Meagan Mandabach & J.D. Olivet: A Vestavia Hills Wedding

October 23, 2020

Photos by AL Weddings

How We Met: J.D. and I (Meagan) met through a mutual band friend our freshman year of high school at Vestavia Hills High School. We spend every lunch period together that year and became friends through the marching band and Latin class. The next year when we were sophomores, J.D. asked me to homecoming. Shortly after, we started dating, and we’ve been together ever since. After high school, we went to The University of Mississippi together.

The Dress: I ended up shopping at four other shops and trying on dozens of dresses before I made an appointment at Carriage House on a whim. I was so excited when I finally found my gown!

Favorite Details: After getting married in May, we decided that we wanted to get our rings engraved for our wedding ceremony and reception in October. Because we had already exchanged rings and had been wearing our bands for five months, this was our way of commemorating our wedding with our family and friends. Since our relationship began when we were Latin students, J.D. thought it was only fitting to engrave something in Latin. During our vows, we revealed to each other what we engraved on the other’s ring before we exchanged them for the second time.

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment was taking sunset photos together after the ceremony. We were overjoyed to have finally had our wedding with our loved ones and felt so emotional during our ceremony despite already being married. I felt such a sense of peace and gratitude for our marriage, for our family and for the beautiful day we were finally able to celebrate. After the last shots were captured, we took a moment to ourselves to take in the beautiful sunset before going to our reception.