Michael & Topher

This originally ran in the 2024 Local Love supplement in the July issue of Baltimore magazine. 

Wedding Date October 27, 2023

When Michael Giordano and Topher Marshall matched on Tinder in 2019, they were both in school at the time. Michael was in law school in Pennsylvania and Topher was in grad school in Northern Virginia. The distance felt immense for a casual relationship, but the connection was immediate. They scheduled a weekend to officially meet in person, but life got in the way. “Admittedly, at the time, neither of us were ready for a relationship,” admits Topher. “And we lost touch.”

Ironically, a year later, they both found themselves matched on Hinge. Michael, now a law school graduate, was in California studying for the bar and Topher was starting his career in Washington, D.C., in human factors engineering, a practice of designing systems that consider the needs, capabilities, and limitations of people. Michael was unsure about accepting the match but wanted something to distract from the grueling studying process. “We talked all day, every day, even though we were on opposite coasts,” says Michael. They found out they had lots in common—their goals, the importance of their friends, and, yes, the fact that “we both wanted to have pet raccoons,” Michael says. “This time we were ready for a relationship.” When Michael visited Georgetown University as an option for his Master of Laws in Taxation program five months later, the two finally met and Topher officially asked him to be his boyfriend.

After dual coast-to-coast engagements in 2022—one on a sunset hike to the top of Hawk Hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and the other during a date night to see the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin—the two started planning an epic wedding.

They knew they wanted to make their day unique and decided on a Met Gala theme, offering guests one of three (strictly optional) dress codes—Heavenly Bodies, Gilded Glamor, or Americana. “Every guest went out of their way to dress for the occasion, and it was so much more magical and special than we’d ever imagined,” says Topher. “We both felt so extremely loved and it made the event so gorgeous. Our guests were the best décor there.”

For the ceremony, friends carried keepsakes down the aisle—including the couples’ love notes—and placed them in a memory box to add to in the years to come.

Immediately afterward, they walked across the street to Cool Electric Tattoo and got matching ice cream tattoos as a tribute to their favorite date activity. The reception was equally fun, with a ball pit. “It started as a joke, but the more we thought about it, the more we were obsessed with the idea,” says Topher. “Everyone had a blast jumping in.”

It was just one more thing—mixed in with beautiful, sentimental moments—that made the wedding feel like no one but them.

“Don’t be afraid to unashamedly make your wedding day reflect who you are,” says Topher. “This is your chance to let your friends and family know who you are together, as a couple,” he says, though no raccoons made an appearance at the wedding. “There are so many ways you can make your wedding your own—have fun with it and think outside the box.”

BALL PIT Dreams Party Rentals CATERER Peruvian Brothers DAY OF COORDINATOR McKenzie Amis DESSERTS Good Company Doughnuts & Café and Nightingale Ice Cream FLORAL DESIGN Topher and Michael designed their own flowers GROOMS Bushelers of Baltimore for custom coordinating tuxedos; Christian Louboutin dress shoes; and in memory of Michael’s mom, who had passed unexpectedly a year before the wedding, he had a pair of her earrings made into a custom collar chain HONEYMOON Planned by Experience Morocco  INVITATIONS Minted LOCATION Citizens Ballroom, Frederick MUSIC Kevin Marshall (Topher’s dad) on acoustic guitar  (ceremony) Benefactor Events (reception) OFFICIANT Tom Braudaway, friend of the couple