Magical Micro Wedding
Rachel and Jeffrey – September 5, 2024
From the Bride
Our meeting was incredibly strange and unconventional. When I met Jeff, I was engaged to another person! While this other person was my best friend and someone I loved, we wanted different things out of our lives and I knew it was something that would never last forever. After 6 years of being with this person, he asked me to have an open relationship and I was fine with this because I honestly wanted to be away from him and have the freedom of meeting someone new. It’s very harsh, unhealthy, and mean, but I had grieved my relationship with this person several years before it ended because they stopped wanting to be intimate. He wouldn’t even kiss me anymore, yet threatened to throw my stuff onto the street if I ever left him. When our relationship opened, I ended up casually talking to a lot of people, but after I met Jeff it was like my entire life changed trajectory. And from what he’s shared with me, it sounds like his changed, too. We met on Bumble and talked on and off for a couple of months until I finally invited him over one random night. From that one night, we have never left each other’s side. I broke up with my ex on the night of my 25th birthday and moved in with Jeff about a week or two later. From his point of view, he had been divorced a few years from a long marriage with a partner who was just as bad as mine and he vowed to never get married again. Jeff said he would be a “whore” the rest of his life to his friends and family. However, when we first met face to face he said he immediately fell in love and knew he’d have to take back his word on marrying again.
We’re both very casual when it comes to dates. I think the first night we were together he decided to take me to his “hide away” which no one else knew about. This hide away, however, was his aunt Sheila’s home in the middle of nowhere. Both her and Jeff had told me he’s never brought a girl there because it’s his place to get away from the world. Before we arrived, we stopped at a Taco Bell to pick up food and he turned to me and said, “Don’t tell anyone this is our first date. This isn’t our first date. Your first date is not going to be Taco Bell.” Our “first date” ended up being at an Outback where he made me try shrimp for the first time and inadvertently created a shrimp monster. But that first evening together where we ate Taco Bell and listened to music with his aunt Sheila is one of my favorite memories. Sheila immediately loved me and welcomed me as quickly as Jeff did, she wanted so badly to watch us get married. Unfortunately, she passed away from lung cancer before she could see it happen.
Jeff proposed to me incredibly early on in the relationship. He proposed to me within the first month of dating and we both knew how quick that was. So, we agreed if the relationship does make it and we decide to get married this early proposal would be our official proposal because of how perfect it ended up being. It was around 1 or 2 AM and we were completely alone at this giant yet hidden lake he grew up going to a lot. He had taken me up there to see the stars because there’s no light pollution, but on this evening it was completely cloudy which he was disappointed about. I still thought it looked beautiful with the moon peaking through bits of cloud. We hung out, talked, walked a little bit, but ended up with me sitting in the bed of his truck and him standing in front of me, locked in embrace and continuing to talk about whatever. The wind was picking up, I could hear the forest sway with it as a storm picked up. He looked at me and said, “I know we hardly know each other, and it’s too soon. I still have to meet your family and ask your dad for your hand. But, will you marry me?” I immediately said yes, and as we kissed and embraced again, a soft rain started. We stayed there a while longer holding each other, letting the sprinkle of rain and gust of winds surround us; thunder rumbling miles away. We’ve talked about this moment together a lot, and both of us felt an unexplainable and powerful metaphysical shift in our futures after that.
I’ve always loved the beauty of Tennessee and wouldn’t mind living there one day. I adore the nature. But, I never really considered getting married here until my mom found this venue. The Chapel in the Hollow ended up being an even more perfect location than I ever had in mind. I always knew I wanted to get married in the woods though, but I always pictured being married under a giant tree. I think this little chapel is even better, though, with its sublime beauty. It’s gorgeous but has a hint of eeriness to it, too (which is good). It reminds me of Sleepy Hollow.
For it to be done. All I really care about is that I’m finally marrying the person I always desired and deserved. My mother and I fight a lot, and I don’t see that changing for my wedding day because I know she’s not going to agree with how I do things such as my hair and makeup. I think my wedding day is going to be stressful, hectic, and a migraine to get through. So, I’m really ready to just get it over with! Haha!
One of my favorite movies is Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom.” This film follows two children who live on separate ends of an island but send each other letters planning to elope together. The kids, Sam and Susie, meet each other half way before venturing off to an unmarked beach to live their lives together. However, they are just kids, and much of their trouble comes from adults and off-brand Boy Scout troopers (Sam is in a Boy Scout-type troop called the Khaki Scouts) trying to find the two and bring them back to their families. Towards the end of the film, the peers who hated Sam end up feeling pity for his love story of just wanting to escape with this girl that he loves. So, instead of hunting him down they turn to help him. This involves helping Sam and Susie become unofficially married (illegal civil ceremony) in a little wooden chapel in the woods. In the film, this happens on the 5th of September 1965.
We love eating and cooking together; everyone who knows us knows we can both eat pizza about 4 nights out of the week though. When we first got together, we both wanted to know how to cook but neither of us were good at it, nor knew where to start. Cooking is a skill we developed together over the almost 3 years of being together and it’s definitely one of my favorite things that we do together. I especially love when he finds a new recipe online for us to try, and when I show it off to my friends I bask in the comments about how our food looks restaurant quality because it definitely did not begin that way. We’re now at the point of our cooking journey where we’re growing some of our ingredients ourselves, including herbs, tomatoes, jalapeños (and other peppers), and berries. Our goal is to be as good at growing food as his mother Bridget who can grow her entire pantry herself.
One of our main hobbies together are video games. I think part of why he likes me so much is because not only am I the only girl he’s been with who doesn’t complain about him playing video games, but I also play video games. We’re both gamers and while we often have different tastes in games, we also have a lot in common so we can play together. And I know it heals part of him to have someone that actually likes his hobby that has started arguments for him in the past. One game I always wanted to play was World of Warcraft (WOW), but it was so intimidating and confusing to me. The person I was with before Jeff had “attempted” to teach it to me before, but it felt more like an excuse to laugh at me. When I told Jeff my desire to play WOW, he was so excited because it’s one of his favorite games that he’s spent the most time in. Not only did he actually help me understand the game, but he started a new character just to play with me, torn down the untrue rules and ideas my ex had told me about the game, and was patient with me when I got frustrated or angry. Now, WOW is coming out with a new expansion this year that we’re both excited to play through together.
There are so many things we love to do together, there’s no way I could share it all. But I think cooking and video games are the two that we love the most. Maybe also sleeping and taking naps, haha.
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