The couple shares their first kiss as spouses while guests wave rainbow flags in celebration.

Leaving Behind Faith to let Love Bloom

After leaving behind their faith community, and people who didn’t approve of their relationship, Melody (she/her) and Callie’s (she/her) love has bloomed. They shared an intimate ceremony in Colorado, opening with meditation to help ground them and their guests, and incorporating a handfasting ceremony to tie them together. 

Tell us your love story, and falling in love at a religious internship in Texas. 

“When love is real, it finds a way…”

It all began the summer of 2012 in the middle-of-no-where, Texas… where we just so happened to be attending the same religious internship program. Our first encounter, a casual introduction in passing, might have appeared “ordinary” from an outsider’s point of view. 

However, it would be many years later when we’d come to learn that, in reality, both of us had felt it was a rather “extraordinary” encounter—equally describing it to be a magnetic and unprecedented experience. 

Almost as though it were a fateful reunion between two, already-familiar, souls.

Over the course of a 6 year, deeply-rooted, friendship… our love story was unknowingly developing beneath the surface. 

One day, in its own organic time, our love sprouted into a full and blatant bloom. It felt as though everything, all at once, made perfect sense and became undeniably clear. We knew we were meant to be together, without a doubt, and that our love was written in the stars. 

How did you navigate having your love not be accepted from those around you?

From this point forward, our course in life would be forever altered… and together, our greatest adventure would begin. Anticipating that our journey may not be as “accepted” or “easy” as others’, we held tight to one another… knowing that finding your soulmate in a universe so vast is like striking precious gold.

Even as we faced ruthless judgment in the name of religion and rejection from those who did not wish to understand and embrace our love – it only strengthened and flourished. We knew we had found the “real thing”, and we refused to simply just let it go. 

Leaving behind a life we had once known and a faith community that no longer accepted us, we got engaged in the summer of 2021 and never looked back.

How did you decide on the size of your wedding guestlist?

We both knew that we wanted the atmosphere of our wedding day to feel genuine, sacred, and intimate. We entertained the idea of an elopement with just us present, but ultimately decided on a micro-wedding in the mountains, with our closest friends and family attending. 

All together, the guest count ended up being right around 50 people. 

Would you recommend private, personal vows? 

We both wrote lengthy, heartfelt vows that we shared privately with each other prior to the ceremony. Once at the altar we shared additional vows that summarized and highlighted the personal vows we shared beforehand.

And, how was your intimate ceremony?

We couldn’t imagine our day without our wedding officiant and coordinator, Liv Moore. We felt like it was the biggest gift to have our day in her hands because it gave us total peace and confidence!

It was important for us to align our wedding day with traditions (and non-traditions) that felt authentic and representative of us as a couple. We opened with a meditation in order to bring a grounding and peaceful energy, and also included a handfasting ceremony! 

Photography by Lily Brundin

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