John + Catherann | Quirk Hotel | Polegreen Church | Blue Bee Cider

This dreamy wedding took place in Richmond Virginia on 12.12.2020. The bride and groom chose to keep their original wedding day but make it a small elopement with immediate family and best friends. Two days after their wedding, snow covered the ground. But on this day, it was 65 degrees with clear skies.

John and Catherann met at a mutual friend’s party during their sophomore year of college (2015) at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. After that, John remembers starting to see Catherann everywhere – including the pizza parlor where John worked that was located just down the street from Catherann’s apartment at the time. However, it wasn’t until February of 2017 that John received Catherann’s phone number. They began texting and one night, John decided to Facetime Catherann and they talked for three hours. After that, they both knew that there was something there that needed to be explored.

The following month, John drove to New York to visit a friend and planned a group brunch in order to see Catherann. John and Catherann were so deep in conversation during their first shared meal that they felt as though they were the only ones in the room. When John returned home, they continued to speak on the phone and text every day until Catherann planned to visit John in Richmond over the fourth of July weekend. During that July visit, John told Catherann he loved her in Scuffletown Park. For the next six months, the couple took turns alternating trips to both Richmond and Manhattan. John moved to Manhattan to be closer to Catherann and take on new opportunities the night before Catherann’s 24th birthday. The couple enjoyed exploring Manhattan for a year before they moved into a garden unit in Brooklyn with their dog, Bacon, in June of 2019.

That fall, John began designing an engagement ring with one of Catherann’s former jewelry clients. John proposed to Catherann on December 29th, 2019 in Scuffletown Park where he had first exchanged the words, “I love you”. The couple was eager to start planning and locked their date of 12/12/2020 down in the middle of January, just before the start of the global pandemic. Catherann and John played the waiting game until August, when they made the difficult decision to postpone their 100+ person to 2021. Adamant on still getting married on what was to be their December day, the couple switched gears and started to plan a micro-wedding, with less than four months to spare.

Despite many bumps along the way and more variations of plans to count, the couple got married on a beautiful sixty-two degree weather December day outside at Historic Polegreen Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia. This happened to be the last Saturday right before the Governor’s mandate of 10 person gatherings was enacted to start the following Monday. John and Catherann had a guest count of twenty-two, which consisted of only their parents, siblings and spouses, along with the Maid of Honor, Best Man, and one close friend. Following the ceremony, the guests drove to Blue Bee Cider for the cocktail hour and dinner, which took place in the Cider Salon Room where all stable doors were open, allowing the guests to spill out onto the beautiful, string-lit patio.

The couple wouldn’t have changed a single thing about their wedding day. They look forward to being able to celebrate their marriage and dance with their extended family members and friends from all over the states in August of 2021, when everything is hopefully much safer.

J+C, we had so much with with you at your wedding are so grateful to be a part of your celebration. Congratulations!