Melanie & Dan’s Boho Backyard Wedding was exactly the wedding Melanie had always wanted. Her and Dan had been engaged for a few years with no real wedding plans in sight. But they did build a brand new house together. Melanie had envisioned a small celebration at their new home, and 2020 ended up being the perfect year to do just that. With Covid restrictions she didn’t have to feel guilty at all about having a very small wedding. So she planned quickly and reached out to me maybe a month or so before asking which dates I could do. I should mention that she’s a family member of mine, so I was down for whatever and I’m so glad to be a part of it.

Since we are related, I realized I didn’t even know the story of how Melanie met Dan and we didn’t do my usual consultation like I do with strangers. So I asked her to email me their story and it did not disappoint.

“Oh boy! Dan hates it, but I hated him so much when I met him hahahahaa. That’s why I walked out to Alanis Morissette’s “Head over feet” at the wedding. We met through our mutual best friends on a trip of 50+ people to canoe Saco. I didn’t know anyone going except our mutual best friends. I showed up to Dan’s house to follow them to Saco. I knew from my friends (now husband) that him and Dan had just gotten kittens! (my now two black cats) Dan grumpily came storming out the back door of our old house and I was like “Hi I’m Melanie! You guys just got kittens?!” and he was like yeah they are inside. And I was like “YOU’RE LEAVING THEM ALONE ALL WEEKEND?!” That was his first strike, then I had to follow him to Saco and he was horrible to follow.

The second we got there I was like thank god there are so many people that I won’t have to see that guy again. My friend kept dating his friend so we constantly were around each other. I’d be getting asked constantly if I’d date him. Then two years into knowing him since Saco there was one night we were out and he was the only person who would dance with me. He asked me out on what he claims was a date but it was a group thing. From there I just continuously would hang out with him.

At the time I was taking care of a random stray cat at my apartment and that stray cat vanished, and somehow traveled five miles away to Dan’s house and was living in Dan’s yard. Like legit he didn’t steal the cat or anything. How BIZARE IS THAT?!… THEN more cat things. He took care of flea infested Norma Jean when I found her and she was too young to be away from her mom, like bottle fed and toilet trained her. I moved in with him shortly after that HAHA.

We have been planning to build a house for forever. We built on his family’s old farm land (it was an apple orchard), so I always wanted to get married here. Where we took photos in the woods is the path cows used to travel to pasture. Where we planted the Rose of Sharon is the area that Dan proposed to me (at the time it was just woods). ON THE DAY OF HIS BIRTHDAY PARTY the man proposed to me, so he absolutely caught me off guard. We came here all the time from the beginning. That one particular day, the only time ever, I didn’t even want to get out of the car. I was like nah you go look at the woods without me haahha. But then he was like “We have to make sure all the trees are marked for where the corners of the house will be” so I was just standing around looking at trees and he proposed. There was a man with a chainsaw cutting wood and it was so obnoxious. On our wedding day the neighbor was running his leaf blower or something non stop, so it was noisy just like when Dan proposed. I think the neighbor stopped the leaf blower by the time our ceremony started though ahah.

Dan’s childhood best friend married us. We never had a wedding date set. We had already been engaged a few years while the house was being built. It felt like we would continue to be waiting with everything going on with Covid. So we put together a wedding in about a month. I wanted it to be very stress free and relaxed for everybody involved. from skipping all the usual formal wedding stuff to clean up. So I kept all the food easy and did all throw away cups forks and plates. I had so much fun putting everything together. I wanted everything to be low key and boho. We made the majority of things like the table, the arbor from trees from our land, the boys tie dye shirts. I did all the decor. Another fun fact, the night we saw your dad at the Cake concert was the night I first met Dan’s parents. I still wasn’t Dan’s number one fan at that point, but thought his parents were great! So between dancing, my stray cat Preston & Norma Jean, and his family, I finally got over my original dislike for Dan. OH and when we first moved in Barbara (my aunt) asked Dan if she could give me grandma Alice’s wedding ring, so it was kind of like a house warming. My wedding band is made up of Dan and I’s birthstones”