had been volunteering with Waterfront Partnership cleaning oyster cages [in a Mr. Trash Wheel’ Keepin’ it Wheel’ shirt] with definite traces of Harbor mud on her, such a funny memory now! But none the less, when she arrived in the beautiful atrium, I popped out from my hiding place and popped the question, and she said “Yes!”.
For the first several months of our engagement, we tried to figure out how we could get away with not having a wedding. Then we decided we were cool with having a wedding as long as we could do whatever the heck we wanted. This sounds like it would make wedding planning easier, but I think it just made it more difficult in the beginning because it was creating something out of thin air. We first found our photographer and gained inspiration for what we could have. Once we found our venue, though, things started falling into place and the planning was easy after that. In the beginning though, there were a few emotional talks over coffee on Saturday mornings and a lot of feeling like we were starting from scratch.
How did you go about finding a venue suited to a small wedding?
We knew we wanted a very small wedding- something intimate and personal just between us, our immediate family, and closest friends.
We initially reached out to Woodberry Kitchen because it is well known in Baltimore for delicious food using exclusively locally sourced ingredients (as in not even using citrus because you can’t get that locally!). Woodberry recommended their related coffee shop, Artifact Coffee to us for the venue, and they would still cater the food. Artifact fit the bill perfectly. We were able to sit everyone in the dining space at one long table and the custom menu from Woodberry was served family-style, which emphasized the joining of our two families and chosen family. There was so much character and beauty in the space it didn’t require much besides beautiful greenery and arrangements from our local florist. After dinner, our friends played Artifact’s records while we danced and ate cake- couldn’t ask for much more!
Tell us about the intimate wedding day.
Kelly started the day by getting her hair done and was so nervous the hairdresser left to go to the nearby bar to get her some wine. Once we were ready, we met Barbara near our venue by some rundown garages and took some incredible photos. Although some of the locations seemed a bit hazardous! Nothing like a little danger to spice up your big day!
We met with our guests before the ceremony and took family photos and then it was time to get down to business. Our ceremony was short and sweet, led by our dear friend. I could hear a lot of laughs and some sniffles from our family behind us. After, we enjoyed being together with our favorite people– our family and chosen family, and had a family dinner and just celebrated the night away.
K: Even though I was a bundle of nerves, having time before the ceremony with just Laurie [and Barbara capturing those moments] was special. It was the only time in the whole day that we were together, just the two of us. It gave us more time to soak it all in.
L: As we were all seated at the table for dinner, Kelly gave a toast thanking everyone for coming and talking about our love and the commitment we just made to each other. It was a quiet moment of reflection for me and thinking about how happy I was that she was now my wife!
Anything you are glad you did?
We are so glad we had an intimate wedding and that we went on a two-week honeymoon to Hawaii right after! I love going to bigger weddings but we didn’t want the stress that sometimes comes with planning and hosting them. I’m glad that we went through each wedding tradition and decided if we wanted to keep it or not. We ended with a wedding that was very unique to us, but I think that was the beauty of it.
Lastly, what does marriage mean to you?
K: Laurie and I lived together before we got engaged, so I do think it is hard to pinpoint why the feeling is different now versus if we had just continued to be girlfriends. But, somehow it is. There is a sense of stability and security that I didn’t feel was lacking before, yet has still become more present. There is more of a draw to meeting each other’s needs and putting each other first. Knowing we are family and will be together for the rest of our lives no matter what.
L: Since day one, we chose each other via swiping right on Tinder, and I believe marriage is simply that. It’s a lifelong commitment of always choosing one another through all the ups and downs that life has to offer.
Photographer Barbara O Photography
Accessories MVMT, The Curated
Bridal Boutique BHLDN
Cake Harmony Bakery
Cake Stand JunkYardBlonde
Cake Topper NgoCreations
Catering Woodberry Kitchen
Ceremony & Reception Venue Artifact Coffee
Decorative Elements BraidedTogetherCo
Engagement & Wedding Rings Brilliant Earth
Florist Florigen, TheGarland Guy
Gown Designer Moyna
H&MU Alpha Studio
Shoes Tomboy Toes
Socks Happy Socks
Stationery Minted
Suit Designer Blank Label
Wedding Favours Artifact Coffee, ClementineWeddings, DetailsonDemand
