Two days before their wedding, a couple sit side by side in a parked car and tell the story of how they ended up getting married at their own house. The video comes from @diaryofasalesgirl, an account shown as shelby haas, and it runs just over six minutes. The on screen text sets the topic: “story time: we bought our wedding venue.” The caption adds, “we bought our literal dream house & it shouldn’t have been possible.” Posted on September 24, it has them saying they are getting married in two days, in a backyard wedding at the home.
She opens by saying a lot of people have asked how they found their dream house in a short amount of time, and that it is “a very interesting story that we’ve never told on social media.” The couple describe themselves as constant house watchers who browse listings across California, Texas, Atlanta and more. She wanted Florida, he wanted Nashville, and he says he is the one who dislikes Florida. They rented in Florida for a while, and say they almost closed on two other houses, one in Tennessee and one in Palm Beach, before each purchase fell through.
The house itself first appeared months earlier. They say they saw it about four months before buying it while visiting his father in Maryland, where he is from. She wanted to drive by to “manifest,” because it was “the nicest house in the area,” and he said it was too expensive, about three times their price point. They drove up to a gated entrance and could see only a little of the property. Later, a listing for the house showed up as a rental, and they reached out thinking they might rent it for a month. They learned it was not for rent. They say it was headed to auction because the owners had struggled to sell at the asking price, and that there is a longer backstory they plan to tell later.
By then they had given up on finding a home and planned to travel Europe for six months. They were driving to drop their dogs at her mother’s house in Maryland when they decided to tour the house “for fun.” His father came along. As they pulled up she says she got “the meanest deja vu,” and his father caught that moment on video. They toured it, and an uncle with a background in real estate helped with the money portion and told them to make an offer.
What happened next is the center of the story. According to the couple, the offer was less than half of the list price, and she says they submitted it just for fun, expecting a much higher counter. In the auto captions she adds that she raised it by 500 thousand without telling him. They say the sellers accepted it, and the six months in Europe was already planned. She calls the whole sequence “a total god thing” and says she has “never had so much peace with the decision.” He calls it “the smartest financial decision” given the price and everything included with the house.
The couple also say the plan to save money did not work out. His idea was to put the wedding budget toward the down payment, but they say a wedding at your own house is “three times more expensive” because you have to build a whole venue at the property. They still chose it, in part because friends and family are traveling from different states to see the place where they plan to raise kids, and she says it will feel “very sacred.”
Two public sources add context to the deal and the wedding. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advises that a home inspection is “for your protection,” says to schedule it as soon as possible after choosing a home, and notes that if a purchase contract is contingent on a satisfactory inspection, the buyer can cancel the sale without penalty. It also says an inspection can turn up serious flaws or major repairs that a buyer may negotiate over.
For the ceremony itself, Maryland’s court system explains how licenses work, using the Howard County Circuit Court as an example. The license takes effect at 6:00 a.m. on the second calendar day after the application, a 48 hour wait, and the marriage must take place within six months or the license is void. Applications are not accepted after 4:00 p.m. and fees vary by county. The couple do not say which county they are in, so details may differ.
For a reader weighing a big spontaneous purchase or a home wedding, the couple’s story points to a few checks. Get an independent inspection before you commit, whatever the price. Ask someone with real estate experience to review the financing and the offer, as they say they did with his uncle. Price a home wedding as a full venue build, since they say it is three times more expensive.
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