Microwedding at Chase Court in Baltimore, Maryland

Tess and Kaare had a big wedding planned for this August, all the way on the other side of the country, in Seattle. Their wedding planning was going swimmingly until, well, you know the story. All of a sudden, Tess and Kaare had their plans upended, along with the more than two million other couples planning a wedding in the United States in 2020.

What to do? They still wanted to get married this year, but they knew that they would have to drastically downsize their guest list and stay close to home, here in Baltimore. So the plan was to do something beautiful, local, and with just their immediate family.

One of Tess’ co-workers married his partner at Chase Court in 2019, so the couple knew about our elopement packages, and how they could customize each package to get exactly what they wanted for their wedding. It didn’t hurt that Chase Court is just eight blocks away from their apartment, in Mount Vernon, in the very same neighborhood.

So “Plan B” began to take shape at the end of May for an end-of-August wedding.

And so it was, that on a beautiful Thursday afternoon, Tess and Kaare were married in the Chase Court garden, surrounded by their closest family.

The Small Complete elopement package that they chose included one of our outstanding professional wedding officiants who worked with them to create a custom ceremony. It also included an hour of wedding photography, which gave them enough time to have photographs made before, during, and after their ceremony. Last but not least, their package included an exquisite classic white and ivory bouquet and a matching boutonniere. (By the way, the slide show on the “elope” page of our website has several more examples of our white & ivory bouquets.)

Tess and Kaare decided to customize their package with live music — they chose guitar — and with our newest option, videography.

As we were building their custom package, Tess and Kaare asked about live streaming video. It’s a good idea, to be sure, but I offered an excellent alternative to live streaming, which I think works out better. Our video production team takes a multi-camera approach to recording your wedding ceremony, which they take back to their studio to professionally edit into a spectacular fully-produced video that’s available online and downloadable in less than 48 hours.

Tess and Kaare loved it, and took it one step further and had their video customized to make it even more special.

Their whole package, with options, came to less than three thousand dollars.

And next year, they’ll do their big wedding in Seattle, without having to worry about all the pandemic things.

As you can probably guess, we do a lot of elopement ceremonies at Chase Court. In fact, we’ve won awards for them!

We’ve been doing elopements for ten years. We’ve learned a lot over that time about what works and what doesn’t, and what our couples want and need.

“Elopement” in this case is a term of art, since it can be anywhere from just the two of you up to (in normal times) 60 guests. An elopement is a wonderful way to have your wedding in a beautiful place, inside or in the ceremony garden, with a marvelous collection of available options. You can have a custom ceremony, photography, flowers, live music, video, a reception, and more. The whole idea is to create a beautiful, memorable wedding with all the things you want, at a price you can afford.

Oh, and the best thing? It’s all turnkey. We put everything together for you. There are eight different elopement packages, with lots of options for you to use if you like to create your own custom wedding.

Want a tour? I’d love to see your shining (masked) faces! I’m doing in-person garden tours right now, and live, interactive virtual tours of the rest of Chase Court. It’s easy and fun! You’ll be able to ask all of your questions and see the whole venue, inside and out. I use Zoom, Facetime, Skype, and Google Duo, depending on your hardware, with the intention being for you to see the largest image possible.

Both garden and virtual tours last from 30 to 60 minutes. I schedule them Monday through Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Give me a call to set one up. Here’s the number: 410-727-1112.

Let’s talk soon.

David L. Egan is the proprietor and steward of the castle at Chase Court, a wedding ceremony and reception venue in downtown Baltimore. Visit chasecourt.com, and follow @chasecourtweddingvenue on Instagram and Facebook