BALTIMORE | 119 | WEDDINGS
were paying for ourselves, so it had to be
within our means.”
When thinking of alternative locations,
the couple turned to Baltimore, where
DeRaffele, a Montgomery County native,
lived for a time after attending the Mary-
land Institute College of Art. “We started
looking at Baltimore and found that it
was definitely way more affordable and
within our price range,” she says. “And I
have family and friends in the area, so it
wasn’t a disconnect.”
As an artist, DeRaffele says the Cor-
radetti Glassblowing Studio in Wood-
berry was the perfect fit for the reception.
“The space was raw but artistic, it has
an amazing character, and I loved the
built-in features of the décor,” she says.
“We were planning a small wedding, and
they max out at 75 people if you’re going
to even try to sit down, so it just seemed
like a good fit for us.” The bride arranged
a separate rental of the Clipper Mill Pool,
located across the street from the recep-
tion venue, for the wedding ceremony.
Not living in the same city where you
plan to get married comes with its own
challenges, of course. “Having to plan and
coordinate trips to see venues and do our
catering tasting involved some extra plan-
ning,” says DeRaffele. “It all meant putting
a lot of trust in folks that we had not met.”
While DeRaffele did the majority of prep
via email and by phone, a few in-person
trips were necessary, like sampling the
menu from food vendor Chef Expres-
sions—a unique blend of Filipino and Ital-
ian recipes provided to the caterer by the
groom and bride’s families, respectively.
With a majority of their guests travel-
ing from out of town, including a sur-
prise appearance by Gaerlan’s sister all
the way from the Philippines, the couple
embraced the weekend as a mini getaway
to show off their favorite things about
Baltimore.
“It was really fun to design a little
wedding website around being a tourist
in this town and make recommendations
of my favorite restaurants and bars—like
some of my haunts from my college days,”
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