The couple: Becky Monfort (maiden name Miller), 35, grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Glenelg High School in Howard County. She is a senior marketing manager at the American Chemical Society. Meaghan Monfort, 37, grew up in Columbus, Ohio. She is a tax lawyer at Deloitte. They live in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
How they met: Becky and Meaghan matched on Tinder in 2019 and soon after went on their first date to a Blue Bottle Coffee in D.C. “I said, ‘We should hang out again,’ and she says, ‘That sounds great—I’m going to Costa Rica tomorrow.’ And I was like, ‘OK,’ ” Meaghan says. “We did actually do old-school emailing while she was traveling.” When Becky returned, they went out to Lapop, a literary-themed bar in Adams Morgan. “She just seemed really confident and comfortable in herself,” says Becky of why she was drawn to Meaghan. “She was her own person.”
The proposal: The pair was gearing up for a trip to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 when Meaghan suggested a dinner date at Tail Up Goat in D.C. the night before they left. After dinner, they took a walk to the Line DC hotel, the site of their first kiss, and that was where Meaghan popped the question—with a ring hidden inside a hollowed-out book. “She can’t tell a lie or keep a secret for anything,” Becky says. “I think she was equally happy that I said yes and that she had successfully pulled it off.”
The ceremony: Meaghan and Becky tied the knot on April 2, 2023, with about 90 guests present on the back lawn of the Mansion at Strathmore in Rockville. Before the ceremony, the pair signed the ketubah—the Jewish marriage contract—and said “I do” beneath a wooden chuppah that Meaghan’s dad had constructed and driven in from Ohio. “That was really special,” she says.
The reception: After the outdoor ceremony, the celebrations moved inside the Georgian mansion, where tables were split across the main hall, the library and the dining room, with the dance floor in the wood-paneled music room. Lush floral arrangements of buds such as dark blue delphinium and mother-of-pearl roses were repurposed from the ceremony, but “you don’t have to do much, decor-wise, because it’s so pretty,” Meaghan says of the venue. For the guest book, partygoers took photos with instant Polaroid cameras, writing messages to the newlyweds on the bottom—while saving a few of the snapshots for themselves. “We wanted it to be elegant and a chance for people to dress up, but also comfortable and accessible,” Becky says.
The music: When guests RSVPed to the wedding, they were also asked, “What song will get you out on the dance floor?” Becky says, and the DJ did not disappoint. After the brides’ first dance to Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” guests boogied to such favorites as “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Party in the U.S.A.” and “Uptown Funk.” “The glowsticks were a huge hit,” says Meaghan.
The outfits: “I never really grew up picturing my wedding,” Becky says, so she didn’t have a dress in mind when she went to The Bridal Room in McLean, Virginia. But she fell in love with a strapless Elysian Bridal gown. The selling point? “It has pockets, of course,” she says. Meaghan, meanwhile, chose a custom-made gemstone blue-green suit with the wedding date embroidered on the inside pocket, finishing off the ensemble with a matching bow tie.
The menu: “It was pretty eclectic,” says Meaghan of the day’s “spring-forward-ish menu,” which began with passed hors d’oeuvres including mission fig flatbread, short rib tacos and avocado corn salsa; Becky’s aunt did the blessing over the challah bread. For the main course, guests dined on their choice of chicken with figs and port, roasted baby lamb chops or a glazed salmon fillet. A small vanilla confection served as the “cutting cake,” but the real hit of the evening was the Wegmans gold cake with buttercream frosting. “People were like, ‘Oh my god, the cake was amazing,’ ” Meaghan says. Each of the brides also had a signature cocktail: “The Meaghan” was an Aperol spritz, while “The Becky” was a watermelon gin and tonic.
The honeymoon: In August, the newlyweds spent a week taking in the sights of Ireland. “We went to Dublin for a couple days, and then we rented a car and drove kind of across to Galway, and then up and over the top into Northern Ireland,” says Becky. Right afterward, Becky had to go to England for work, so the pair “continued the spirit” of the honeymoon for a weekend in London, says Meaghan.
Vendors: Cake, Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery; caterer, Catering by Seasons; dress, The Bridal Room; entertainment, Matt Waller Music; florist, Christine Chung Flowers; hair and makeup, Bella Bethesda Salon; photography, Darcy Troutman Photography; suit, The Tailory; venue, The Mansion at Strathmore.
This story appears in the March/April issue of Bethesda Magazine.