Jess & Owen

Occupations Jess is an instructional designer; Owen is a cyber security analyst

Wedding date May 30, 2024  

Number of Guests 84

Number of Attendants 8 total 

How You Met We met as many modern couples do: online. But, we matched on multiple dating apps (Bumble and Tinder). After discussing comic books and video games it became clear we had something special going on and made it official.

The Engagement Owen proposed on February 5th 2023. February 5th is the 36th day of the year, and 36 is Jess’s favorite number so Owen thought it was fitting. He popped the question at Rawlings Conservatory, which aligns well with both of their love of nature, greenery and Baltimore. Jess’s best friends surprised her by showing up and taking photos. Owen and Jess celebrated with them afterwards at Peadbody Brewery and then went to the Bluebird Cocktail room afterwards.

Wedding Design Inspiration We loved that we were getting married in the spring so we wanted to lean into the greens, pinks and vibrancy that comes with springtime. Green is both of our favorite colors so it became a primary color of our wedding color scheme. Owen chose to wear a green suit to incorporate that element (and also cause we thought it was a fun unique touch). As well, our venue Gramercy Mansion has a green roof of their atrium and many plants and flowers. Additionally, the color scheme and other design elements were inspired by the visuals from the X-Men comics at the time.

What Was Unique and Special About Your Wedding Day The unique and special elements about our day is that we incorporated so many things we love into our celebration. We are both huge X-Men and video game fans and we were able to tie in elements of those things while still being classy. We call it Geek Chic lol. Some examples include, our wedding arch was designed to look like a portal from the X-Men comics, each of our guest tables was a place set in the X-Men Universe, I walked down the aisle to a song from one of our favorite video games (“Aerith’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VII), our speciality cocktails were named and themed after items from our favorite video games (Hades and Final Fantasy VII). Lastly, we had Taharka ice cream as dessert. Jess loves their ice cream so much that she told Owen about it on their first date so they felt it had to be included. It was really fun including small elements of things we love and being able to share it with our friends and family in subtle ways. 

Favorite Details There’s so many details to choose from but one of them is that our bridesmaid and groomsman made these flowers as a decoration for our special tables (sweetheart table, parents tables, etc). These flowers are apart of the X-Men comics and its another thing that was subtle but if people knew the reference they would recognize it. As well, the speciality cocktails were so fun and was a huge hit so I’d say those too.

Other favorite details include that we made the arch ourselves, as well as all the signage and table décor. Our favorite part of the wedding day was our first dance, we learned a swing dance routine to Paramore’s “Still Into You” and we were both just so excited when we were able to pull it off on the day of.

Most Unexpected Event On Your Wedding Day The most unexpected thing that happened was that Jess’ dad went to the wrong hotel so he was pretty late to getting to the photos. Luckily we planned to take photos beforehand and our photographer was able to knock out all our photos without him first so we stayed on schedule. The other unexpected thing was that neither of us could eat on the day of. Luckily our catering team was amazing and boxed up our dinners for us.

Piece of Advice:My piece of advice for wedding planning is find the stuff that you will have fun with and enjoy. For me, it was clearly adding in the little design elements that we enjoyed like the décor, the speciality cocktails, etc. So much of wedding planning is logistics and ironing out schedules and minituae of details so its easy to get overwhelmed. Having those creative DIY projects helped us stay grounded in the overall process. My other piece of advice is to choose vendors that will accurately bring your vision to life. Another vendor may be cheaper, have better reviews, etc etc. but stick with the ones that are committed to your vision and are excited to be there—it will pay off in the end.

BEAUTY Haley Sage Artistry (makeup); Shalva Fishkind (hair) BRIDESMAIDS Azazie DESSERT Wegmans (cake); Taharka Brothers Ice Cream CATERER Hunt Valley Catering DAY OF COORDINATOR Lujan Entertainment FLOWERS Mercy Rivera, a friend GROOM Indochino INVITATIONS Zazzle LOCATION Gramercy Mansion MUSIC Lujan Entertainment OFFICIANT Thomas Gregg, family friend PHOTOGRAPHER Olivia Bush Photography VIDEOGRAPHER K&A Photo and Video WEDDING DRESS Ava Laurenne Bride