We originally had our wedding scheduled for November 8th, 2020. We had our venue, the Vandiver Inn booked, along with our vendors. When the shutdown from COVID-19 occurred, we were still planning on moving forward, thinking things would be better by then. As time went on, we became increasingly nervous about our wedding getting rescheduled, even though it was a small one, so we decided to cancel it and just elope when we could get a marriage license.
We started to brainstorm about when we could get married and we realized that June 26th was on a Friday this year and was the 5th Anniversary of Marriage Equality in the United States, which just seemed right.
Maryland had just started offering the marriage license process online/virtually, so we were easily able to get our wedding license from Harford County. After contacting the Vandiver Inn, our photographer, and our officiant, it turned out that all were available and able to do smaller package deals on that day, so we were really excited. Things came together quickly and we only had about a month before our wedding day.
We purchased clothing online for ourselves and our son, which was interesting with lots of returns, but worked out. Amy wanted to keep her engagement ring as her wedding band, so I recorded a message and the soundwave was etched into the ring. I didn’t get the wedding band I wanted in time so I subbed in a plain titanium band until I could get what I really wanted. My engagement ring is James Allen. Amy proposed on a pier on Kent Island near Hemingway’s when we stayed down there for a weekend trip. She’s SO Maryland! She was even born at the hospital in Havre de Grace, down the same street from the Vandiver Inn.
We had 9 wedding guests, so 13 people total including vendors, which came in just under the limit for the date. Both of us are natural introverts, so it didn’t bother us in the least to have such a small wedding, plus our son has autism and we think it was nice and low pressure/less stressful for him. Our favorite memory of the day was just being able to celebrate with our loved ones with such an intimate ceremony on a really significant day for us. We incorporated a reading from the court ruling for marriage equality in our ceremony and it was just perfect.
We had lots of little touches and “props”, with rainbow details, that our photographer, Sarah was able to incorporate into some amazing and meaningful photographs. These items included Lisa’s Pride Converse sneakers, and matching “Love is Love” rainbow heart bowties and socks from Tie Bar for Amy and our son.
The food for our lunch at the Vandiver Inn was delicious and everyone raved about it. The special order vegan meals for Lisa and one guest were excellent, and the sangria was a hit. We had a small, simple wedding cake from Desserts by Rita that was delicious and looked great with our simple “Love Wins” laser-cut wood cake topper.
Written By: Lisa J.
Cake: Desserts by Rita
Florist: Amanda’s Florist
Hair: Color Images Salon
Officiant: Ceremony by Heather Saul
Photography: High Contrast Photography
Reception Venue: Vandiver Inn
Wedding Ring: James Allen (Lisa’s engagement ring), Soundwave Jewelry by Danielle Crampsie (Amy’s wedding ring)