Patriotic Backyard Wedding in Maryland

Abby Capalbo
November 11, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Veterans Day is a special day on SMP. It’s a day where we can take a minute to stop and thank all the men and women – past, present and future – who put their life on the line to make our lives as sweet as they are. We honestly feel honored to celebrate. So this patriotic pretty captured by Krista A. Jones is serving as our big ol’ virtual hug for all of those Veterans out there who make our world a safer place – from all of us at SMP, thank you, thank you, thank you.

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From The Bride…We were married on a gorgeous day exactly one year after we got engaged in Annapolis, Maryland. The forecast called for rain all week but when we woke up on Saturday morning there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze fought back the June heat. Like many of brides, I dreamed about my wedding day since I was a little girl – a big white dress, a gorgeous venue, my best friends by my side, the love of my life waiting at the end of the aisle – all culminating in one fantastic party. What I could not have imagined was how much more meaningful my dreams became when they were translated into reality. That big white dress was a custom combination of two different Modern Trousseau dresses that my mom and I picked out together. Our venue was my father’s gorgeous home where so much of our love story had played out – from summers spent by the pool just getting to know each other, to boat rides on the Severn and South River’s where we eventually got engaged, to the two months my husband actually spent living with my father right before we got engaged. Our bridal party was made up of our best friends from college – the ones that watched our relationship grow from the very beginning and encouraged us to treasure what we had found in each other. The boy waiting at the end of the aisle? He exceeds my wildest dreams every day. And that fantastic party? Well the tone was set for that when Bill Murray crashed my husbands bachelor party and the video of his inspiring speech went viral. It was like our own personal PR campaign for the fabulous party to follow.

We were actually engaged and married on Flag Day. If you knew my husband you would know that he is obsessed with anything covered in an American flag and his favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. So while Flag Day is no Fourth of July, the date seemed like a perfect match. We were also married about 5 minutes down the river from the Naval Academy and thought incorporating small touches of the American flag into our day would be a fitting tribute. Instead of flower petals or ribbons we were saluted by miniature flags as we left the church. We had custom designed American Flag cornhole sets made for cocktail hour and my husband even gifted each of his groomsmen American flag socks, cuff links and shorts which they did not hesitate to parade around in.

While my entire family is from the Mid-Atlantic, my husbands family is almost entirely from Ohio. In order to celebrate them we incorporated some fun Ohio traditions into our food choices. One of our cocktail hour appetizers were little cornbread cups filled with the very distinctly Ohio style chili. For a fun treat after the cake, we flew in the most amazing Cincinnati ice cream from Graeter’s. However, I couldn’t ignore my Maryland roots and we were sure to find a spot for the classic Maryland crab cake on our menu as well.

In terms of overall decor we wanted to keep it as simple as possible in order to really celebrate our gorgeous venue. We were so absolutely lucky to have a location right on the water that is beautiful in its own right so we stuck to a palette of mostly textured whites with some soft pinks mixed in. We also added a pop of silver and some sparkle here and there as a fun accents.

I will never forget looking up at the tent from the dock after the sun went down. We could see the twinkling lights reflecting off the water and hear the sounds of the band playing while all of our favorite people in the world danced the night away. While it may be cliche, I now understand why so many brides say their wedding day was the best day of their lives. We floated through the day on a cloud of complete and utter joy and everything we ever dreamed of was executed to perfection. None of this would have been possible without our amazing vendors and we are so thankful for all of the hard work they put in. We will treasure these memories forever.