Jona + Zack by Laurken Kendall - Together Journal

We were nearly inseparable after the first couple of dates. It was hard not to want to be with each other all the time.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

Hi! We’re Zack + Jona–two millennial kids who met on a dating app, fell in love hard + fast, started a family, and the rest is history. Zack works in recycling and liquidation for his family’s business. At the time we were getting married, I was in the music industry working as an artist manager. Fast forward to today, I’m now in fitness as a Lagree instructor and private trainer. Both of us, are full-time parents to the best 3-year-old in the world, Mercer and dog parents to our Belgian Malinois, NJ’Waii (pronounced en-jay wah). We love travelling all over the world, just as much as being home, and hanging out as a family.

We’re big on food and always love to base our travels on what and where to eat, before anything. Japan is probably our favourite place in the world, right next to Lanai (Hawaii) where Zack proposed and where we honeymooned. At the end of the day though, no matter what we’re doing or where we are, we always feel right at home with each other and when we’re all together as a family.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We met on the dating app, “Hinge”. Our first date was at a bar called the Woodman. My first impression of Zack was that he was so sweet and so funny, but since there were times he was looking away (he was a little nervous), I thought he probably wasn’t interested in me. I also didn’t peg him to be the type to have a large pickup truck, so when he drove me home I kind of thought, “lol wtf”. Towards the end of the night, there was definitely a spark and I couldn’t wait to see him again.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

This is somewhat of a funny story. Zack’s birthday is the day before NYE and we were going to Lanai, HI with both of our parents and his sister and her boyfriend. For Zack’s birthday, I wanted to surprise him with a private Jeep tour around the island, something outdoorsy yet intimate. I didn’t think he was going to propose on this trip since most of our siblings weren’t with us and I thought we both wanted our entire families with us. When I told Zack’s parents about my surprise, Zack’s dad used that as leverage and suggested to Zack to reverse surprise me with the proposal, so behind the scenes things were set in motion. Our first stop on the island was at a Garden of the Gods, a vast landscape filled with lunar-like typography with boulders and towers of red rocks, yet still overlooking out into the edge of the island, past the ocean, and even into a glimpse of a neighbouring island.

Like a nerd, I whipped out my film camera and started taking pictures. Zack asked me what I always wanted him to ask “Hey babe, why don’t you turn around and look out into the view so I can take a picture of you”. I turned around for some good shots and then he told me to turn around again for another picture, except it wasn’t for a photo. It was for the actual question I’ve always wanted to hear, “Will you marry me”. My reaction, saying “OMG” a bunch of times and finally saying “Yes” while crying and laughing. And there we were, just us two and our awesome tour guide Renan, who was a tremendous help to Zack pulling this off, and luckily was able to capture it all on video and take photos for us. (Shout out Four Seasons Lanai!!!)

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…

Like every girl’s dream, this was a passion project for me. Finally, I got to put a bunch of Pinterest boards together and send it to someone and say “How do we make this happen”. Before I get right into it, I really have to give all the credit to Manda, the entire Mae & Co team (Monty, Sarah, etc.), and all of our vendors. They were all such superstars. I’ve never had anything come to life so seamlessly until I worked with all of them. The best of the best. My vision was to be timeless and classy, yet true to ourselves by also being edgy, moody, and romantic.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

I think because I mentally put myself in a “whatever happens, happens” mindset for the entire weekend, I can’t recall anything super stressful that I can look back and laugh at now. The entire weekend had great vibes and if I were to choose something that made us laugh, it was probably that we got drunker at our welcome party the night before the wedding and then in true Zack + Jona fashion, Irish goodbye-ing the whole thing, walking back to our hotel barefoot.