Raquel + Greg
September 15, 2020
How they met and the proposal
Raquel and Greg met at work in 2014. A small conversation about the Washington Football team training camp lead to lunch together.
Greg proposed at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens under the night sky during the festival of lights December 5, 2019. Raquel loves this time of year and always enjoys seeing the garden lit up. They were sitting on a bench taking in all the beautiful lights. Very casually Greg says he needs to get a tissue from his pocket to blow his nose, but instead pulls out a ring box. He got down on one knee and proposed! Raquel recalls, “It was totally unexpected. I cried and said yes as bystanders stopped to cheer us on. It was a magical moment.”
The wedding day
The couple decided not to wait until to the pandemic was over to marry. The small intimate ceremony was planned in just 1 month. Raquel says, “It was stress and Covid free! At the end of the day we didn’t have the big wedding we were going for but we had each other, which is the most important thing. We wished all our family and friends could have been there but this was the best decision. What we have learned is that becoming one doesn’t depend on everyone else, rather it’s just the two of you. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.”
Biggest challenge
“The pandemic hit and everything stopped. Our world was upside down. We had been on multiple visits and tours trying to pick a venue the weeks right before the state shut down. We didn’t know what to do, but we knew we didn’t want to put anyone in harms way. Especially older family members. We decided to scale our wedding all the way down. We went from a 250-300 guest list to 8 people which included our parents, best man, maid of honor, and photographers (2). One thing it taught us was to live in the moment because tomorrow isn’t promised.”
We do plan to have a reception at a later date at Atlas 42.
Best piece of advice
“Don’t stress (easier said than done), but really focus on what you both want. We can easily get caught up in the production of the day but what the pandemic taught us was that we had each other. You are marrying the love of your life.”
Any other info/news since your wedding day you would like to share?
We now have a baby boy. He just arrived in May 2021!
