A Colourful Farm Wedding in Glenmoore with a Surprise Drag Queen
What started as a fast friendship in graduate school eventually brought Megan (she/her) and Lily (she/her) to Springton Manor Farm in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania. Their wedding had colourful florals, Breyer horse table numbers, treats inspired by their pets, private vows after their first look, and a surprise drag performance from Bev waiting at the reception.
Rain changed the ceremony plans, but that was exactly why they had chosen a venue with a backup plan they loved. With Kailey Edwards Photography capturing it all, the day went from quiet vows on the farmhouse porch to Bev getting the party started.
How did your story begin?
We met in graduate school at Bryn Mawr College of Social Service and Social Research. We sat together at orientation and became fast friends, but we did not actually learn each other’s sexuality until a few weeks later in class.
We stayed friends throughout school, then not long after graduation realised we were meant to be more. We fell in love during the height of COVID, which meant we got to spend a lot of time together and create our own little adventures while the rest of the world was shut down.
Our friendship gave us such a strong foundation for our relationship, and two years later we were engaged.
What was wedding planning like for the two of you?
Megan is the organisation queen! We had a wedding planning book and a wedding binder complete with pictures.
We were engaged for 18 months, which felt like the right amount of time for us. We had already been talking about marriage before we were engaged, typical lesbians, lol, so we already knew a lot of the things we wanted to include.
We genuinely had fun planning together. We made all of the decisions as a team because it was important that the wedding reflected both of us.
Why did you choose Springton Manor Farm in Glenmoore?
We knew we wanted a farm setting because Lily is a big horse girl, which eventually made its way into the wedding through our Breyer horse centrepieces.
Springton Manor Farm was already high on our list because we loved the photos and had heard good things from friends. One thing we noticed, though, was that there were no same sex weddings shown on their website.
Being sure that our venue was genuinely safe and welcoming was really important to us. We asked them directly whether they were comfortable hosting an LGBTQ+ wedding and why there were no queer couples represented in their wedding galleries.
They explained that they simply had not hosted an LGBTQ+ wedding there yet and reassured us that they were excited to host ours. Once we met with them in person, we felt completely comfortable.
Our biggest venue advice is to make sure you love the rain plan. We definitely needed ours.
How important was it to find LGBTQ+ friendly wedding vendors?
Very important. We did not just want vendors who had a line on their website saying they were LGBTQ+ friendly. We wanted people who genuinely meant it.
We looked for vendors in our area and checked that they acknowledged being LGBTQ+ friendly on their websites. Then we made it clear in our enquiries how important that was to us.
We ended up having such a great experience with our vendor team. Blue Moon Florist even shared our wedding photos during Pride Month, which really confirmed that we had chosen people who supported us.
Kailey Edwards Photography, Blue Moon Florist and our drag queen Bev were some of the absolute standouts.
What personal and DIY details did you add to the wedding?
Quite a few!
We made our welcome signs ourselves using wood, paint and a Cricut. That included our welcome sign, “a pet me and pick a side” sign for our dogs, and a giant seating chart.
We also made favours with cat and dog treats from our pets, two golden retrievers and a calico cat.
One of our favourite last minute ideas was using Breyer horses as table numbers. About two weeks before the wedding, we realised our original table numbers did not really feel like us, so we changed them.
The horses ended up being such a hit that two of them disappeared by the end of the night.
Tell us about your private vows.
We secretly got married at the courthouse two days before the wedding.
That date is Megan’s parents’ wedding anniversary, so now we get to share an anniversary with them, which feels really special. We used classic vows at the courthouse.
For the wedding day, we saved our personal vows for each other. We had a first look on the porch of the farmhouse at Springton Manor Farm and shared our vows privately straight afterwards.
We are both anxious people, so saying them privately helped us feel comfortable. Kailey Edwards Photography and videographer TLJ Studios stayed far enough away that it really felt like it was just the two of us.
We had both been writing notes on our phones for weeks. There were inside jokes and funny memories mixed in, but there were definitely still tears.
How did the ceremony come together when the rain arrived?
We had originally planned to have the ceremony outside, but our coordinator let us know that the weather had other ideas.
Thankfully, one of the reasons we chose Springton Manor Farm was because we genuinely liked their rain plan, so the change did not bother us too much.
The ceremony began with a string trio from Appassionata Quartet, and both of our dads walked us down the aisle. Lily’s sister Alyssa officiated, even though technically we were already married, and Megan’s brother held the rings.
We wanted our family involved because we did not have a wedding party, so giving them these roles made the ceremony feel even more personal.
We also stepped on glass as part of the ceremony to honour Lily’s Jewish tradition.
What traditions did you keep, change or make your own?
We picked the traditions that actually made sense for us.
Lily walked down the aisle first with her dad, followed by Megan and her dad. At the altar, Lily chose the left side simply because she considers it her better side.
We also asked our families to sit opposite us so they could see our faces more clearly during the ceremony.
For the parent dances, we both danced with our dads at the same time, then switched and danced with our mums. We wanted to include both parents because they were equally involved in raising us.
We wanted to do the dances together so we would not have four separate parent dances, and so all of us would feel a little less nervous.
Private vows and having a first look before the ceremony were also important choices for us, even though some family members were not happy about the decision to keep our vows private.
And then you surprised everyone with a drag queen?
Yes!
After the ceremony and cocktail hour, we opened the reception with our first dance to Beautiful Stranger by Halsey, followed by our parent dances and speeches.
Then came the big reveal.
We had booked a surprise performance from Bev to get the party started. She performed Celine Dion and plenty of other bangers, and at one point she pulled Megan’s brother out of the crowd for a dance.
The best part was that Bev had no idea he was Megan’s brother. He came over afterwards convinced we had set the whole thing up, but we genuinely had nothing to do with it.
It could not have worked out better. The photos and videos are gold.
Captured by Kailey Edwards Photography
Caterer Queen of Hearts Catering
Cake Maker Brooklyn Girl Bakery
DJ Silver Sound DJs
Drag Queen itsbevbitch
Dress Boutique Bridaltown Boutique
Engagement Rings Brilliant Earth
Florist Blue Moon Florist
Hair & Makeup Jessica McHugh and Gina Gagliano
Live Music Appassionata Quartet
Stationery The Knot
Venue Springton Manor Farm
Videographer TLJ Studios
Wedding Rings Brilliant Earth
