Photography by tPoz Photography
For many avid sports fans, their team is the center of their whole world. Sure there are other important things to care about: falling in love, family, friends, career, but you better believe that come game day, you are parked in front of that TV (unless you have the good fortunate to score tickets), no ifs ands or buts. This religious-like commitment can be challenging for couples who aren’t on the same “sports page.” Take Dan, for example. Dan loves football; Dan fell in love with Sarah; Sarah didn’t love football . . . until a fateful game in a championship stadium changed her mind. Like finding the perfect wedding dress, when you know you just know. So when it came time to for Dan and Sarah to say “I do” in an elopement ceremony, there was only one place fitting for the occasion for these out-of-town lovebirds. We are “The Greatest City in America” after all . . . makes perfect sense. Go Ravens! – Allie Rosenwasser
Names: Dan Shelley and Sarah Montesanto
Wedding Date: April 17, 2014. Dan’s birthday is April 16th and Sarah’s birthday is April 18th so every year we’ll have a three day celebration!
Occupations: Sarah is a Human Resource Leader for JCPenney; Dan is a general manager for Verizon Wireless.
The first meeting: We met through Sarah’s previous employer. Her company worked with mine, and she had to work a shift in my store. The minute I saw her I literally fell in love. I was nervous around her all day. She worked right across the street from me, so I found any excuse I could to go over there just to see her. Dinner and movie was our first date. We saw Shutter Island, good excuse to cuddle up during jumpy parts!
The proposal: I proposed to Sarah exactly a year after I first met her, May 20, 2011. I looked back at my schedule and found the first day I ever saw Sarah (May 20, 2010), and I wanted to propose on that exact day a year later. I wanted to propose in a unique way, so I started researching “love,” “romantic,” and “unbreakable bonds.” I found out that when penguins find their mates, that’s who they love for the rest of their lives. Even if the two penguins get separated, they would never love another penguin. So I knew right away I wanted to do something with penguins. One of my favorite places growing up was the Mystic Aquarium (located in Connecticut). So I thought that would a perfect fit for our proposal. I was SO nervous on the day. When we arrived at the aquarium, Sarah kept asking if I was okay, I just couldn’t simply concentrate. Well, we finally made it over to the penguin tank, and my worst fear happened . . . there were people everywhere! We watched the penguins for about five minutes, and Sarah wanted to continue on, but I said let’s wait so we can take a picture in front of the tank. I brought my camera to take pictures of the fish, but secretly I knew I wanted to capture the moment. Once it started to clear out, I asked a worker to take a picture of us in front of the tank; after she did she tried handing the camera back to me. I asked “would you mind taking a few more?” And I immediately took the ring out of my pocket and asked Sarah if she would marry me! Luckily the worker kept snapping photos and we have the whole moment captured!
The favorites: The weather! It was perfect and the next day it was gloomy, we were very lucky! Also, everyone involved in the day. Everything was amazing from our hotel to our meal. We actually reached out to local hotels and restaurants via Twitter asking what was around Baltimore to celebrate our special day.
The epic location: When we first met, I was a football fanatic, and Sarah was the exact opposite. So when we watched games, she was never really intrigued. Well, I bought tickets two years ago to a January game. It happened to be the AFC wild card and Ray Lewis’s last home game! We bundled up and enjoyed the Ravens Walk, a professional tailgate put on by the Baltimore Ravens organization. Sarah immediately fell in love with the atmosphere. Then we got inside the stadium. Our seats were right behind the tunnel where Ray came out. Sarah soaked in that magical moment in Ravens’ history, and within minutes she was screaming at the top of her lungs cheering on her now favorite team. Once we started talking about getting married, we looked at beaches, Disney World, cruises, and tropical destinations, but we didn’t fall in love with any of them. So one day, I simply asked, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we got married at the stadium?” Sarah immediately fell in love with the idea. I waited a week just to make sure she wasn’t saying that out of excitement and I asked again. She said she would love a purple wedding. I started researching and calling around and within a week, we had a date booked and started planning it.
The elopement decision: Both Sarah and I have big families, and we both didn’t want to leave anyone out of our special day. At the same time, we didn’t want to start our relationship with debt. We also saw some of our friends getting married and saying how much they wish they could do it all over again because they were so worried about pleasing the guests and how wished they could spend more time with people at the wedding. We decided since we didn’t want to be in debt, and didn’t want to leave any loved ones out, we would go celebrate the day stress free and focus on us and our bond.
The M&T Bank Stadium, party of two: It was so cool! It felt like the stadium was ours for the day. It was so quiet and peaceful. We originally had plans to get married in one of the suites, but when we arrived it was SO beautiful outside, we couldn’t resist the offer to get married outside.
The unforgettable: We wanted to make sure we had a BLAST on the day, so the Ravens allowed us to have time on the field, in the locker room, and almost anywhere we wished to take pictures for a few hours. I saw that Torrey Smith and Chanel Smith recently had a photo session at the stadium where they were wearing Torrey’s jerseys. So I thought of the idea of getting jerseys made up with the wedding date on them, and BRIDE/GROOM as the player name. After the ceremony, we took pictures in our tux/gown. Teri Pozniakmade the photo shoot so much fun! She captured US! We had a great time doing the poses Teri suggested, and then she even asked us if there were any unique poses we wanted. Of course I immediately blurted out that I wanted to do the Ray Lewis dance. We then went into the locker room and changed into our jerseys, (just like the players!), I saw a really really big guy with a jersey hanging in the background. I immediately recognized the number and knew it was AQ Shipley, who at the time was the current Ravens’ linemen. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to take the spotlight off Sarah. About an hour later, we were on the field shooting some fun shots of throwing a football around, when the woman who helped coordinate our Ravens access came on the field–it was about 15 minutes after the shoot was supposed to end, so we were worried she was really mad at us–she said, “Are you all set? Because we have a surprise for you.” Out walked AQ Shipley and his fiancée because he wanted to take pictures with us and meet us. They were at the stadium doing an engagement photo shoot the same day!! So we met AQ, talked for a few minutes on the field, and took some pictures. AQ even loved my Ravens tattoo I have on the back of my calf.
The details
GOWN: An Oleg Cassini gown from David’s Bridal
TUX: Black tux from Men’s Warehouse (“A modern yet classic Vera Wang suit”), and we agreed I should wear Ravens colors. On the day of the wedding I put on purple socks too!
EVENT COORDINATOR: Amy Skinner of Aramark
CAKE: Amy provided champagne and sweets after our I Do’s
HONEYMOON: We are still planning on doing a honeymoon – we are waiting until we find a special place.
WEDDING RINGS: Jared
