The Story

Matt remembers seeing Mary for the first time at Glad Tidings Church when Mary’s high school choir sang during the morning service. He looked for her after the service, but she left before he could talk to her. #MissedConnections

A few weeks later, Matt was at his job at Subway and the manager was bringing in three new employees for an orientation meeting. As fate would have it, Mary was one of them. Mary remembers Matt’s incredibly friendly and funny personality and his bright smile. Mary started working and immediately had a friend in Matt. A few months later, he admitted to her that he had a crush on her. Even though Mary felt the same way, she didn’t admit it at the time. But, a few weeks later, Mary and Matt started “talking” (lol this is so high school). On September 25, 2007, Matt gave Mary an orange pig keychain (to match the other pig keychains she had) and asked her to be his girlfriend. Mary and Matt have been together ever since.

Matt covers Mary's face with a napkin

The Proposal

"You were right"

The proposal was the longest con Matt had ever played...

After giving Mary’s parents a head’s up in November 2016, Matt formulated his scheme. At Christmas, he surprised Mary with a trip to New York City in March. That weekend, they braved the coldest weekend of the winter and explored the city a bit, hitting a show on Broadway and exploring the West Village. Mary had suspected that Matt was planning to propose, but at 10pm nothing had happened yet. In the truest Mary fashion, she told Matt that she felt silly because she thought she figured out his scheme. Matt played it off, but the truth was that he kept chickening out.

The next morning...

they made a plan to go get some bagels to bring home before they went to brunch. Mary was packing up her stuff and noticed Matt was just pacing back and forth in the room. She was about to ask what he was doing, but Matt stopped, grabbed her by the shoulders and said “You were right” and pulled out the ring. Mary screamed “Are you kidding me?” and started crying (classic emotional Mary).

After a celebration brunch...

(where Mary yelled “we just got engaged” at a server who didn’t speak English), the couple headed back home to Baltimore. Their bus pulled into the station and Matt called “Eduardo the Uber driver” - aka Mary’s parents, who had flown in from Texas for the surprise, causing Mary to cry a second time. They drove to Hampden, where Matt said he made a reservation for the four of them to have dinner. When they walked in, Mary and Matt’s friends and family were waiting there to surprise her, causing her to cry a third time (what a softie).

tl;dr:...

Matt knocked the proposal surprise out of the park. 10/10.

Wedding Info

Our ceremony and reception will both be held at the Maryland Zoo on May 19, 2018.

The ceremony will begin at 5pm at the Zoo's Lakeside Pavilion.

Lakeside Pavilion

Dinner and dancing to follow at the Mansion House, pictured below.

Cocktail attire.

Mansion house

Find the history of the Mansion House here.

Getting There and Parking

Directions to the Lakeside Pavillion and Mansion House at the Maryland Zoo can be found here. We recommend following these instead of using a GPS, as we are told that the GPS does not send you to the correct location.

There is plenty of parking on site. A parking attendant will guide you when you arrive.

We also encourage guests to use Lyft! To download the app, please use our referral codes and receive $10 off your first ride.

Use either Lyft code:
MARY4488 OR MATT10729

Registry

If you would like to celebrate with us by giving us a gift, we are registered at Zola.com.

Accommodations

We have reserved a hotel block with a reduced rate at the Embassy Suites Baltimore - Inner Harbor. To reserve, CLICK HERE. There is a two-night minimum on the block.

Other hotels that are close to the Maryland Zoo include:

The Radisson at Cross Keys

Inn at The Colonnade Baltimore

DoubleTree Baltimore North

Holiday Inn Express Baltimore-Downtown

We also love Airbnb! If you choose to go this route, we recommend booking accommodations in Hampden, Mt. Washington, Charles Village, or Mt. Vernon.

If you are coming from out of town, we highly recommend booking your accommodations as soon as possible, as there are many major events happening in the city during our wedding weekend.

Things to do in Baltimore

Maryland Zoo

We would be remiss if we didn't promote our wedding venue a bit! Spend the day exploring the exhibits before attending our ceremony.

Explore Hampden

Our neighborhood is filled with great vintage shops and quirky boutiques. Stroll up The Avenue and check out WhatNots, and Trohv for quirky finds. Fashionistas will love Brightside Boutique and Ma Petite Shoe, while book worms shouldn't miss Atomic Books. Satisfy your sweet tooth at Charm City Chocolate or The Charmery.

Explore downtown

Oriole Park at Camden Yards
While the Birds are out of town during the weekend, guests can still make a visit to the ballpark that forever changed baseball. Oriole Park offers stadium tours Monday to Saturday from 10am to 1pm.

Sagamore Spirit Distillery Tour
Explore Port Covington, home to Under Armour's corporate headquarters, and learn about the history of Rye in Maryland. Tours are offered hourly from 11am to 6pm.

Where to Dine

Baltimore is home to great dining options and it was very hard to narrow this list down to five of our favorites. It's hard to go wrong!

Artifact Coffee
Coffee shop with great breakfast and lunch.

Mt. Vernon Marketplace
A cafeteria style eatery housing burgers, seafood, Asian fusion and much more! Matt loves Mi & Yu Noodle Bar.

Joe Squared
Hipster pizza joint with live music and comedy in the basement. Featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. The bacon and clam pizza is Mary's favorite.

Mt. Washington Tavern
It wouldn't be Preakness weekend without sipping on a Black Eyed Susan - Mt. Washington Tavern has the best one in the area. Enjoy it with some oysters on the half shell.

The Food Market
Consistently featured as one of Baltimore's Best Restaurants. If you go, get the soft pretzels - you'll thank us later. Reservations highly recommended.

Mary & Matt

May 19th, 2018