Taylor and Andrew had a sweet wedding that celebrated their love. Taylor wore a Stella York dress, Style 6648. Keep reading to find out all the details of their wedding day!
The Proposal
Andrew told me that we would go on a surprise “adventure”, but refused to let me in on any of the details until the day of. “Just look pretty and let me keep some surprises!” he kept saying. And so the day arrived, and I still had no idea where we were going or what to expect, only that the “event” was potentially both an indoor and outdoor endeavor. On our way to the winery, Andrew kept the mood light, and most importantly, kept me distracted from any ideas as to what we may be doing – he still had not told me where we were going.
We went to the Old Westminster Winery! The same winery where I had spent my 24th birthday with Andrew and one of my favorite places in the area. Upon our arrival, however, Andrew told me that we were early and that the event didn’t start until 6PM so we “might as well just drive around the neighborhood for a few minutes” and so we did just that. Still ahead of the 6PM “event start time” we pulled into the parking lot and noticed a few people relaxing on the back patio of the winery. Doing his best to keep to the storyline, Andrew mentioned that these people must be left over from a previous private event, “I just called the other day to double check the event time she said, it’s 6PM!”
By now, I was fully convinced that this was just a normal day. Making a few comments about how empty the place was, our server playfully laughed and joked, “clearly we didn’t advertise our event so well . . .” as she poured our glasses. Making note of our favorite, Andrew and I grabbed a bottle of the Nouveau and proceeded to make our way outside. “Let’s go ahead and pick a seat before any other people get here,” he said. “It’s almost like we have the place to ourselves!”
Making our way to the same spot we had sat at the previous year on my birthday, I quickly poured myself a glass and asked Andrew to take a picture that would be identical to the one he had taken of me on my birthday. Standing in the field with my back turned, Andrew snapped a few pictures and told me to come check them out. Andrew reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black bag. I had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
Taking a minute to not-so-gracefully maneuver the ring out of the bag, Andrew grabbed my hand and told me that he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Dropping to one knee, I finally knew what was happening. “Taylor, will you marry me?” he said.
“YES! Of course!” I said as the tears ran down my face.
Andrew smiled, hugged me and laughed saying that he really did mean it when he said we had the place to ourselves, he had rented out the entire winery!
A few minutes later, after attempting to get myself back together, Andrew smiled and pointed to the doors of the winery. I again, had no idea why. In that moment, my parents, my grandmother, Andrew’s parents, and his grandparents all came walking through the door. I burst into tears again, I couldn’t believe it! They had been parked down the street and were simply awaiting the go-ahead from Andrew to arrive.
And so, after a few minutes of celebration with our families, Andrew again smiled and pointed, this time to the parking lot. I noticed a line of cars pulling into the parking lot with various people making their way toward us. It was the rest of our friends and family – even a few who had made the trip from North Carolina just for us! All in all, Andrew had invited 23 of our closest friends and family – all those who had become such a major part of relationship over these past four years.
We spent the next 3 hours laughing, sipping wine, and readying ourselves for the next chapter of our lives. It was perfect.
The Dress
I wanted to feel like myself in the dress, just my best self. I tried on about 15 dresses but knew that the one I chose was the one for me. I felt like the dress fit my own style and made me look my best. I felt so confident and comfortable, I knew it had to be the one.
The Wedding Details
Our colors were navy and gold for a lot of the decorations and bridal party outfits. The groom wanted to stand out so he decided to wear a plum tuxedo jacket. We added a bunch of personal touches to our wedding to make it special to us. We collected antique dessert plates from when we were engaged up to the wedding day and had them all stacked up on our dessert table. Each set of plates was unique and special. We also covered the wooden farm tables with antique blue bottles we had collected from various family and friends as well as local antique shops in the area.
The venue we chose, the Main Street Ballroom, in Historic Ellicott City, was the thing that made our wedding so personal to our love story. When the bride met the groom, he was living right up the street. We spent many weekends hopping from bar to bar and making friends along the way. The downtown area of Ellicott City had gone through 2 major floods over the past 3 years but that did not stop us from wanting to have our wedding held there. One flood occurred before we booked the venue, and another flood occurred afterward. We had the chance to change our venue but did not want to let down our town. We had to help keep our small town alive and thriving by keeping our business local. We are so thankful that another flood did not occur closer to our wedding date. It was pretty amazing getting to share our wedding day on the street that brought us together originally.
Taylor’s Favorite Part
Sharing all of our favorite things with all of our favorite people was the absolute highlight of our day. We had our wedding catered by Timber Pizza Co. that cooked fresh oven-fired pizzas in their mobile pizza oven. We had 10 different flavors of Georgetown Cupcakes for people to choose from. Our DJ played all of our favorite music and we ended the night by jumping around with our best friends to music from Taking Back Sunday and A Day to Remember. We also had some of our favorite wines (including 40 ounce bottles of Rose) and local beers and even had a surprise ‘beer cheers’ after our I Do’s. The whole day was 100% us and that’s what made it so special.
Photos by Erin Meadows
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