By Cecelia Shilling
Styled Shoot by JennQuinn Creative
Venue:
The Pavilion at Weatherly
@weatherly.waterfront
Photography & Creative Direction:
JennQuinn Creative
@jquinnport
Florals:
Dahlia & Vine
@dahliavineflowerfarm
Black Linens & Styling:
Simply Social
@simplysocialeventco
Rentals:
Rentals to Remember
@rentalstoremember
Desserts:
Michelle’s Cakes
@michellescakes
Hair & Makeup:
Looks by Lina
@looksbylina01
Attire:
Champagne Taste Bridal
@champagnetastebridal
Stationary:
Lilly Lu Designs
@lilly_lu_designs
Excitement was in the air as engaged couple Kennedy Taylor and William Tibbetts sat in the dressing room at the Pavilion at Weatherly, a waterfront wedding venue in Newburg, Maryland. As they patiently waited for makeup artist Lina Walker to finish Taylor’s look, from the balcony they could see flower farmer Brittany Doyle arranging blue hydrangeas on an archway with the Potomac River flowing gently behind her.
A stretched pathway lined with sugar maple trees and lush green grasses leads to the manor house next to the pavilion. The couple and makeup artist waited in a room on the home's second floor that was pristine, bright and full of chatter as people carried supplies in and out, discussing decor, lighting and making small talk.
Though it wasn’t Taylor and Tibbetts’ big day quite yet, it was a day that took careful orchestration. The group was preparing for the Chesapeake Bay Wedding Magazine photo shoot.
As the team put the final touches on the set-ups, Walker entertained the couple. Based in St. Charles, the makeup artist does bridal makeup and teaches classes for brides who plan to do their own makeup. Making conversation with the bridal party is a big part of Walker’s role, she said.
“I’m like a joker, I make everybody laugh,” Walker said. “If a bride is stressing, I rub her shoulders.”
After discussing how Taylor typically applies her makeup, Walker settled on a natural look with hints of brown and bronze.
“It’s our fake wedding day!” Taylor joked as the pair prepared for the first shoot of the day.
Taylor, a cyber security consultant and former Miss Maryland, and Tibbetts, a senior manager for a software company, got engaged in March and are preparing for the real thing in May. After meeting on a dating app in 2021, the couple bonded over exploring Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, trying new restaurants and seeing their dogs, Remy and Bill Murray, become best friends.
“We had a couple of dates up in D.C., then I had to go down to Charleston, South Carolina, for a couple of weeks for work, which could be a long time if you just have a couple of dates, it could be hard to keep things moving there,” Tibbets said. “But she happened to be in Charleston as well. It was totally random, she had never been there before.”
The pair met up in Charleston and explored the city together. Taylor now calls Charleston the city where they fell in love.
In March 2024, the couple returned to Charleston and Tibbets asked Taylor to marry him. Taylor remembers suspecting a proposal when their dinner plans were suddenly changed.
“He was freaking out, all day he was being really weird,” she remembered. “We were supposed to go to dinner late at night, and he tried to get us a horse and carriage ride but I guess in Charleston they stop at 5:30 so he had to do it before then.”
Her suspicions were right — Tibbetts proposed in Philadelphia Alley, a cobblestone walkway lined with archways and trees, as a group of tourists shamelessly watched them celebrate. Now, they’re planning their wedding in Annapolis.
Photographer and creative director Jennifer Quinn had been looking forward to this photoshoot for months.
For the shoot, Quinn focused on three wedding trends that she had seen on social media. “Sweet Romance,” a monochromatic, flirty and playful color scheme made up of saturated reds and pinks; “Something Blue,” a dainty and elegant play on the “something borrowed, something blue,” tradition, tying in Maryland’s waterfront views; and “Bold Black Tie.”
Bold Black Tie is an extra-glamorous take on the upscale dress code, showcasing the drama and excitement people have to be able to celebrate milestones following the pandemic.
“Now that we’re pretty far out from COVID, I think people are trying to give an excuse to dress up,” Quinn said. “I mean, we're going to movies dressed in costume, we're buying tickets to balls. So a wedding is a great time to get dressed up. And I think people are really embracing that.”
Bold Black Tie was the last scene to be shot. The enclosed pavilion on the property was decorated with beautiful white and green florals with black accents. Taylor, in a glitzy champagne-colored gown, and Tibbets in a classic black suit, posed in front of a stone fireplace framed with floral statement pieces.
Doyle, a physician’s assistant turned full-time grower, provided the flowers for the shoot. Doyle bought her Prince Frederick farm, now called Dahlia & Vine Flower Farm, in 2016 when she was planning her own wedding.
“I told my husband, ‘Why don’t we just buy a farm and get married on it?” she said. “He always goes along with my crazy ideas.”
The couple bought a two-acre llama farm and started growing dahlias to be in the background of their wedding, but Doyle quickly fell in love with flower growing. Now, she works full-time as a grower specializing in dahlias and offers a variety of floral services like workshops, bouquet subscriptions and custom-grown wedding florals. Doyle was excited to provide the flowers for the shoot when she learned about the color schemes.
“I haven't done a pink and red wedding before,” Doyle said. “I was putting them together yesterday and I was like, this actually works — it's super cute!”
As the preparation finished and the photoshoot began, Denise Edelen, owner and venue manager of the pavilion, and Doyle stood just out of the frame and watched Quinn get to work. Edelen could be seen constantly poised to lend a helping hand, something she is more than used to doing as owner and venue manager at the Pavilion at Weatherly.
The pavilion and home sit on a 25-acre farm with a breathtaking 20-mile view of the Potomac River. Fit with a stretched 130-foot pier, the pavilion is perfect for couples looking for an exclusive getaway feel for their event. Couples may use two ready rooms inside the home and have the option to add fireworks and “splash golf,” or biodegradable golf perfect for a waterfront course, to their event.
Though Edelen never intended for her and her husband’s property to become a wedding venue, they were flooded with event inquiries after their niece got married at the home in 2012. Now, they’ve taken on remodels, licenses and staff to serve as a getaway wedding venue in Southern Maryland.
“For the first five years, we were (doing) tented events,” Edelen said. “Then in 2014 the barn weddings became popular, and we had an old tobacco barn on the property and clients were asking about it.”
Instead of leaving the barn as is, the Edelens updated the space for safety and built an open-air waterfront pavilion within the same footprint as the original barn. The pavilion was finished and ready to host events in 2018 but was enclosed and updated once again in 2023, this time with the addition of heat, air conditioning, a catering-prep kitchen, new bathrooms and a full-service bar.
Edelen’s goal is always to make weddings a relaxing day for her couples and takes care of tasks like managing vendor arrivals, setting up and breaking down decor, providing staff to help with parking and even having an in-house day-of coordinator.
After 12 years of hosting weddings, Edelen found it hard to pick a favorite event hosted on the property.
“The couples themselves and all their wonderful family and friends that come and help them celebrate make for such a joyous occasion,” she said. “It's the whole atmosphere itself, they're all unique, and that's what I love.”
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