Cait + Ryan | Wedding at The Garden | Alexandria, VA | Photography by Brea

Cait and Ryan‘s wedding was as fun and wonderful as they are, and that’s saying something. We’ll start off with their origin story, told from two different perspectives:

The Story of a Pandemic and a Dating App: Ryan’s Version

This Story Starts where all great stories start, in a hut roughly 4,544 (but who is counting) miles away from each other. Ryan was sitting in his home in Blama, Sierra Leone, when he received a text from the Peace Corps global director stating that he would be evacuated from his country and flown back to a place where his parents were moving out of. Once Ryan Arrived in the states, he went to Vermont to quarantine with his brother and girlfriend at the time.

After that, Ryan lived in Florida for six months, working with their unemployment office, helping people access their benefits in a crisis. After this, he moved to Towson, Maryland, for his MBA.

During Ryan’s first week in his new apartment, he started to swipe on dating apps. Within the first week, he saw a fantastic woman and decided that a Harry Potter question would be the best way of breaking the ice. After she was blown away by Ryan’s charisma & knowledge of Harry Potter (“You would never guess who wrote this story”), they decided to grab a drink at a rooftop bar next to his apartment.

Their second date was also next to his apartment, but on their third date, Ryan drove to Cait’s place and took her over state lines to Costco to get alcohol and go to Bojangles. Their love was cemented by staring into each other eyes while Ryan was getting his membership photo taken and while Cait was holding 16 bottles of Kirkland Prosecco.

And like they say, the rest is History…

The Story of how Cait Discovered Costco Prosecco: Cait’s version

Our Story starts at 1am in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) in March of 2020, when the charge nurse passed out one mask per nurse and said this is your mask for the rest of the shift. Cait proceeded to throw away her mask and dig it out of the trash multiple times. Cait ended up having to staple it together by the morning. And here was the start of the pandemic that sent Ryan back to the states from Sierra Leone. Little did Cait and Ryan know at the time that their paths were going to cross in a few short months.

Dating was non-existent in the COVID times and Cait turned to Hinge (a dating app). There she saw all the eligible bachelors of Baltimore and was terrified at what was out there. On a whim she matched with Ryan, and they soon started talking about Harry Potter. Ryan somehow convinced Cait to not only go on a date with him, but to drive all the way out to a rooftop bar in Towson that happened to be right next to his apartment. Well, that date went well and then there was another, but the most epic date was the third date. Cait had had a long week at work, and it was her first week of grad school. She decided to take a “personal night” and call out of work.

She really wanted Bojangles and the closet one was an hour away. Next thing Cait knew Ryan was showing up to take her to not only Bojangles, but also to DC Costco, where a world of cheap booze awaited them. After devouring their Bojangles, Cait and Ryan stood in line for Costco waiting to be let into the store due to social distancing. Once in the store, Ryan got his mugshot for his Costco card and Cait loaded up the cart with a thousand or so dollars worth of booze. Everyone was telling them they wanted to come to their party. This is when Cait found her love for Costco Prosecco. At the time Cait did not have a Costco membership, so Ryan stuck around to help Cait find the true joys in life (everything Costco has to offer) and the rest is history.

The Wedding

Cait and Ryan’s wedding was an absolute blast to be a part of. We loved spending the day exploring Alexandria, laughing alongside Cait and Ryan, being mauled (lovingly) by their two giant dogs, and giving head scratchies to their little lady dog. Everything about this day was a joy. Cait and Ryan also made it a point to include a ton of meaningful touches. However, I think my favorite of those, is their wedding singer: Cecilia Grace. The night of their first date, the bar had a live musician that they really loved. Thankfully the bar kept good records and they were able to locate her years later and hire her to be a part of their wedding! Cecilia sang while Cait walked down the aisle, for the entire cocktail hour, for their first and final dances and a few in between. Here are just some of the highlights of a wonderful day celebrating the beginning of their new life together!