Having grown up in the DC area, Rev. Katie is no stranger to museums – in fact, museums are the roundabout reason for her becoming a professional officiant. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a dual degree in history and art history, Katie attended The George Washington University for a Masters in museum studies.
In her last year of graduate school, Katie became an Event Assistant specializing in weddings at the Dumbarton House, a historic house museum in Georgetown, working weddings and programs at the site. She worked her way up to the Rental Events Coordinator in 2020, spurring a love of weddings. In her time as Rental Events Coordinator, she helped nearly 100 couples with the happiest day of their lives. It is that moment when the couple gets to embark on this new journey together that makes her excited to perform weddings. Her favorite part of weddings is the huge cheer that erupts as the couple walks back up the aisle, happily married.
Outside of weddings, Katie’s day job is still in the museum world. She has worked at numerous museums – Newseum, International Spy Museum, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, to name a few – cataloging and handling all of the art and artifacts. At Montgomery County History, she worked on a collections project about wedding dresses dating back to the 1890s.
In her free time, Katie plays the best instrument ever (which is obviously the flute), enjoys swing dancing (and even taught it at one point), watches Disney movies (Tangled is her favorite), and loves cuddles with her pup, Marble.