Julie & Meagan – Three years of Long-Distance Love

They’ve overcome three long years of being in a long-distance relationship to be together. And, after an uneventful proposal, they married in Utah surrounds by their favorite people, the mountains, and the desert.

THE PROPOSAL

We got engaged in the car on the drive down to Zion National Park! We had been talking about it for a long time, and we started talking about our dream wedding and at the end of the conversation, Meagan said, “So should we just get engaged now?” and Julie replied, “Well, I’ve been down for it for a while, so yes!”

THE VENUE

We had been to Red Butte Garden before and talked about how beautiful a wedding there would be. Looking at half a dozen venues, but ultimately, the close proximity to the city, the accessibility, and the gardens’ beauty won us over.

We love being outside in the mountains and the desert, and we wanted our wedding to encapsulate the beauty of Utah simply and thoughtfully.

DIY PROJECTS

We hand-made all of our centerpieces! We wanted succulents on the tables, but we didn’t want to have to keep them alive, so we used glass pieces and doilies from Julie’s late grandma, Gravel, and faux succulents to create our centerpieces.

THE ATTIRE

Neither of us had the “perfect dress” in mind, so it really came down to comfort for us. Meagan hadn’t planned on wearing white and even had already purchased a blue skirt. But when she saw this dress, she decided that if she went to the store, they had it, and it fit, it would be her dress. Julie went shopping, not expecting to find her dress in the first fitting, but she tried hers on and couldn’t imagine the day in anything else!

THE WEDDING DAY

We started the day with an Out-of-Towners Brunch. We have many family and friends from out of state, and we wanted to give them a chance to meet our dogs and hang out with us a little more. After that, we went to the hotel near the venue to get ready. A friend did our make up, and then we separated to do hair and get dressed.

We hadn’t seen each other’s dresses, so we had a first look before the ceremony and exchanged letters. Julie’s brother was our officiant, and we each had one of our sisters stand up with us as witnesses. We wrote our own ceremony, and it was absolutely perfect.

We created our own ceremony because we wanted to combine secular and religious parts of our lives. Including a Bible passage in our ceremony, along with a poem by Maya Angelou and traditional Celtic vows to accompany our handfasting. We wanted to have the handfasting as a ritualistic representation of our lives coming together, and the Celtic vows honor Meagan’s Irish heritage.

We exited on our own and took a few minutes to just be with each other before family pictures and portraits. Once we got to the reception, we entered to “September” by Earth, Wind, & Fire.

Our food was a collection of our favorite things: Caprese salad, tacos, and desserts. Instead of cake, we had cookies from our favorite local bakery, RubySnap. Our favorite is the horchata-inspired cookie, the Snickerdudette, so we cut one in half instead of cutting a cake.

We had our first dance to “You Are Gold” by the National Parks, one of our favorite bands who also happens to be local, followed by our father-daughter dance to “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty.

After that, we danced and mingled the night away! We knew we didn’t want a big exit, so people began to leave. We said good night to our families and went to our hotel for the night. Everything went just the way we wanted.

MARRIAGE

One of our favorite quotes throughout our relationship has been, “[She] loved her, of course, but more than that [she] chose her, day after day. Choice, that was the thing.” -Sherman Alexie. This quote, in a lot of ways, is what marriage is for us. It’s about choosing one another day after day and doing life together.