Early on, we bonded over our shared love of practicing the “spirited” parts of our Irish heritage. On most Wednesdays you can find us at our favorite Irish pub’s weekly trivia night. On question 13 the pub pauses trivia questions to do an Irish toast complete with Irish whisky. Slainte!
We’re both longtime Buffalo Bills fans and enthusiastically cheer them on every game either from our couch or in person at the Ralph – no matter the weather!
We share the mentality that life is too short to take too seriously and will never pass up an opportunity to dress up like idiots.
Like every child in the North Country, Mike practically came out of the womb wearing skates and has been playing hockey since he can remember. Meg crossed off a bucket list item when she signed up for an adult learn-to-play-hockey program in early 2020. Even though we’re at very different skill levels, we enjoy cheering each other on and even playing together every once in awhile!
In case you haven’t noticed – we have a dog! Boomer is 80% cotton ball, 20% Napoleon and 100% our sweet, spoiled boy. He brings joy and laughter to our lives and we love him to pieces.
We both love to travel and each did a fair bit of it before we met each other. We’ve been lucky enough to travel to Hawaii and Banff, Canada together and are headed to Tanzania and Zanzibar next month for our honeymoon!
The Proposal:
After some hint dropping by Meg (subtlety varies based on who you ask) Mike popped the question on Saturday morning December 18, 2021! Mike had a dog tag made that said “will you marry me”, put it on Boomer’s collar and waited for Meg to notice. When she finally did, Mike produced the most beautiful ring Meg has ever seen. After saying, “is this real?!”, once or twice Meg followed it up with “Yes of course!”

---

How did the two of you meet?

The story of how we met depends on who you ask.
According to Mike, our story began one faithful Sunday at church. In Mike’s words, he was walking down the isle to take communion when he heard a woman from the pew to his right exclaim, “oh my gosh, what a stud!” He looked over and saw a beautiful blonde woman staring at him, and that woman was Meg’s mother Nancy. Nancy introduced him to Meg and the rest is history.
Meg’s version is less likely to be the plot of a Lifetime movie but is much closer to the truth. In April 2020, bored and stuck in her house during the beginning of COVID, Meg decided to create a profile on the dating app Bumble. She matched with Mike who had moved to Rochester just a couple weeks prior for his job at Rochester Gas and Electric. Meg typed, “what’s cooking good looking?” Mike responded with “not a thing chicken wing” and our love story took off from there!

What was your favorite memory of your wedding day?

The whole day was amazing! Some of our highlights are reading the letters we wrote to each other, doing our “first look”, and dancing with our friends and family! 

What were the main influences behind the style of your wedding, its location and your venue choice for your big day?

Meg did a majority of the wedding planning so it’s her style that can be seen most prominently in the flower selection, centerpieces, etc. A lot of the style also came from the season! We wanted to give off end-of-fall-beginning-of-winter vibes that were different from typical Thanksgiving or Christmas themes.
While we live in Rochester, Meg is originally from Auburn and lots of her family still lives there. The majority of Mike’s family is from up in the North Country so having it in CNY was a bit closer for them as well.
We had an invite list of over 330 people (we both have huge families) and given the season needed to find a venue that could comfortably hold that number indoors. We found Emerson Park and it ended up working perfectly!

What would your top tips be for somebody planning their wedding?

Make sure to keep it about the two of you – you’re the ones getting married after all!