Schmidtten from the start

The wedding of Montgomery County police officer Mike Schmidt and former EMT Alivia Crawford included photos with alpacas, the theme song from The Office and a Mission BBQ buffet

May 16, 2020 1:53 p.m.
Photo by Sarah Houston

The couple: Alivia Schmidt (maiden name Crawford) grew up in Finksburg, Maryland. Mike Schmidt, 35, grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from James Hubert Blake High School. He is a Montgomery County Police officer stationed in Bethesda and assistant coach for Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School’s varsity baseball team. Alivia, 28, is a stay-at-home mom to the couple’s 9-month-old son, Easton. They live in Gaithersburg and plan to move to Frederick.

Photo by Sarah Houston

How they met: Mike went to happy hour with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend (now wife) at Howl at the Moon, a piano bar in Baltimore, in the spring of 2014. Alivia was their bartender and server. She was also a volunteer EMT, so she noticed Mike exhibiting familiar behavior, including visually checking entrances and exits. “I was like, ‘So what are you, police or military?’ ” Alivia says. Mike couldn’t believe she had him pegged. They bonded over their experiences as first responders, and Mike asked Alivia to dance. At the end of the night, they made plans to get together over Memorial Day.

Their first date: When the crab feast they’d planned to attend was canceled, Mike suggested they have dinner at Phillips Seafood in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Alivia didn’t know it at the time, but Mike doesn’t even eat crabs—his brother’s allergic, so he didn’t grow up eating them. After dinner, they walked around the Inner Harbor, and the conversation turned to the latest X-Men movie. “He was like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go see this movie!’ ” Alivia says. They jumped in the car and drove to a movie theater in Hanover. “It was an all-day affair,” Mike says. “I was impressed with how much fun we were having.”

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Photo by Sarah Houston

The proposal: After nearly two and a half years of dating, Mike planned a surprise proposal. He reached out to a friend of a friend who plays guitar, and they practiced performing One Direction’s “Olivia.” (Alivia’s name is pronounced the same way.) Mike planned a dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Gaithersburg’s Downtown Crown, where Alivia used to work. As they were walking up to the restaurant, the guitarist, who was standing by the front door, started to play “Olivia” and Mike joined in. “I thought he was just randomly singing with a street performer because that’s something he would do,” Alivia says. But when she saw some of their relatives walking up to them, she realized Mike was proposing. After she said yes, they all went inside for a celebratory dinner.

The wedding: The couple had 130 guests at their ceremony and reception on Oct. 13, 2018, at Elmwood Farm Bed and Breakfast in Williamsport, Maryland. They came up with a hashtag for the wedding: #theyreschmidtten.

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