“It was really important to us to have our wedding have lots of “us” in it. We’re both a little weird and nerdy in our own way so details were really important to us.”
Ross & Lydia’s St. Mary’s College Wedding in Maryland is one for the books. Gorgeous light, hand-made details, and more smiles than I can count. Ross & Lydia took the things that were most important to them (getting married in a Catholic church, their reception to be a great party, and their wedding to be a celebration of love, marriage and a GREAT time for their family and friends) and poured it all into their personalized wedding day.
A special thanks to Porter Watkins Photography (one of our Capitol Romance Vendors!) for sharing her images of this gorgeous Maryland wedding.
Ross & Lydia’s Personalized Maryland Wedding at St. Mary’s College
Vendors:
Ceremony Location: St. Peter Claver Catholic Church | Reception Venue: St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Garden of Remembrance | Tent Rental: Tri-County Rent-a-Tent | Photographer: Porter Watkins Photography | DJ: Mixing Maryland | Photobooth: Boothlove | Florist: David’s Flowers | Caterer: Expressions | Cake: Almond Creek Cakery | Hair: Bella Salon and Spa| Bowties: The Tie Bar | Wedding Rings: Gold Works| All Stationery: Vistaprint
How we met (from Ross’ perspective):
Ross was up at his friend’s house in Philly for his friend’s Nate’s graduation party. As a single, young man, he was curious as to the ladies that were coming. Nate explained that there were two girls coming. One that might be interested in meeting someone and one that most likely was not. When the girls arrived, it took all of five minutes of seeing and meeting them to realize which girl he wanted to talk to…it was Lydia (who ended up being the one that most likely was not interested in meeting someone). And to add insult to injury, Nate had already talked up Ross to the other young lady.
Because Lydia was in rare form that evening, she decided to mess with Ross and try to pretend that she was into him. However, Ross’ charm got the better of her. As the night continued, Ross went up to Lydia and asked if she wanted to play in the snow. She obliged, because she loves playing in the snow. They ended up talking all night
Lydia, being the stubborn girl that she is, was convinced that it would never work out and wrote Ross off. However, Ross the resilient couldn’t stop talking about her and wouldn’t stop pursuing her. After three or four (it’s still up for debate as to how many times it actually was) denials, Lydia finally decided that he might be worth dating.
The proposal story (as told by the groom):
They had been meaning to have a picnic, so Lyd was more than excited to head back to their favorite location and have a nice picnic. Unfortunately, although earlier in the week the forecast showed sun and warmth, it was showing a high likelihood of storms. They headed to their favorite picnic spot…only to find out it was closed for repairs (crap). So they searched around for a new picnic spot and an hour later (and a little bit of freaking out) they found a park! Although there was no private space, they may have drove over some not technically drive-able area and snuck back behind a hedge for a private picnic behind a barn. They got ready to take some pictures when the first storm cloud rolled in…and the clouds brought friends. They tried to set up a tent to have a picnic, but it only got half set up by the time it started POURING! So there they were, sitting in a car, half soaked eating their picnic food on the dashboard and all Ross could think was “It’s been ruined. I had a plan, it has gone to crap, and it’s just not going to work”.
But as he looked flustered at Lyd and saying “our picnic is ruined” they both started laughing and Lyd just said “this is so us.” And Ross knew…this completely unexpected, seemingly undesirable situation, was the perfect situation. He texted Lydia’s best friends and they called Lyd to distract her. Ross went to the trunk and switched into his tux (thank goodness he practiced tying his bow tie the night before), grabbed the bouquet he had bought for her, and waited to hear Lyd play “The Question” by The Old 97’s on the stereo. She played it, he heard it. He asked her to step out of the car, she did (nervously), he dropped to a knee and the rest is history…
On choosing their venue:
Ross and I both went to St. Mary’s for college. However, we didn’t know each other when we went there. Ross was a senior when I was a freshmen. Our paths never crossed until I was a senior in college. But we both had absolutely amazing times at St. Mary’s. During Alumni Weekend (summer camp for alumni) in 2012 (before we were engaged), Ross and I were kayaking in the St. Mary’s river. We both stopped and stared at our beautiful alma mater. I turned to him and asked, “We should get married here.” He said, “I was thinking the same thing.”
When we started planning, there were a few things that were *really* important to both of us. The first vendor we booked was our DJ (who also happens to own the photobooth company). We wanted our reception to be a great party. We wanted to celebrate our love and our new marriage, but we also wanted to throw a party for our family and friends who have been there for us from the beginning. We could NOT have picked a better DJ. Honestly, Ryan and Kyle from Mixing Maryland were absolutely amazing and our reception was a great time!
Click inside for the rest of Lydia & Ross’ personalized Maryland wedding from Porter Watkins Photography!
Our second vendor, and one that we actually started looking for first, was our photographer. Photography was so important to us. We actually met with a few before finding the one we knew we wanted. We wanted to click with the person and we had to love his/her photos. And when we were given Porter’s name from Sarah Culver we fell on a gold mine. She was perfect for us. Her energy, her art, her personality, and everything about her clicked with us. She captured the happiness that was overflowing that day, while magically hiding as much of the intense sweat as possible. Porter Watkins, thank you so much for everything. We will treasure our pictures forever.
The rest of the vendors just fell into place and planning wasn’t too hard. We had a lot of help and Ross was a huge help! He was a part of the whole planning and was very involved. We wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without our mothers and fathers. They were a huge help and we’re still so appreciative of all that they did.
I want to be friends with this wedding party. They look like they are having SO MUCH FUN!
It was really important to us to have our wedding have lots of “us” in it. We’re both a little weird and nerdy in our own way so details were really important to us. Here are just a few, with explanations:
Guestbook: Holy moly. This was one of the biggest last minute surprises. A friend’s father made us this beautiful bench from a round piece of wood that we just asked him to cut. We were going to make a bench later but he just did the whole thing. It turned out to be wonderful and we had all of our guests sign it. We plan on varnishing it and making it bench at the foot of our bed.
Flowers: Ross loves to garden (look at his cake!). So flowers were really important to him. David from David’s Flowers did an absolutely amazing job. We wanted the tables at the reception to be full of summer garden flowers and he went above and beyond our expectations.
I didn’t have a bridal bouquet. I carried my late grandmother’s prayer book. She carried it at her wedding, my mom carried it, all my aunts carried it, and my sister carried it. It wasn’t even a thought in my mind. I had been dreaming about carrying it since I was a little girl. My mom said that David’s flowers for the prayer book were the prettiest prayer book flowers that she’s ever seen. I think that my grandmother would have loved them. He even tied my crucifix and puzzle piece pendant to the ribbon coming off the book. It was absolutely beautiful and I’m so thankful for David.
Groom’s cake: It’s awesome. And I really wanted a groom’s cake that was very “him”. Almond Creek Cakery couldn’t have done a better job. It was exactly what I imagined and we still have “little Ross” in the fridge.
Table numbers: I’m a huge math nerd. I love numbers. I mean our wedding day numbers added together 07+06=13. How totally cool is that!? So we made each table number a number that was significant to us. We wrote an explanation under each number so our guests knew what the significance was.
Beer truck: I love beer. Ross loves beer. And who doesn’t love beer on tap? I’m not sure how this idea originated, but it was a GREAT one. It was really hot on our wedding day and summer ales and shandy’s were the perfect drink. In fact, beer was my signature drink.
City Sign: Making our guests feel important and loved was really important to us. So we made this gigantic sign with cities and places that a lot of our family came from. It humbling to see the distance that people traveled to come celebrate our wedding. We truly our two very lucky people to have so many people who love and support us.
And now for some stunning portraits:
Cake/Dessert: So I’m not a huge cake person. But I think our families would have been pretty upset if we had NO cake. So we have a little two tiered cake (and it actually was really delicious). Our cake topper was my grandparents from the 1950’s. My parents used it, all my aunts and uncles used it, and my sister used it. It had been re-painted probably a dozen times and my dad re-painted it again for our wedding. Our other desserts were pies, cookies, and brownies.
But the biggest hit of the night was our ice cream cart. That ice cream cart was my mother’s baby. Everyone’s inner child came out and when they saw that ice cream cart, they were so excited. In fact, my mom wishes she had ordered double the amount she did because she’s still upset she didn’t get a Nutty Buddy. So if you’re having a summer wedding: get an ice cream cart! Your guests will love it!
THIS:
When it came down to it, we always fell back onto the fact: At the end of July 6th, we will be married. We will profess our love for each other in front of the people who love us and we will be married to our best friend. And honestly, I don’t think there was a part of that day that I wasn’t smiling. It had flubs and mess ups (still can’t find our cake topper), but none of that mattered because everyone was beautiful and happy. And we were married.
Congratulations Lydia & Ross – thank you for sharing your beautiful, personalized Maryland wedding with us! A special thanks again to Porter Watkins Photography for sharing her images!
