Meegan & Michael
Los Laureles Lodge Outdoor Wedding
Carmel Valley California
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Los Laureles Lodge
Nestled in between the mountains behind California’s Monterey coast sits the historic Los Laureles Lodge in Carmel Valley. This is where Meegan and Michael spent the entire weekend celebrating their wedding. If you didn’t have the good fortune of being there, then you totally missed out. Despite the fact a rather large fire was just a few miles away, it was pretty much a perfect weekend. Thanks to an easterly wind and California’s finest working diligently to keep it at bay, we had clear skies. If it wasn’t for the handmade signs from grateful residents on every street corner, we would have thought the only fire was from the looks exchanged between these two lovebirds.
Meegan & Michael
They met online, but not like that. Ok, a little bit like that. Meegan was researching grad schools while backpacking through Nicaragua. The Internet was hard to find and trying to get people to give feedback about various schools was difficult. So she cleverly joined OkCupid, specifically looking for info, not romance. She was matched to Mike, a University of Michigan student whose faceless profile photo showed a Berkeley shirt. As an intrigued Berkeley graduate, Meegan reached out. Obviously, an algorithm can’t detect chemistry, but messages led to calls. Calls led to flirting. And months later, still not having seen his face, Meegan’s plane landed in Michigan. One guess as to who was nervously waiting in baggage claim. Since then, they haven’t stopped staring at each other.
Wedding attendees flew in from as far away as Germany for this destination wedding in Carmel Valley. It was, without a doubt, worth the trip. It was an extremely emotional day that also happened to be gorgeously put together. I nearly flipped my shiznit when I saw the reception. Every table, bouquet, and hand-painted rock was absolutely scrumptious. Actually, I could have eaten the bouquets – they had sprigs of raspberries. The flower snob in me died of happiness.
With hardly a cell phone in sight, over a hundred people listened as Mike and Meegan exchanged vows under the branches of a massive oak tree. Guests pitted skills against one another in giant Jenga battles. The less inhibited busted out the lederhosen and the Lucky Devils band inspired everyone to sing out loud, regardless of actual singing ability. It was fabulous. The night ended in the saloon. Exuberant partygoers packed every available inch under a grinning hog mounted to the wall. I know why he was grinning. Carmel Valley was on fire, but by then the only flames we had to worry about were from a bottle of Fireball.
