Today’s wedding is a classic one full of beautiful details and touching moments. Carrie and Andy had a ceremony that was packed full of different readings and traditions combining their two spiritual practices. A beautiful array of purple shades lit up the ballroom reception, but nothing was as bright as the bride and groom’s smiles. Such a gorgeous wedding!

Carrie + Andy | April 26, 2014 | Baltimore, Maryland | Dress Listing: Romona Keveza, L509

The Ceremony

Our ceremony was at the museum where we held the reception. Andy was raised Jewish and I was raised Unitarian Universalist, but we wanted a secular ceremony. We ended up using a UU minister as our “non-denominational interfaith officiant” and included UU traditions, like lighting a chalice and including a time for quiet meditation. We also incorporated Jewish traditions, including a chuppah, signing a secular ketubah, and stepping on the glass.

One of our readings was an excerpt from Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, which is the court decision that legalized same sex marriage in Massachusetts while we were both attending school there. It describes the importance of the institution of civil marriage, which was important to us since our ceremony was not religious. We also added part of the oath of office into our vows since we are both federal employees – we swore to defend each other against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Other notable facts – we each had 7 attendants! We had a harpist play before and during the ceremony. For our recessional she played the theme from Jurassic Park.

The Reception

We had a cocktail hour during which our 125 guests were allowed to visit some of the exhibits at the museum that were kept open for our group (including the Egyptian room and a medieval armor exhibit.) We took 10 weeks of swing dancing lessons for our first dance to Social Distortion’s cover of the Johnny Cash classic Ring of Fire. Everyone was impressed! We then had a traditional sit down dinner with an appetizer course of Maryland crab soup paired with a spring salad and then a choice of Maryland rockfish or short ribs. Our cake had alternating layers of carrot cake and lemon cake with blueberry cream filling. It was white with a purple swiss dot design to echo the point d’esprit lace on the skirt of my dress and our cake topper featured two Siamese cats with their tails twined into the shape of a heart in honor of our two cats, Raylan and Wampa.

Carrie’s Dress Search

I think I must have tried on 100 dresses at 20 stores over the course of seven months in five different states (MD, VA, DC, MA, NJ.) I saw plenty of dresses I liked in the wedding magazines, but the stores were not carrying styles that I was interested in. I do NOT look good in strapless dresses! It was so frustrating! It’s funny because one of the first stores I went to put me in a Romona Keveza and I was like OMG, this is perfect, but no way am I paying that much for a wedding dress when there are a million dresses that look just like this for half the price! But in the end, it turned out that samples of those dresses were just not stocked anywhere, so I ended up buying a Legends by Romona Keveza dress at a trunk show. Besides being exactly what I was looking for, it’s also massively comfortable – the tulle skirt is so light, the natural waist is very forgiving (I wanted to EAT the food we spent so much time picking out!!) and the top was very secure and flattering.

How Carrie Felt in Her Wedding Dress

Pretty, pretty princess!

Why Carrie Decided to Sell Her Wedding Dress

If I could have found what I was looking for preowned I would have bought a secondhand dress in a heartbeat. Our pictures will last a lifetime, but I can’t see myself wearing the dress again for any reason. It’s a great dress and I would love for someone else to get some use out of it!

Wedding Dress: Romona Keveza, L509 | Photography: Genevieve Leiper | Ceremony + Reception Venue: Walters Art Museum | Day of Coordination: Blue Canary Events | Floral Design: Connie Clark, Violet’s Florist | Cake: Chef’s Expressions | Paper Goods: Kindly RSVP Designs

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