Margaret & Phil

Occupations Margaret is a creative manager at Stanley Black & Decker; Phil is a senior director of electrical engineering at SharkNinja 

Wedding date May 25, 2024

Number of Guests 68 

Number of Attendants 7

How You Met We met the old-fashioned way—in person. Phil used to also work at Stanley Black & Decker. On Margaret’s first day of work in September of 2018, she was touring the office building in Towson and briefly met Phil on her tour. He was intrigued by the new hire and wanted to meet her again. Margaret was just starting her career working at the Stanley Black & Decker Makerspace where she taught digital fabrication and wood working classes as well as supported maintenance on machines and the business with innovation projects. Phil tried to sign up for one of her classes that had filled up. Because the class was filled up, Phil messaged her via Skype (yes, it was 2018 before Teams or Slack), asking if she was available to teach another time. She told him that she could make time to teach another class with a few other folks that had also inquired. During the class, they interacted, but neither of them showed much interest in one another. They went their separate ways having no reason to really interact or cross paths for anything work related, but they did remember who each other were.

Fast forward to March 2021—Margaret was playing tennis in Federal Hill when she met her soon-to-be tennis partner, Dan. Dan and Margaret made the connection that they both worked at Stanley Black & Decker, and when Margaret asked Dan “What team are you on?” he replied, “Do you know Phil Gilde? He’s my boss.” Margaret and Dan continued to play tennis together for a few weeks, and one day—after a match, Dan invited Phil to join them for a drink at Lee’s Pint & Shell in Canton. It was at that short happy hour that Margaret and Phil met again two and a half years later. While there was more of a connection between the two, they once again went their separate ways, not exchanging numbers or anything.

That April the Orioles were scheduled to play their season opener at home. Margaret had mentioned to Dan and some colleagues that they should find a bar and watch the game. Meanwhile, Phil had mentioned to Dan that he had an extra ticket to the game but couldn’t find anyone to go with—Dan said to Phil “Margaret said she wanted to do something fun for the game.”

In a quick Skype message, Phil invited Margaret to the game . . . about 2 hours before the first pitch! They didn’t know that this was a date—both of them were under the impression it was just two friends getting together to drink some beers and cheer on the Orioles. During the game, the two spent the hours getting to know one another, laughing, and talking about their shared interest for sports and traveling. They finished the evening by going to Pub Dog for some pizza where they talked about their life goals, things that they were passionate about—and this is when they really started to connect. After they said their goodbyes with bellies full of pizza, they both realized that there just might be something special.

The Engagement Only about six months into their relationship, Margaret started looking at rings (I mean, what girl doesn’t have an ongoing Pinterest board). Being the designer and creative that Margaret is, she sketched out several different engagement rings—all with a sapphire center stone. On Margaret’s side (her mother and grandmother) both have sapphire engagement rings. On Phil’s side his mother has a sapphire engagement ring, so it felt like the perfect stone to symbolize the two families coming together. They started the ring shopping in March of 2023, meeting with a few jewelers who could make the custom design.

Margaret had given Phil a clear “framework” for the proposal: it needed to be someplace sentimental; she didn’t want it to be fancy or in front of people, and she wanted professional photos captured.

In July of 2023, Margaret and Phil were visiting family at Margaret’s family’s lake house, a picturesque A-frame family cottage with views of a freshwater lake in remote Wisconsin that Margaret’s grandfather built. With the ring being custom made, and taking a bit longer than the jeweler had anticipated, the ring was shipped overnight to remote Wisconsin from Maryland just one day before the proposal—talk about stressful! On the evening of July 20th, Phil got down on one knee at the end of the dock right at sunset. The cherry on top, from the front porch you can see the end of the dock so Margaret’s mother and grandmother got to watch the whole thing happen.

Wedding Design Inspiration Margaret is a creative and always has been. She studied apparel design and graphic design at MICA. So while Margaret’s inspiration was a hodgepodge of things that she liked; she leaned on some traditional elements with a creative twist, she knew it had to feel cohesive. She didn’t have one singular vision, but she knew she wanted something that felt unique, colorful, creative, elevated, and intimate. Hotel Revival and the Topside restaurant felt like the perfect backdrop for this. Something that didn’t feel like a “white tent wedding,” that had character, was elevated (quite literally it’s on the roof top), and something that felt like an intimate dinner party for her guests. Cylburn Arboretum was the perfect traditional and simple backdrop to exchange vows, someplace quiet, outside, and the mansion gave it that touch of traditional and “fancy” feeling for the ceremony.

Margaret knew that she didn’t want to use trendy brush script, and that everything had to feel like one cohesive experience. She spent hours picking out fonts, a color palette (that was less of a strict color palette, and more of a color vibe), and designing a custom logo. Everything that was used for the wedding Margaret designed and made. The wedding initiations and stationary suite included a custom repeat pattern inspired by toile patterns including illustrations of the different wedding venues, crabs (because it felt so perfect for a Maryland wedding), and the monument in Mount Vernon. Other elements included fabricated signage that she made using tools and a laser cutter for letters, table numbers made from marble tiles, menus that were laser cut with their wedding logo, custom stir sticks (yes, also laser cut by Margaret), and of course, laser cut name cards for each guest with different colors indicating the entrée choice instead of settling for stickers. The flowers and bouquets were made by Margaret, her mother-in-law, maid of honor, and sister-in-law two days before the wedding.

What Was Unique and Special About Your Wedding Day We had a lot of unique and special things for us, but a few things that stand out:

– About 75% of our guests were from out of town, and we were so touched and honored with how many people flew in for the weekend—people came from Switzerland, Seattle, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Boston, South Carolina, and more.

– We worked really hard on what kind of music we wanted for dancing. We wanted Sweet Caroline because that is Margaret’s grandmother’s favorite song, we had a Bruce Springsteen set list as another favorite on the bride’s side, we also had a 2000’s boy band set list that absolutely got everyone on their feet including things like Fall Out Boy, Boys Like Girls and the Killers.

– Instead of a sendoff or a private last dance, we closed the night off with A Sky Full Of Stars by Coldplay (because that song and concert was the first concert the couple went to while they were dating), and Don’t Stop Believing (because that’s a classic) –everyone surrounded us on the dance floor, and it was one of our favorite memories.

– We had a welcome cocktail party at Barcoccina the night before so by the time our wedding day came around, folks already knew each other, and we didn’t feel as pressured to have lengthy conversations with guests on our wedding day.

Favorite Details Including the entire laundry list of everything that Margaret made for the wedding, here is an even longer list of some details we loved:

– Margaret wore her grandmother’s veil – a vintage handmade lace from Brussels Belgium that she restored for her wedding day. She also wore her grandmother’s pearl earrings and used her grandmother’s hand beaded clutch from Belgium.

– Margaret’s sister-in-law, who is a musician out of Nashville, sang the father-daughter dance live. And Margaret’s brother and sister-in-law sang the first dance live as well.

– During our ceremony we had both of our families come up front for a family prayer to bless the marriage and our life together. We also did a ring warming ceremony.

– We had a string quartet during the ceremony that played a mix of pop songs and traditional classical music.

– The guest book was yearbook style, which a headshot of each guest in alphabetical order with blank pages for our guests to sign.

– While favors seem to be very controversial on Wedding Tok—we did have mini 9ft DEWALT tape measures as favors for our guests since we both met Stanley Black & Decker (the company that owns the popular tool company, DEWALT), so we felt like it was a fun little nod to how we met and very useful.

– We went a little less traditional with wedding party gifts because we felt like a lot of people already have the pjs, the flasks, and the sunglasses—the bridesmaids got sapphire necklaces as a nod to the engagement ring and a lululemon belt bag because they all love to travel. The groomsmen got backpack drink coolers because the groom loves a cold beverage.

Most Unexpected Event On Your Wedding Day: The weather was forecasting thunderstorms for our wedding day the entire week leading up to the wedding. At the last minute, it looked like we might have a shot at clear weather so we could keep our ceremony outside. Right after we said, “I Do”, there was a loud boom of thunder, it felt like God was blessing our marriage.

Piece of Advice For the couple: Soak up the wedding as much as you can—there is rarely ever a time in your life when everyone who is important to you is in the same place to celebrate you. Only other time is at your funeral. For the bride: Don’t worry if it’s timeless, if it’s corny, if it might look outdated in a year, if no one will understand it—do whatever is going to make you happy. For the groom: Create space for her to feel emotional during the planning process, to have the same conversation about small details over, and over and over again. Ya’ll are a team. Also, go play golf the morning of your wedding to get out the nerves.

BEAUTY Yusra Shireen, M Salon BRIDESMAIDS Each member of the bridal party picked out their own dresses and suit. CAKE Margaret made the cake. The bottom tier was vanilla and caramel, the middle and top tier were a gluten free earl gray with a honey butter cream, and the allergen friendly cake was chocolate with raspberry filling. CATERER Topside CHAIRS Loane Bros. FLORAL DESIGN Margaret and family did the arrangements. They purchased wholesale at Danisa’s Wholesale fresh flowers. GROOM AND GROOMSMEN Tuxedo House for all tuxes and the white jacket HONEYMOON Punta Cana INVITATIONS Margaret Garrison printed from Smartpress LOCATION Cylburn Arboretum (ceremony); Hotel Revival Topside Restaurant (reception) MUSIC Apollo Chamber (ceremony); Tai Shan and Austin Garrison (reception). Play It Again AZ (DJ, sound, and lighting) OFFICIANT Joe Lee, one of our dearest friends from our church PHOTOGRAPHER Alyssa Rae VIDEOGRAPHER Sincerely, the Kitchens WEDDING DRESS Jenny Yoo WEDDING PLANNER Island Creek Events