Ali & Jim

This originally ran in the 2026 Local Love supplement in the June issue of Baltimore magazine.

Wedding Date October 4, 2025

Ali Peters and Jim Dittmar met at a basement party (classic!) their junior year of high school in Syracuse, New York, and started dating soon after. When it came time to plan the proposal, Jim, a bioprocess engineer, knew he wanted to do it at Ali’s most beloved place in the world—her family’s cottage on Lake Ontario. They had packed a picnic and took kayaks out for the day and were making their way back to the cottage around sunset when he asked her to marry him.

She said yes and the planning began, this time in Baltimore—where the two have lived for more than 10 years. “We incorporated some of our favorite places into the itinerary to give our guests, who were mostly traveling from out of state, an inviting and authentic Baltimore experience,” says Ali, an environmental engineer. The format of the day delivered their vision of a relaxed affair with great food and plenty of time to mingle and dance with their 100 guests. “We were able to have moments to take it all in and also spend unrushed time with our guests,” says Jim.

That meant an early afternoon outdoor ceremony and family-style lunch reception at La Cuchara with lots of sweet speeches. “Because we had been dating for over half our lives, many of our family and friends had met before and it was so heartwarming to see everyone reconnecting,” says Ali. “We decided to eat together, just the two of us at the bar, while our guests were on either side of the restaurant for a quiet moment to ourselves. It is a lasting memory, getting to be flies on the wall of our own wedding, eating an epic meal, and hearing the restaurant erupting with laughter and conversation.”

There was a break after lunch before everyone gathered in the evening, this time for a dance party and pizza at Swann House. “Plan the party you want and have fun with it,” says Ali. “There can be so much pageantry and performance with weddings that you miss the reason you are really gathering. The best weddings we have ever been to are the ones where it feels true to the couple.”