Brittany & Benjamin

Occupations Brittany is a Baltimore City Public Schools teacher; Ben is an engineer.

Wedding date August 4, 2018

Number of Attendees 50

Number of Attendants Six (three bridesmaids, two groomsmen, and one flower girl).

How You Met One of Brittany’s friends was dating one of Ben’s friends at the time. The two groups got together and we met each other at a WTMD First Thursday concert. Ben was wearing a pair of Reef sandals, the ones with a bottle opener on the underside. Brittany watched as Ben opened up a bottle of beer and was immediately grossed out. Brittany let Ben know that she thought it was repulsive to have a beer opened by a bottle opener on a pair of sandals. The rest is history.

The Engagement We heard rumors that there may have been a ring in a safe, in the floor of Brittany’s grandmother’s house. Her uncle was able to find the combination in one of his files and after over thirty years the safe was opened. We were able to use one of the stones, which were Brittany’s Grandmother’s engagement ring, in a custom made setting. Brittany had three rules for the proposal. Place the ring in a Mrs. Box, it needed to be private, and we needed to take a photo after the proposal. So, after a nice dinner on our deck, we brought the dishes into the kitchen and when Brittany turned around, Ben popped the question on one knee.

Wedding Design Inspiration We planned to get married in the summer, so we wanted a venue that offered both an outdoor space and an air conditioned indoor space that had a rustic and industrial vibe. Our color palettes among other ideas were found on Pinterest and Instagram. Brittany was enamored with sage green and blush as the primary colors; we balanced those along with bold and more masculine complementary colors such as copper and dark blues.

What Was Unique and Special About Your Wedding Day One of Ben’s sisters’ (also a bridesmaid) hand drew all the chalkboards we displayed throughout the venue including welcome signs, his and her signature cocktails, the menus, and Instagram hashtag (#SchreibTribe2018). We had a local Bluegrass band play outside for cocktail hour and coordinated with them on a rendition of our first dance song, from that we created a custom choreography to match.

Favorite Details
–The Bride’s backless and lace wedding dress.
-Jenga guestbook
-Abundance of greenery and flowers with the copper geometric shapes along with the archway behind us during the ceremony.
-Our Fuji film instant camera that encouraged the guests to participate in the process.
-Custom wedding playlist via Spotify and djay 2 on an iPad with rented professional speakers allowing for perfect timing of events with songs playing exactly what you want to hear.
-Venue areas that enabled guests to spread out some in multiple separate rooms and outdoor spaces, that were partitioned but close together to still provide an intimate feel.

Most Unexpected Event On Your Wedding Day
–The event director found out that it was one of Brittany’s cousins’ birthdays, so they brought out a surprise dessert with lit candle as we all sang him happy birthday.
-We were unable to initially cut the cake due to the layers being separate by hidden cardboard that was unknown to us.
-As everyone started to hit the dance floor, we quickly realized that the bride’s wedding dress even when bustled was dragging on the floor. Looking around we saw the Mr. and Mrs. Balloons used during the first look, the Groom’s father whipped out his pocket knife, cut off some cord and began to tie the dress up only to be upstaged by the bride’s college friend who had an even bigger knife in his suit jacket.

Piece of Advice
–Do a lot of research and then get out there and look at venues and meet with multiple vendors in person, if possible, for each major function of the wedding to see if there is a connection and mutual understanding of desires and expectations.
-Photos before the ceremony. We had a fairly tight timeline with the photographer and wanted to take photos at a large variety of geographical locations spread around the Woodberry area. Shooting all these location photos before the ceremony started allowed us more time to enjoy our family, friends, and the food.

Most Unexpected Event On Your Wedding Day

–The event director found out that it was one of Brittany’s cousins’ birthdays, so they brought out a surprise dessert with lit candle as we all sang him happy birthday.
-We were unable to initially cut the cake due to the layers being separate by hidden cardboard that was unknown to us.
-As everyone started to hit the dance floor, we quickly realized that the bride’s wedding dress even when bustled was dragging on the floor. Looking around we saw the Mr. and Mrs. Balloons used during the first look, the Groom’s father whipped out his pocket knife, cut off some cord and began to tie the dress up only to be upstaged by the bride’s college friend who had an even bigger knife in his suit jacket.