The couple: Georgia Ingalls, 28, grew up in Chevy Chase and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. She is vice president of operations for Motto Mortgage 360 in Potomac. Jonathan Rosnick, 32, grew up in Pittsburgh and is a minister at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase and a reserve police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. They live in Gaithersburg.
How they met: In 2015, Georgia, who had been attending services at All Saints with her parents for a few months, met Jonathan there after an advent festival. “I thought Georgia was married. Not just because she had a 5-year-old daughter but because she had a ring on her left hand,” Jonathan says. Georgia, who wasn’t married but often wore a ring to avoid getting hit on, hung around after the event, helping to clean up because she wanted to spend time with him. The following Sunday, someone at church mentioned to Jonathan that Georgia was single.
The first date: A couple weeks later, at a Christmas Eve service, Georgia and her family sat next to Jonathan’s mother, who was visiting from out of town and sitting alone. When Georgia’s mother found out that Jonathan and his mother didn’t have plans for Christmas Day, she invited them over. Georgia and Jonathan consider that dinner with family—and the time the two of them spent hanging out by a backyard fire pit—their first date.
The proposal: Jonathan was at church writing a sermon one morning in October 2016 when he called Georgia and asked her to bring him coffee. “I was like, honestly, you’re in a church. Churches are full of coffee,” Georgia says. Jonathan was insistent, so she and her daughter, Kenley, drove the few blocks from Georgia’s parents’ house to the church. She called from the car and he asked her to bring the coffee inside. On the way in, she tripped and spilled coffee on herself. “She comes in my office, holding up a cup of coffee with a snarky look on her face and says, ‘Here’s your coffee,’ ” Jonathan says. As he walked her and Kenley out, he asked them to stop in the sanctuary, where Jonathan and Georgia had first kissed. He got down on one knee and proposed, giving Georgia a ring that included diamonds from his mother’s and grandmothers’ rings. “I was like, oh my gosh, I wouldn’t bring him coffee and he goes and proposes,” she says. “I was in shock.” He also included Kenley in the proposal, giving her a bracelet.
The wedding: Georgia and Jonathan were married on May 6, 2017, at All Saints. A reception with 122 guests followed at La Ferme, a French restaurant in Chevy Chase.
The Gown: Georgia wore a strapless ivory ball gown by Oleg Cassini purchased at David’s Bridal in Rockville. It was the second gown Georgia bought at David’s, after waking up one morning four months before the wedding and deciding she didn’t like the first one she bought.
Staying local: Georgia’s parents still live in the Chevy Chase home where she was raised, and it was important to her that she get ready for her wedding at their house. “I wanted that intimacy in where I grew up,” she says. She and her bridesmaids got their hair done in Bethesda and got dressed at the house. Though they were only about five blocks from the church, they were 35 minutes late to the ceremony. “Getting a bunch of girls ready is so hard,” Georgia says. While Jonathan was nervously waiting, his boss, the senior minister, joked that one day, when Jonathan was running late for something, he’d be able to say “at least I wasn’t late to our wedding.”
At the church: The ceremony, which followed a traditional church service, was open to churchgoers, and more than 80 people joined the guests invited to the reception. “The Episcopal Church has the benefit of the Book of Common Prayer,” Jonathan says. “It’s hard to write things that are more beautiful than what the prayer book has already arrived at.” Rather than a soloist, there were hymns for everyone to join in singing.
The flowers: As a wedding gift, the Flower Guild, a group of volunteers who regularly handle the floral arrangements at the church, provided flowers in the couple’s wedding colors. They also added lit candles with flowers at their base at the end of some of the pews.
The reception: “I wanted people to feel like they were at a very nice dinner at my parents’ house—a very nice dinner that happened to have a band—as opposed to a party,” Georgia says. A table for the bride and groom was on the restaurant’s second-floor balcony overlooking the dance floor and guests below. “We could see everybody but it was just the two of us, which was really nice,” Georgia says. Adds Jonathan, “We got to sit and have this first meal together as husband and wife.”
The Decor: Jonathan describes the look as “French country,” with much of the restaurant’s atmosphere setting the tone. Georgia bought lanterns at Pier 1, and the florist removed the glass and put flowers inside that flowed out onto the tables. The restaurant’s window boxes were filled with arrangements featuring the same flowers as those in Georgia’s bouquet.
The food: “I think my dad has stock in La Ferme,” Georgia jokes. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money there.” She and Jonathan had enjoyed meals there while dating, and were big fans of the fare. Guests were able to order off a menu of three appetizers, five entrées and five desserts (one of which was wedding cake).
Plus one: The couple included Kenley, now 7, in much of the wedding. At the start of the ceremony, she walked down the aisle to Jonathan and he gave her a necklace. At the reception, she danced with him to Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “You Make Me Feel So Young” while giving him directions. “She’d be like, ‘and dip me now,’ ‘spin now,’ ‘spin me again.’ She had all the moves ready,” Jonathan says. At the end of the night, after guests had left, Georgia and Kenley had a special moment alone on La Ferme’s patio. “It was her wedding really as much as it was our wedding,” Georgia says. “She was a part of everything.”
The veil: Shortly before the wedding, Georgia’s mother had given Kenley her wedding veil to use for playing dress up. Georgia got advice on restoring it from her seamstress and surprised her mom by wearing it at a dress fitting two days before the wedding. “She lost it,” Georgia says of her mom’s reaction. Georgia wanted her shoulders covered for the ceremony, so she used clear clips to attach the veil to her dress to make sure it would stay put.
The honeymoon: Georgia and Jonathan went on a 10-day trip to Anna Maria Island in Florida. They were joined partway through the vacation by Kenley, Georgia’s parents, her sister and her sister’s family.
Vendors: Cake and catering, La Ferme; flowers, All Saints Church Flower Guild (ceremony) and Blooming Arts (bouquets and reception); hair, Drybar Bethesda; music, Craig Gildner and the Blue Sky 5; photography, Jessica Nazarova.