Olivia & Danielle

Occupations Olivia is a research assistant; Danielle is a political advisor and investor

Wedding date June 8, 2024

Number of Guests 98

How You Met We met on a dating app while we were both living in D.C. Olivia had been living in D.C. for years, but Danielle had just moved there for a new job. We matched while Danielle was out of town, so we texted for two weeks before Olivia ghosted Danielle (not her finest moment), which Danielle was thankfully unfazed by. Danielle texted Olivia a month later to go on a date and we went out the next day. That date is now our anniversary.

The Engagement New Year’s Eve 2023—classic. We were getting ready to go out with friends and Danielle was in the bath listening to music when Olivia jumped in the bath, fully clothed, because she is spontaneous and silly. Danielle had known for a while that she was going to ask Olivia to marry her but hadn’t found the right moment and this felt like the exact right one. Danielle asked, “Do you want to marry me this year?” and Olivia (a crier) immediately started sobbing, but then of course said yes.

Wedding Design Inspiration Danielle grew up in New Hampshire and Olivia spent her most formative years in rural Wyoming, so we wanted our wedding to feel like our happiest memories from childhood … gardeny, backyardy, relaxed, simple, peaceful. We just went with simple everything. Wooden chairs, colorful glassware, simple linens, plants on the table. We didn’t think too hard about it!

What Was Unique and Special About Your Wedding Day We did our wedding ceremony at our house just with our immediate families that Danielle’s brother officiated, and then we did a Hawaiian lei ceremony at our venue with all of our guests that Olivia’s sister officiated. We both knew that we didn’t want to exchange vows and get married in front of a lot of people because it would have made us too nervous and focused on things other than one another, so we told our guests up front that they wouldn’t see us formally get married and that we totally understood if they didn’t want to come due to that… but everyone was still excited and flew from all over to join us! The smaller ceremony was intimate and beautiful, just in our backyard at our rental in Baltimore, with our immediate family members sitting around us. We exchanged vows and asked each person to tell us what they wished for our partnership, and they all said such beautiful things, like “peace,” “compassion,” “laughter,” and more. Then the larger lei ceremony was also really meaningful and fun and was an ode to Olivia’s Hawaiian roots. Most of our attendees had never seen a wedding lei ceremony so Olivia’s sister explained what it was and what it meant, and then after it was over, we each took two minutes to tell all of the attendees how much we loved them and how happy we were to be celebrating with them. Then, it was party time!

Favorite Details Our outfits and the leis. We both agonized over what to wear and, the day of, we were just like—these things feel great, let’s just wear them. The leis were created by a Native Hawaiian owned company in Hawai’i and were so beautiful.

Most Unexpected Event On Your Wedding Day Danielle’s brother surprised us with a super loud confetti grenade right after the ceremony that scared the living daylights out of both of us. We were still finding pieces of confetti up until we moved out of the place, around a year later.

Piece of Advice Carve out moments for just the two of you. It’s a beautiful whirlwind of a day but it can pull you in so many different directions. After the ceremony at our house, we had everyone go ahead to the venue and we sat on our porch for a while, just the two of us, holding hands. We’re really thankful we did that.

DESSERT Taharka Brothers ice cream truck CATERER Mera Kitchen FLORAL DESIGN Edge Floral Event Designers and The Hawai’i Lei Stand HONEYMOON Scotland INVITATIONS Paperless Post LOCATION Our house and Good Neighbor MUSIC Spotify playlists made by Olivia and her sister Shannon OFFICIANT Alex Hirshberg for the ceremony and Shannon Boyle for the Hawaiian lei ceremony PHOTOGRAPHER Kimberly Dean Photography TRANSPORTATION Thoroughbred shuttles WEDDING OUTFITS Olivia wore a red suit from Any Old Iron and Danielle wore an off-white romper from a thrift store. Both of us wore Doc Marten oxfords. WEDDING PLANNER The Otherside Creatives