It was late last week when Craig Curbean received the call from the mayor’s office.

Could Taste This, the Baltimore restaurant and catering company Curbean is involved in, prepare the food for an event next Sunday?

Curbean pressed for details, but the employee wouldn’t give anything away. They “just kept saying it was a private outdoor event.” He and his business partner, Dante Davis, who founded their Southern-cuisine business 10 years ago, looked at the proposed menu: Chicken boxes with salt, pepper and ketchup. Grilled salmon sliders. Kale Caesar salad. Mini crab cakes.

“When we saw it, we said, ‘Of course,'” Curbean said. “This is exactly our thing. We can definitely do it.”

Still, preparing a multi-course meal for around 60 people in just a few days was no easy task. Taste This had other tasks planned for the weekend, including a Saturday night that lasted until midnight. There was no time to prepare the day before, so Curbean, Davis and their team got up early on Sunday morning to start cooking.

That afternoon, they were preparing dinner at Walther Gardens, a long-established gardening center in northeast Baltimore, where the event was to take place. About an hour before the guests began arriving, the mayor’s assistant told Curbean that the event was actually the mayor’s wedding.

“My jaw dropped,” Curbean said. He called Davis. “I don’t think you know what this event is for,” he told him. “It’s actually the mayor’s wedding.” Then there was silence. “Can you hear me?” Curbean said.

Once the team got over the shock, “they went for it,” Curbean said. “We focused on it.” They were doubly focused on the task at hand, telling themselves it was nothing they hadn’t done before.

They went to work frying chicken for the boxes and mini crab cakes to serve with their version of Old Bay aioli.

Scott and Pugh had originally planned their wedding for Thursday, August 8. Pugh chose the date because of its numerical symmetry. But an uninvited guest in the form of Hurricane Debby forced a last-minute change of plans. Most vendors were able to accommodate the new date, but the owner of Fishnet, the restaurant they had originally chosen to cater, was out of the country. They needed a replacement. Pugh said both she and Scott had tried Taste This’s food at previous events and knew it would be good.

Some people think that food is secondary at weddings, but Pugh put a lot of thought into the menu. She wanted the cuisine to reflect Baltimore—but not in a clichéd Berger biscuit way. There should also be plenty of seafood options for her future husband, who is a pescatarian.

For dessert, there were cakes from Owings Mills Fresh Bakery and locally made snowballs, for which Pugh’s 8-year-old son Ceron was first in line. Walther Gardens claims to be home to the oldest snowball stand in the country, and Scott, who bought his Christmas trees from the nursery there as a child, is a fan.

The snowball stand was recently renovated under new ownership, and some customers complained about the expensive, artisanal products. “It’s a hot topic in the neighborhood,” Scott said. But he waves it off. As mayor, he said, he knows there are two constants: People don’t want things to stay the same, and they don’t want things to change.

For Scott, finding Pugh and Ceron was the unexpected joy of his life. “For me, it’s the best part,” he said. “I just don’t want to miss a moment.”

Their family grew the day after Christmas when they welcomed new baby Charm into the fold. The 7-month-old boy is “busy, just like his dad,” Pugh laughed. And he played a major role in the surprise. Scott, who arrived at the event in casual attire, pretended Charm needed a new diaper to excuse himself and change into a more formal sage green linen wedding suit. Ceron, in a matching green suit and white sneakers, walked his mother down the aisle. Charm wore matching green shorts and suspenders, but refused to wear a matching bow tie.

Scott and Pugh initially told their guests that the event was their engagement party. Many of them said afterward that they wished they had known it was going to be a wedding because then they would have dressed up. Some people who couldn’t make it said they would have made a bigger effort to be there.

“We wanted to keep expectations low,” Pugh said, “and keep it unobtrusive.”

Pugh and Scott have no regrets, including the guest list they had to keep to a minimum in their large families. “I have 20 first cousins,” Scott said, and some of them weren’t invited. Fortunately, his career choice has prepared him for pushback. As mayor, “half the people are going to be angry anyway, no matter what you do.”

Days later, Pugh and Scott were still luxuriating in the afterglow of Sunday’s events, even though they had both gone back to work. The mayor’s schedule doesn’t allow much time for a honeymoon right now, but they said they might go somewhere next summer, just the two of them.

They still couldn’t believe they had pulled off the surprise. On the morning of the wedding, the couple went to different parts of the city in their wedding attire to take photos. There they were in front of City Hall, near where they first met. People heading to the farmers market honked in celebration. There they were in Camden Yards, then by the water on the Baltimore Peninsula. People fishing saw them and went about their daily lives. But no one said anything online.

And Pugh continues to receive texts from guests asking about the food. All of them say it was the best wedding meal they’ve ever had.

When he had time to catch his breath, Curbean was able to enjoy the warmth of the day. He has catered other events for the city and seen Scott at work, so the restaurant owner thought it was nice to see the mayor relax and enjoy himself while giving himself over to his new wife, who “couldn’t stop smiling.”

The weekend, Curbean noted, also happened to be the 10th anniversary of Taste This. It’s funny how things happen.

He imagines Taste This will now receive many more requests to cater weddings. “A little more lead time, that’s all I pray for.”