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It is with our deepest regret that we announce the cancellation of our wedding weekend at Oxon Hill Manor. Your continuous support in wanting to travel and be present for us on our day has been overwhelming and has not been lost on us. We would not want any of you to compromise yourself or loved ones. Unfortunately, this decision has been made for us as Maryland's Governor Hogan has declared a stay-at-home order until further notice. In addition, current restrictions on gatherings and curfews would not allow the amount of people who wish to attend. We hope that one day we are able to have an anniversary party or renewal ceremony so that we are able to celebrate with you all like we had wished for. Given Randolph's career in the military, we are not able to plan anything at this time. This April 18-20, 2020 time frame was planned very early knowing this would be the only gap in his training that would allow us to have our dream wedding weekend. We give you our sincerest apology to any inconvenience this may have caused you with any travel plans. We really wish things could have worked out as planned but we have to take life as it comes. We wish you all peace and safety and keep you in our thoughts. Love, Mara & Randolph

It's all thanks to Mara's friend, Sara, for spontaneously inviting her to Charlottesville for the evening for a birthday party. Coincidentally Randolph was visiting Charlottesville (from USNA in Annapolis, MD) for that same party. After a while, the party dispersed to the downtown bars, landing at Trinity Irish Pub where the two hit it off. There were about 20 or so people visiting for the party, all staying in the same house. So in the morning everyone went back downtown to Bodo's Bagels where Mara noticed Randolph's overnight bag with his last name embroidered on it. She made a mental note. A week later Mara was riding back from a field hockey tournament in Virginia Beach when she searched "Randolph Goulding" on Facebook. She was hesitant on messaging right away but her teammates encouraged her and within seconds Randolph responded. They messaged back and forth for an hour or so before he made plans to visit her in Richmond that following weekend, saying "it's a date!"

Ever since they met, Randolph and Mara have dealt with some length of distance. While in college, they were 3 hours apart (Annapolis to Richmond.) Which wasn't all that bad--until the huge snow storm of 2015 had him slugging along behind a snow plow for 13 hours on rt. 301, making him insanely late for curfew back at the Academy... Summer of '15 the two rented an apartment in East Port, right over the bridge in Annapolis. While Randolph worked in the Admissions office that Summer, Mara worked several boutique jobs on Main Street but then had to return to Richmond in the Fall. While Mara spent her days in classes, Randolph went on to attend The Basic School in Quantico, VA where they were luckily only an hour (on a good day) apart. Once he graduated, he was sent to Pensacola, Florida to start his flight training. Their measly hour drive grew to 14 hours and a timezone. Mara spent the Summer of '16 living in Pensacola with Randolph while he finished up API. Then helped him move half way across the country to Corpus Christi, Texas to start training on the T-6 prop plane. 14 hours grew to 23 hours and still a timezone away. They would go months without seeing each other which was difficult on the both of them, but having something to look forward to helped tremendously. In August of 2017, Randolph was awarded jets and transferred down the road to Kingsville, Texas. Shortly after, on October 5th, 2017, the two of them finally closed the gap. Mara moved to Texas to be with Randolph where he spent the next two years training on the T-45 jet, earning his wings of gold on May 31st, 2019. In June of 2019 Mara and Randolph moved back across the country to the small lowcountry town of Beaufort, South Carolina to fly the F-35B jet. They instantly fell in love with their marsh-front porches hidden below spanish moss covered oaks clouded in 100% humidity.

Every Friday, Randolph's squadron has family dinner but on this particular Friday they had forgone the family dinner and just had a farewell party for some guys who finished the program. No fancy dinner, just drinking games and a Mario Kart tournament. Casual. So Saturday rolls around, lazy as any other Saturday. Around 3:00 PM Mara realizes that Hugo (their cat) is out of dry food, and the only place that carries it, is out in Bluffton. (On a good day this is about 30 minutes from their house.) Randolph is silently freaking out, texting their friends Maleah and Evan behind the scenes, "How do I get her dressed and ready to go out to dinner, we've been in sweats all day, and now she wants to go to Bluffton!" Mara, completely unaware, hops in the car to Bluffton and is casually suggesting stopping at Chipotle for dinner since they're close and its great hangover food. *queue Randolph inwardly screaming* Randolph immediately has Evan text their group chat and whine that he didn't get his weekly fancy dinner last night and he wants to go somewhere nice tonight. Which, if you know Evan, is entirely believable. Fast forward to the two of them heading downtown to dinner, Randolph turns left towards a nearby park on the water instead of turning right, heading downtown. Mara knows immediately. Randolph had planned with Evan and Maleah that whole week, scouting locations and ordering 50 sunflowers (Mara's favorite flower) to their house, so Mara would have no clue. Evan and Maleah arrived early and laid out the flowers and even shaped a bunch of Spanish moss into a heart. Afterwards it was revealed that Evan's complaints were faked and Randolph and Mara were heading to a private dinner downtown to celebrate. However, everyone at the party Friday night was in on the plan and was coming over to their house to celebrate after their dinner.