September 2, 2018 | Sharum Photography
K ate & M att
The Meet Cute: The two met in January 2013. Sort of. Both Master’s students — she in
D.C. and he in Syracuse — they first learned of each other through Kate’s roommate. “She
knew Matt from undergrad and thought we would hit it off,” Kate says. “She was right!”
The burgeoning couple texted and Skyped for a full month before Matt visited Kate on
her birthday, which she confirms essentially sealed the deal. “That first visit made us even
more crazy about each other,” Kate says.
The Engagement: Matt knew he wanted to be with Kate forever after their first year of
living in D.C. together. But when he still hadn’t proposed a few years in, Kate became a bit
impatient. “I had an embarrassing emotional moment where I asked if he was ever going
to be ready,” she admits. “But he played it off so cool.” That’s because he had a romantic
beach walk planned for their upcoming weekend away with friends. During said stroll, Matt
handed Kate a homemade message in a bottle. “By the time she finished reading, I was
already down on one knee,” he says.
The Palette: “Yellow is my favorite color, so I always knew I wanted it to be front and center,”
Kate says. “That said, it can be a hard color to match sometimes. I wanted to create a palette
that would work for decorations, flowers, etc. The peach, blue, sea foam green and light
yellow was the perfect beachy, fun combo!” Another bonus? “It ended up matching the
Dunes Club’s overall color scheme too, so everything looked really seamless together.”
The First Look: “The entire day was a celebration of us with our most-loved people, but
we wanted to make sure we had just one piece of it all to ourselves,” Kate says. “We also
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felt that it would be a good opportunity to share more intimate, personal vows with
each other without an audience.”
The Ceremony: All the writing credit goes to the bride and groom. “We wanted to make
the ceremony personal and unique since Matt’s grandfather was the officiant and we
weren’t getting married in a church,” Kate says. “Even the more ‘traditional’ aspects, like
the exchanging of the rings, had their own little twist to it.” She adds that while it was
unique, there was also enough tradition to keep the older generations happy. Plus, “It
was a fun extra task for us to plan, but it made it extra fun to be up there knowing we
created the whole thing,” she says.
The First Dance: One day while driving home from a weekend trip, the couple decided
to listen to a bunch of potential songs for their big day. “‘Everything’ by Michael Buble
was on our list and the second it started playing, I got teary-eyed,” Kate says. “We looked
at each other at the same moment and just knew.”
The Highlights: “Definitely dancing and celebrating with friends and family.” — Matt
“Honestly, just the fact that the day happened. It was a literal dream come true for me.
I still look back at pictures and think, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that was real.’ If I really have
to pick just one moment, I’d say it was when I stepped to the side of the room at one
point and just looked out at all of our friends and family in one place for the first and
only time in our lives. That was pretty special.” — Kate