Meagan + Joe by Michelle Scott Photography - Together Journal

All of these little moments compounded into something bigger, where I fell in love without even fully realizing it.

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

We currently live in Charlotte, NC, and we love exploring new coffee shops, travelling to new cities, and hiking with our dog, Emmett.

Before settling down in Charlotte, Meagan previously lived in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and NYC. She works in Strategy and Operations at Spotify, previously working in consulting and startups. She loves baking sourdough bread and finding new ways of making classic desserts. Joe works in Accounting, but when he’s not crunching numbers, he’s out on the pickleball courts.

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

Our story is quite a long journey and a funny one. We always joke that Joe has been following Meagan around her whole life. We grew up 10 minutes away from each other in North Carolina, attended the same University in South Carolina, and have been in the exact same place at the same time in multiple different states (for example, we were both at the same bar in Washington, D.C. watching a basketball game). In the end, it took Bumble to bring us together. We first matched on Bumble in December of 2019 while we were both living in NYC. After some back and forth, Joe suggested we have our first date on a random Wednesday at 1:30 PM. Meagan thought the time suggestion was strange and that maybe Joe was trying to network, not date. She was turned off and stood him up. Little did she know, Joe had chosen that time because he was about to go out of town for a long period of time and was trying to meet her before he flew out. Joe was annoyed he was stood up and ended up blocking Meagan on the app. Fast forward nearly 9 months, Meagan and Joe had both coincidentally left NYC and moved back to Charlotte during the Pandemic. Joe randomly received a notification from Facebook that there was a new person under his “People You May Know” section… and it was Meagan. He saw she was back in Charlotte, too, and reached out to have a drink. We met at a local brewery in almost matching outfits – both of us wearing white shorts and black shirts. Joe took one look at Meagan, and he knew she was it for him. It took Meagan a little bit longer, but she always recognized and felt something different about him. It felt like kismet from the very beginning.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

For Joe, as cliché as it may sound, it was during our first date. We dove right into the deep, meaningful topics, something neither one of us really did before. We started sharing what motivates and drives us in life and even exchanged our list of goals we both had on our phones with each other. Reading through her list of goals was the moment I realized Meagan was the person I wanted to build a life with and continue getting to know for the rest of my life.

For Meagan, there wasn’t an exact moment where I just knew, but it happened over time as I appreciated Joe driving my grandfather, who was living with me at the time, to his doctor’s appointments, going to workout classes that he didn’t particularly enjoy with me, and being my taste-tester anytime I was baking. All of these little moments compounded into something bigger, where I fell in love without even fully realizing it.

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

Yes! We got engaged in South Korea back in October of 2022. Joe doesn’t speak any Korean, yet he managed to find a beautiful remote spot on Jeju Island, secure a bouquet of 100 pink flowers, and find a bottle of our favourite champagne. He had also been communicating (via Google translate) with a local photographer to capture the surprise proposal. Unfortunately, Joe got lost trying to find the proposal spot, so the photographer came out of hiding to help us find the spot! The surprise may have been blown, but it was still the most thoughtful proposal. He got down on one knee as the sunset over the rocky beach where the entire sky turned the most amazing shades of red and orange. Afterwards, Meagan’s mom came out of hiding, and the three of us celebrated over Korean BBQ and soju.

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

It was really important to us that our wedding feel true and authentic to us, both as individuals and as a couple. We kept some wedding traditions, created twists to make it feel like more “us”, and also made some new ones. We wanted our friends and family to step onto the venue grounds and immediately feel relaxed and comfortable while still in an elevated setting. We never wanted it to feel stuffy or like a production. Overall, we wanted an elegant yet whimsy garden meets raging party wedding. We wanted to embrace colour and tie in pops of yellows, pinks, greens, and other pastels. We leaned in on the garden aspect because it was a hobby Meagan loved to do with her grandfather. Once Joe entered the picture, he also joined in on the hobby and would help plant vegetables and flowers around the house with us. He passed right before the engagement, and we knew we wanted to find little ways to honour him throughout the wedding, from incorporating his favourite florals in the stationary to naming the specialty cocktail after him. We also wanted to share Meagan’s Korean culture, so we included the national South Korean flower on all the stationary and held a Pyebaek ceremony during cocktail hour. Our food helped tie in the local cuisine and our favourite Korean dishes, from crispy buttermilk chicken with cucumber kimchi and pizza with Korean fried twisted doughnuts. It was truly a day reflective of us!

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

We splurged the most on our rentals. Our venue was the venue manager’s grandparents’ home, where she would spend holidays and vacations. Since it was previously used as a residence, the venue did not come with anything except for the grounds and the house to get ready in. We had to rent everything from bathrooms to forks to generators to a tent, so most of our budget was spent splurging on turning a blank canvas home to our wedding dream. This allowed us to really design our wedding, though, choosing every single detail of our day and really leaning into our “elegance meets whimsy garden” theme. We loved the idea of having a sailcloth tent nestled under the Spanish Moss Oak trees with string lights strewn throughout the tent and around the grounds. We rented a 64’ long bar and had it custom-wrapped with pink floral wallpaper. Our reception linens were shades of green, with some having a garden-y pattern and others a solid shade of green, to complement our yellow floral cocktail table linens. We had so much fun being able to choose every element of our wedding through rentals and it was truly worth the splurge!

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

We could honestly write a book about the myriad challenges we tackled and how we made it through each of them! There’s one incident that immediately comes to mind, though. On the morning of our wedding day, one of our wonderful hair stylists had an allergic reaction to something she had eaten. One of the bridesmaids was getting her hair done when she realized the stylist wasn’t looking well. Thankfully, she’s completely ok now, but it gave Joe and his groomsmen a shock when they pulled into the venue and were met with fire trucks and an ambulance in the driveway!

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

Meagan had 4 outfit changes (getting ready dress, ceremony wedding gown, Pyebaek hanbok, and a custom reception dress), and Joe kept it simple with his one custom black tux.

Meagan’s wedding gown was a modern twist on a classic ballgown, with a long slit, deep sweetheart cut, and exposed boning back detail.

For the Pyebaek outfits, we wanted to keep them traditional, from the colours (red and blue) to the garments themselves (silk thread, layers, and embroidery).

For Meagan’s reception dress, she worked with a local designer to create something fully from scratch. She wanted something unique yet bridal, so we created a semi-sheer corset top with a dreamy soft overlay. The garden theme continued onto the dress with intricate floral greenery embroidered up the dress and around the neckline.