A Winter Wonderland Wedding

A Bridgeport couple chooses a sentimental cabin in scenic Canaan Valley as the backdrop for their “low-key” nuptials.

Megan Signorelli and Donny Hollen
Canaan Valley | 01.20.24

written by Holly Leleux-Thubron  
photographed by Zoe Evans Photography

When Bridgeport natives Megan Signorelli and Donny Hollen got engaged, they considered a destination wedding—set at a beach or some other place that would be warm and full of character, like Charleston, South Carolina. The last thing they expected was to exchange vows on the deck of a sentimental cabin in single-digit temperatures as a winter storm blew through. But that’s exactly how it happened and, looking back, it was “absolutely perfect” that way, they say.

a fated pair

The couple first met briefly at a West Virginia University football game during the fall of 2016. They were from the same town and had mutual friends and family, but they had never crossed paths until that day. Love might have escaped them again had it not been for another chance meeting, not long after the first, at the Bridgeport restaurant The Social Tap in March 2017.

“There was obviously a little bit of attraction both times we met,” says Megan. “Bridgeport feels like a really small town, and I just could not believe that we had never met before. It took meeting that second time in close succession for us to really pay attention and consider that there might be something there.”

written in the sand

And so two strangers became a couple and started a life together. Several years had passed when Donny decided that a family trip to the beach was the perfect opportunity to make it official. Megan explains that the pair were walking along the beach with their 3-year-old son. Her sisters and parents were just ahead.

“We came across words written in the sand: ‘Will you marry me,’” Megan says. “I turned to Donny and said, ‘Aw look, someone got engaged here.’ But when I turned around, I saw that he was down on one knee, and he pulled out a ring. I thought it was a joke at first. My sister and her fiancé were engaged the week before, and I hadn’t even considered that this would be the time for us, too.”

Her parents and sisters were in on the surprise, and Megan’s dad playfully lamented the cost of two weddings at once, she says.

when life happens, you pivot

The couple definitely thought they would opt for a destination affair. A baby girl on the way put those plans on the backburner, and a smaller, more intimate occasion came into focus.

“Life happens and things change, and we just thought something different than what we first considered would be OK,” she says. The pair set their sights on a private cabin venue in Canaan Valley where Megan’s family had vacationed with family friends since she was a child. Donny loved the idea, having been there with the family multiple times.

“We both just really fell in love with doing a close family occasion in that cabin full of rustic decorations. A place that we loved full of the people that we loved was all we really needed,” Megan says. “It was so easy, and it just kind of came together perfectly.”

It was a low-key ceremony with a small group of family and friends held on the cabin’s deck. Two feet of snow had fallen, and it was still coming down. The temperature struggled to top 5 degrees. Megan describes the setting as “God showing off that day.”

She was escorted down the snow-covered aisle by her father, Joe Signorelli, as an instrumental version of “Marry Me” by Train played. She wore a formal white wedding dress with white boots and carried a natural bouquet of pine and white flowers. The pair exchanged quick, traditional vows delivered by officiant Eric Kinney, one of Megan’s best friends from childhood. “It was so cold, like the cold just smacked you in the face, so we were pretty focused on getting it done as quickly as possible,” she says with a laugh.

The simplicity of the ceremony was the couple’s favorite part, along with the food. Donny had more opinions when planning the wedding than Megan expected, she says, and what he cared about most of all was the food. Following the vow exchange, everyone retreated to warm up near a roaring fire in the large stone fireplace inside the cabin. The couple feasted with their friends and family on dishes created by The “O” by Oliverios in Bridgeport and Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center in Davis.

a family affair

In true family fashion, everyone chipped in, Megan says. Her father, family friend and cabin owner Chip Hefner, and others kept snow shovels at the ready to deal with the heavy snow before and during the gathering. Her mother, Kim Signorelli, and family friend and cabin owner Tawnya Hefner, did a lot of the planning, decorating, and coordination. The groom’s mother, Betty Hall, helped put the finishing touches on the decor, as did family friends Pattae and Jon Kinney, the officiant’s parents. A close friend did the bride’s hair and makeup, and her sisters helped wherever they could. “It was a real group effort to turn a beautiful cabin in the woods into a wedding venue,” she says. “And what we were all able to do made it so magical.”

Entertainment during the informal reception was almost the most effortless thing about the whole day, because the crowd was focused on the WVU vs. Kansas basketball game on TV. “Our families are all big WVU fans,” Megan says. “Some of them even gave us a hard time—with love—for scheduling our ceremony during the game. The Mountaineers won, and we all celebrated by gathering in a big circle and singing ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads.’”

The Hollens say their wedding day was stress-free, and they attribute that to trusting their gut. “I really expected the whole wedding planning thing to be so stressful, but it didn’t turn out that way for us,” Megan says. “It’s so important to trust your instincts and do what you really want, not things to please others.”

Following their winter wonderland wedding day, the couple took a short trip to Clearwater, Florida, for a honeymoon—and babymoon—before returning home to Bridgeport to reunite with their young son and welcome their baby girl.

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