Robyn & Adrian’s Elopement at Bartholdi Fountain in Washington, DC

It’s Friday. Kara prepped this post for me on Monday or Tuesday … and that about sums up my week. My allergies are in over-drive, work is just never ending, and I have a toddler that insists on being naked. How is your week going?! At least the weather has been insanely wonderful … even with the impending doom of cicadas hanging in the wings.

For today we have a LOVELY elopement. Which is renewing my energy into weddings again (staring down my first wedding to work in like 2 years … happening in two weeks, and reconnecting with my 2 December couples). Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

This was a second wedding for both of us, so we had always anticipated a small wedding. Adrian and I wanted to marry before we moved in together, and we were in the process of buying our dream home, so we were pretty inflexible with our September 27, 2020 wedding date.

Our primary issues planning during the pandemic was securing ceremony and reception/dinner venues. As mentioned, Adrian and I wanted to marry before we moved in together and we were in the process of buying our family home on Capital Hill. The home has a magical, professionally designed and maintained backyard garden inspired by Charleston, SC gardens. Our initial plan was to have our small intimate wedding in our new backyard as the christening of our new home and life together. However, these plans were foiled by COVID. The Mayor had issued a moratorium on tenants exercising their first right of refusal (i.e., TOPA rights), and the tenant on the detached rental property prohibited the sale of the main home unless she was paid a significant amount of money. Heartbroken, we then spent a weekend visiting various gardens in DC, but each place we called was not permitting weddings at that stage of the pandemic. So we finally decided on the Bartholdi Fountain because we loved the view of the Capitol in the background, and it is quite private since many people don’t even know about it.

We also struggled with a dinner venue as the DC Mayor Orders still only allowed 6 people per dining table. Unfortunately instead of having a large table for everyone at dinner we were somewhat spread out to comply with the health ordinances. Our primary goal in our wedding was for our families to spend quality time together as we blended our families for the first time. So, four days before our ceremony, my family flew in from Florida and Adrian’s from Arizona, and they all stayed at my home. My mom cooked an Italian feast one evening, and Adrian’s mom a Mexican feast another evening. We spent four days, and countless hours around the dinner table blending our cultures and families, and our parents sharing embarrassing childhood stories about each of us. It was chaotic and lovely. Had it not been for the pandemic, I think our families would have stayed at hotels, and we would have missed having this time to truly blend our families.