Heritage Prairie Farm Wedding | Meg + Abigail

Love Stories

June 8, 2023

For Pride month, I had to share Meg and Abigail’s beautiful Heritage Prairie Farm wedding. Abigail and Meg embraced their queerness throughout this wedding, and I LOVED it. So many details of their Heritage Prairie Farm wedding nodded to gay jokes and stereotypes, including a “Gay Agenda” for their day-of plans. Their friends also rented and decorated a Uhaul for their getaway car, it was amazing! They also incorporated an LGBTQ+ pride flag into a few of their couple’s photos as well.

I really love how they embraced their goofy, fun personalities with their friends – both the pants side and the dress side of the wedding party – while still finding plenty of time for sweet, tender moments between the two of them. Meg and Abigail are the type of lovers that look at each other and just laugh, clearly the best of friends. But they also exchanged letters with one another before the ceremony, snuck in plenty of kisses, and made time for long embraces.

How They Met

Like most people these days, Abigail and Meg met online! They both came to the date a bit jaded about relationships and decided to just be fully honest about who they were and what they wanted. Apparently, that strategy worked because here we are, looking at their beautiful wedding! They first met at a local coffee shop, but their first real date was to see Company of Thieves in concert.

The Story of the Ring

Meg told me the story of sourcing Abigail’s ring during their engagement session, and I knew I had to share it one day! Abigail wanted a rose-cut diamond, which went out of style in the 1930s, so it was fairly impossible for Meg to find. Meg once drove all the way to Indiana on a whim to see if a particular jewelry store actually carried them, was told no, and drove the 1.5 hours back, crying a little. Fortunately, about a week later, the jeweler called and said they actually could do it! But by the time the ring was created and ready for pick-up, the pandemic hit. So the ring sat in the store in Indiana for over a month.

Finally, on their anniversary in June, they decided to do a picnic at a local forest preserve. Meg discretely hid the ring box in the bottom of the basket, but Abigail just grabbed the food from the top and didn’t even bother opening the basket all the way. The entire meal Meg panicked, trying to figure out a way to get Abigail to actually dig through the basket and discover the ring. Finally, at the end of the meal, Abigail remembered she had made brownies. She asked Meg if they wanted a napkin or to just eat the brownie with their hands. Meg, suddenly realizing that there were bowls at the very bottom of the basket, anxiously blurted out “I WANT IT IN A BOWL!” So Abigail did discover the ring, and they did actually get engaged. Also, instead of saying yes, Abigail said, “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” because she was so excited.

Details of this Heritage Prairie Farm wedding

Abigail and Meg’s Heritage Prarie Farm wedding had so many thoughtful details. Let’s start with their attire. Meg’s suit is Kirrin Finch, a gender-defying fashion brand that meets the growing demand for gender-defying fashion by creating menswear-inspired apparel designed to fit a range of female and non-binary bodies. Abigail’s gorgeous tea-length dress is Oleg Cassini from David’s Bridal and suited her style – and the details Heritage Prairie Farm – so well. Abigail designed the flowers herself, and Meg designed their wedding invitations! One of my favorite details from the day was that they created a soundtrack for their wedding day – a Spotify playlist that they gifted to everyone.

They started the day getting ready with their squad in two different on-site suites, then had a private first look near a big tree that they love on the property. After taking some photos with each other and their loved ones, they had a laugh-inducing and tear-jerking ceremony in the barn. Meg’s grandma served as the flower girl, or should I say, flower grandma, and did an amazing job. My favorite part of their ceremony was the unity sand. They did this part of the ceremony to a poem by Andrea Gibson – one of my personal favorite poets, and of course, one of theirs, too.

Their reception started with heartfelt speeches from their friends and family. Then it was time to eat! Heritage Prarie Farm is an organic farm, and everything is farm-to-table. Meg and Abigail worked with the chef to create the menu, and dinner was absolutely delicious. After cake cutting and some special dances, we snuck away a bit to watch the incredible sunset and sneak in a few sunset photos. Then, these two danced the night away with their friends! As you’ll see, the dance floor was poppin’ and the guests were celebrating big! Meg and Abigail wound down with the farm cat, Carl, who was quite a hit. It was truly an unforgettable day.

Kind words from Abigail after their engagement session:

“We just finished our engagement session with Tawny and will be having her photograph our wedding in September. The pictures are absolutely beautiful, and she is so much fun to work with! My fiancee and I both feel photos are one of the most important parts of a wedding since you might forget some parts of the day but the pictures will be on your walls for decades. We have a diverse wedding party in gender identity/presentation, race, and size. It was important to us that our photographer would be respectful and affirming, as well as able to make a variety of people look their best at the same time. Tawny has delivered, and then some! I truly cannot recommend her highly enough!! An added bonus is that she makes us feel so comfortable and special at the same time. Although she has a ton of clients, she always makes us feel like we are the only couple in the world. Her warmth and kindness make us feel like we have known her forever! Just book her already!!!”