Greg Thompson Photography  l  Minneapolis, MN  l  612.868.7617  l  All images copyright  l  All rights reserved

Megan and Alex: wedding at Mill City Museum

In April of 2006 Alex and I spent a few days in Paris. We had a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from our balcony and one night while we were enjoying a glass of wine Alex turned to me and said “I bet you thought we were going to get engaged here.” He was right and I was crushed. He told me he had plans to propose in Minnesota where I lived, once he moved there. He suggested spending a day in London looking at rings so he could get an idea of what I wanted and I was instantly out of my funk. The idea of looking at rings in London was a dream come true for me!  We spent an entire day looking at rings. I remember thinking how thankful I was to be there to show Alex what kind of ring I liked because when he pointed out a heart shaped pink diamond I was slightly concerned he didn’t know me well enough to be asking me to marry him!

When we got back to Alex’s home in England, we had a picnic in his back garden. I was leaving the next day to go back home and trying not to be sad about being apart once again. In the middle of our picnic I turned to see Alex holding a beautifully unique ring and smiling. He asked me to be his wife and I said yes. He told me he could have proposed in Paris or even in London, and that they would have been romantic, unforgettable places to get engaged. Then he whispered that he knew me better than that. I was confused until he smiled and said “I know you’re dying to go inside and call home” And he was right. My first call was to my dad who told me he was happy for me but it was no surprise to him. Alex had called him days before and asked for his permission. My heart melted and I took great comfort in knowing that Alex knew me better than anyone else in the world.

My motto is "Everyone has a story." Megan and Alex have quite a story... adventure, love, travel. Their wedding day began at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis, and moved on to nearby Mill City Museum for their ceremony and reception. We also used some wintery street scenes for portraits after the ceremony. Read on for Megan's account of their love story and how they planned for their wedding:

In February of 2005 I went to South America with my best friend to travel for six months. We had plans to stay in Peru for three weeks, Argentina for four months, and Brazil for one month. On our flight down to Peru my friend turned to me and said she had a feeling I was going to meet someone. I told her not to be silly. South America was going to be about learning Spanish, volunteering, and perfecting my Tango! She shook her head with a smile and told me she was certain that there would be a young man different from any man I had ever known. “An artist I think, British…longer hair than you usually like.” she said. 

Two nights later we met a young British artist with longer hair than I usually liked traveling abroad for a year. Our paths crossed for only a few hours but we met again in Cusco and spent two weeks exploring and getting to know each other. By the end of our time there we weren’t ready to say goodbye. So Alex added some time onto his trip and came to Argentina with us. Three weeks later I was in love and he had to move on. He left South America with intentions to meet me in Thailand 4 months later. Two weeks later my friend convinced me that all of it had been fate. She reminded me that we always said that we would follow our hearts during our adventure and that I should go to New Zealand where Alex would be for the next month and be with him. A few short days later I surprised Alex in Auckland and we spent the next month camping, hiking, and exploring the islands. One night we found ourselves at a Jack Johnson concert and during the song “Better Together” Alex told me he loved me.

A year later we were engaged and nine months after that we walked down the aisle to Jack Johnson’s “Better Together”.

My favorite part of wedding planning was what Alex and I did together. It was difficult for us because we planned the whole while we were living in two different countries. Alex being a graphic designer did our save the dates, programs, invitations, and even created wine bottle labels that were displayed on wine bottles at each of the tables. Each wine bottle had a label that looked as if an article from a newspaper. We wrote a number of articles about our love story, starting the day we met and ending with our wedding day.  My least favorite part of planning was listening to some people disagree about the choices we were making. Not having a sit down meal, having it on a Friday night, not having children present…some of my family just didn’t understand. Knowing what I know now I wouldn’t have wasted one second worrying about my families opinions on what they thought we should do. Our day was exactly what we dreamed it would be and we wouldn’t have had it any other way!
We knew we did not want to have a cookie cutter wedding so we decided to tailor the whole thing to fit our personailites. We had a good friend play acoustic guitar (Ben Harper and Jack Johnson songs) for us to walk up and down the aisle to, we had a close friend and relative get ordained online and marry us, we chose three people to do readings that they chose for us as a surprise, we used a wishing tree instead of a guest book and we found a unique way of symbolizing our unity. Instead of a candle or pouring sand into a jar we wrote each other letters about why we chose to marry the other person. We sealed the letters without reading them to one another and placed them in a wooden box along with two bottles of wine and two glasses. We then had each person in our wedding party hammer a nail into the box as a sign of their love and support to us as individuals and as a couple. Alex and I hammered in the last two nails. The idea being that if ever in our relationship we find ourselves questioning our decision, and considering divorce or seperation, we will open the box, drink the wine and read the letters we wrote to each other on our wedding day. The hope being that we never need to open the box for that reason and instead open it on our 25th wedding anniversary.
We were married at the historic Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis and absolutely loved it! Mill City uses D’Amico Catering for any events at there museum and we were very impressed with the quality of the service and the food. We had an appetizer, dessert, & cocktail reception instead of a traditional sit down meal. We had so many options to choose from it was blast coming up with our menu. The crowd favorites were the mini cuban sandwiches and the chocolate almond cake! They make it so easy to customize your menu and pleasing your guests with unique dishes!