Michelle & Rachel

This originally ran as a Local Love in the 2024 issue.

Wedding Date May 28, 2023

It was not love at first sight, but there was definitely an attraction when Rachel Lipton and Michelle Boyle first got matched on OkCupid—but the timing wasn’t right. A year later, they met up again and after a few weeks of “hanging out, we both realized we were into each other and decided to go on another date,” says Rachel. So, an official “second first date” was planned, and then another and another.

They both wanted to propose, so Michelle went first. On a beautiful Saturday morning in June 2021, Rachel, a social media manager for an education company and the @liketheteaeats food blogger, was handed a piece of paper no bigger than an index card and a quarter, and instructed to scratch off the first stop of the day—coffee at Good Neighbor. Once she got there, there was another spot to scratch off on the same card—this one sending her to Rawlings Conservatory. Each circle had a new destination: tacos at Clavel, a drink at Max’s Taphouse. As they headed home along Bond Street Pier, Michelle had Rachel scratch off the next circle—a ring. And then she got down on one knee and proposed. After excited calls to family and friends and some Champagne at home, Rachel scratched off the final stop of the day—Hersh’s pizza—where they had their first date in 2014.

The following weekend, it was Rachel’s turn to propose. When Michelle returned home from work—she’s an epidemiologist—they went to grab a drink. But instead, they ended up back at Bond Street Pier, where Rachel popped the question. There was more Champagne and Rachel cooked Michelle’s favorite meal: steak with charred scallion sauce, followed by a weekend getaway in D.C.

They wanted the wedding to capture their love of Baltimore but dressed up. “This is our home and the city we fell in love in. It’s an integral part of our love story and we wanted to share that with those most important to us,” says Rachel. The Peabody Library felt like the perfect place to incorporate their city and themselves. “We wanted a very classic black-tie wedding with pops of color from the florals and gold accents,” she says.

It was also important for them to “modernize traditional aspects that are more reflective of who we are as a queer couple,” says Rachel. That meant inclusive ceremony language, having Michelle stomp on the glass, a role typically assigned to a groom, and a mixed-gender bridal party.

As guests were making their way to the reception, Rachel and Michelle snuck away for some alone time. “We took 15 minutes after the ceremony to enjoy our first moments as newlyweds,” says Rachel. They also used the time to change into more comfortable footwear. Rachel always wears Superstars and Michelle always wears Stan Smiths, so it was fitting to each get a fresh pair of sneakers with gold accents to complement the venue and each other.