Devil’s Lake is a big part of our love story,” says Ariel Meyer. “We both sought it as a spiritual refuge throughout our lives. When we connected as a couple, we went there for the first time together. It’s our place.”
For this reason, she and Brian Meyer chose Devil’s Lake as their wedding location – and theme. Both the ceremony and reception were at The Gathering Place at Red Oak, within the state park.
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Nature is important to the couple, who got engaged while horseback riding in Wyoming.
“Brian said, ‘Ariel, I love adventuring with you. The only thing that would make it better is if you were my wife,’” recalls Ariel. After the ride, “when we turned the car on, the radio was playing my parents’ ‘first dance’ song: James Taylor’s ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),’” says Ariel, whose father had died two years earlier. “It just felt like my dad congratulating us. He knew.”
The wedding date was equally intuitive.
“October is our favorite month,” she says. “Seven [is how many] years we have known each other.” Décor was intentionally minimal, with white cascade flowers, and cedar and pine boughs. “I like that fresh, clean feeling and wanted to highlight the natural greenery of the area,” says Ariel. “My bridesmaids were all in green: different textures and color tones.” Photos of the couple were taken at a rock along the Devil’s Doorway Trail.
Brian’s three-piece navy-plaid wool suit was paired with a boutonniere of cedar sprigs and white flowers. Ariel wore an Emmeline Bride skirt she’d saved from when she owned a bridal shop in Delafield. Kit Hunzinger (of KIT Co.) made a matching custom bodice and Ariel sewed on embroidered gingko leaves (her dad’s favorite tree).
Hand-dyed pine boughs on the veil’s edges added pops of green. “I wanted to feel like Titania, the queen of the fairies, walking through the forest,” says Ariel.
Three weeks before the wedding, Ariel was diagnosed with stage-4 aggressive breast cancer. She’s now in remission. “When you’re standing there saying ‘in sickness and health’ and your partner has stage 4 cancer, that’s hard and impactful,” says Ariel, who told guests she wanted a day to not talk about the cancer. “People really respected that and were in the moment.”
