Sometimes the saying “When you know, you know” seems a little cliché’.

But life continuously reminds us that there is so much out of our control, we need to embrace the moments that present themselves.

That is exactly what Megan and Patrick did on Friday!

Loren and I met Megan and Patrick just a few days ago. They came over to our home to talk about their wedding they had planned for November 2025. Immediately we felt like we had met new friends and were so excited that they wanted us to be a part of their wedding.

You see, their journey to this point has been years in the making.

Megan had seen Patrick years ago and was enamored with him. He was a respected musician and a few years older, so Megan could only dream about Patrick and what a life with him would be like.

Years later, Megan knew Patrick’s mother, Susan and thought that she would make an amazing mother in law someday! Megan’s own mother (also Sue) invited Susan and Megan to a ceramics class where Megan overheard Patrick’s voice while Susan was on a phone call with him, was intrigued and joked that she was going to marry her son one day! Within a week, Patrick and Megan were talking on the phone and their love story starts there. Since that first phone call, Megan has welcomed Patrick’s two sons into her life and she and Patrick added to their family a super squishy baby girl a little over a year ago.

One of the things that Megan shared with us when we first met them to talk about their wedding day, was that she loved how Patrick was such a great dad, was able to be fully present with his sons and her and not hold back on his love and devotion to his family, his friends and his career. We could feel the love and admiration that they have for each other just in the few minutes of our meeting. We chatted about their vision for their day over coffee at our house and made plans for meeting up soon to photograph their engagement session.

Well…as life usually does….their focus shifted from crafting the perfect 200 person party to eloping within a week of meeting us so that they could make sure their family was taken care of! As Megan and Patrick were asking us if we could photograph their wedding the next day – talk of a civil ceremony at the court house or at the chapel downtown didn’t appeal to them, so I offered that if they would like an intimate ceremony with their children and parents, I (Mary Beth) could perform the ceremony for them.

You see, a few years ago, Loren and I were photographing a wedding and the officiant was over 45 minutes late. I thought to myself: “What would happen if he didn’t show up???? How could we ensure that the couple could at least go through with their ceremony??” So I got myself ordained 🙂 Hoping that I wouldn’t ever need to perform a ceremony, but what if?…..

Megan and Patrick loved this idea that Loren and I could photograph before, I could perform the ceremony and he’ll photograph it, then we’ll both help with photos afterwards. It was such an honor that Megan and Patrick felt comfortable enough to trust and allow me to marry them while Loren snapped away. Megan said that she really felt like meeting with us was meant to be!

This wedding will forever hold a special place in our hearts, not only because we clicked right away with Megan and Patrick, but because they could see that we genuinely care about them, too; how their day unfolds and above all else, we wanted to make sure we helped them with making their union official in the short span that they needed.

We hope you enjoy this peak into their downtown Toledo elopement at Middlegrounds Metropark!

Thank you so much Megan and Patrick for your openness to allow us to take care of you and take some of the crazy wedding stress off of your plate. We feel like the term: “When you know, you know.” not only applies to couples but can apply to new friendships as well!