Romance Rushes In

One couple gets a head start on forever after a facebook friend request

Leah Miller & Ryan Hansen
Dryfork | 09. 25.10

WRITTEN BY RACHEL HENDERSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Photography By AMANDA

When Ryan Hansen—a native of Bartlett, Illinois—proposed to Leah Miller, the couple had “only been in each other’s presence for about nineteen days or so,” chuckles the bride, a Dryfork native. It was just before Christmas 2009 when Leah, who was living in Davis at the time, went out to dinner with her childhood friend, Elizabeth Lang. Elizabeth told Leah she had a friend who she really believed Leah needed to meet. Elizabeth sang Ryan’s praises saying he and Leah were very similar, and that he was a great listener and adventurous—he was the 2010 Arizona state champion for dirt bike racing. Leah was definitely interested. There was just one catch—Ryan was living in Arizona at the time, and Leah wasn’t really interested in meeting someone who lived that far away.

Leah received a “friend request” on Facebook from Ryan Hansen that said, “I hope this isn’t creepy, but I just wanted to say ‘hi.’” Leah and Ryan’s friendship and then relationship grew from email messages to text messages to talking on the phone for five to six hours every night. When they finally met face-to-face on January 28, 2010, when Ryan flew to the Mountain State for a visit, the soon-to-be newlyweds weren’t the only ones who knew “this was right.” Susan Miller, mother of the bride, also knew. She had no reservations about her future son-in-law. She says, “When I met Ryan in January and saw him with Leah, I knew he was the one for her—the perfect fit, the one she had been waiting for.”

PROPOSAL WITH A VIEW

By April, the couple was talking about “someday when we get married.” Though the couple had intended to wait two years before they got married while Ryan finished school, everyone knew the distance was going to be hard and the timing was right. After work one day, Leah went for a walk at Blackwater Falls State Park. Ryan was hiding in the bushes at Lindy Point with a picnic he and Susan had prepared. While Leah was standing on the point captivated by the view, Ryan popped out of the woods and tapped Leah on the shoulder. When she turned around, she was completely shocked to see the man of her dreams standing there. He gave her a huge hug and said, “I just have one question…” She held her breath, and waited. Ryan asked, “Will you have a picnic with me?” He laid out the picnic and started telling her everything he loved about her; when he finished, he got down on one knee and asked one more question: “Leah, will you marry me?”

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM

Leah says her dress was a “huge dilemma!” On her first attempt, she sent the dress in for alterations, but it came back two sizes too big and with a blood spot on it. On her second attempt, Leah ordered a new dress and sent it in for alterations, and the tailor messed up. On her third attempt, Leah shipped the dress to Elkins the week before the wedding where alterations were finally done right—and finished the day before the wedding! Ever resourceful, Leah wanted a dress she could wear again; so, she plans to shorten and dye her dress and wear it for her and Ryan’s first anniversary celebration.

TRADITIONAL AND UNIQUE

By 10:15 the morning of the wedding, Ryan was ready to see his bride and get things started. “I’m not an overly emotional person,” the groom says. “But I knew when I saw Leah I would get a little tear in my eye.”

Indeed, the first moment he saw his bride walking down the aisle toward him, Ryan says, “It was overwhelming. She was absolutely gorgeous. I felt like the luckiest man in the world.” For Leah, the moments leading up to her walk down the aisle were full of excitement. “It didn’t really hit me that we were getting married until the bridesmaids left down the aisle, and then, when I saw Ryan, it was like time stood still,” she says.

Leah and Ryan’s beliefs inspired a God-honoring ceremony, which included special acts and touches. The couple mixed a traditional ring exchange with personally written vows. “We wanted our vows to be heartfelt,” says the bride. “We didn’t want it to be something we just said to each other. We wanted what we were saying to each other to mean a lot.” Leah’s childhood piano instructor, Gail Poe, played at the ceremony, and her family pastor officiated.

The bride and groom’s parents came up to the altar to pray with the couple, and the mothers of the bride and groom went up to the altar to offer their prayers and best wishes. Instead of lighting a unity candle, Leah and Ryan tied a God knot to symbolize the coming together of their two lives under God’s blessing. They also held a foot washing during which Ryan washed Leah’s feet to symbolize his promise to always serve and care for her, as she would him.

MY, WHAT A RIDE

“Getting from the ceremony to the reception was one of my favorite parts about the whole wedding,” says the bride. Leah’s 94-year-old grandfather told her it would make him very happy to drive her and her new husband to the reception in his 1931 Ford Model A. Her grandfather and uncle put hours and hours of labor and devotion into preparing the antique car for the wedding day. The couple rode in the rumble seat with Leah’s grandpa behind the wheel and her 87-year-old grandma on the front seat next to him.Ryan says, “It was one of the most special memories of the wedding.”

DO-IT-YOURSELF DETAILS

“It was all about the details,” says Leah’s mother, Susan. “My husband gave us a $15,000 budget—for 225 guests—and that had to cover everything from the dress to the photographer to the tables and silverware. So, we had to be very creative.” It all came together, though, thanks in great part to all of the
time and energy the bride and groom’s family and friends put into creating the perfect wedding day. The groom especially applauds his new mother-in-law, “To say Susan was the backbone of the wedding is an understatement.

The ceremony and reception would not have happened without her.” Leah began collecting ideas before she and Ryan were even engaged. The couple was absolutely certain that they wanted the celebration to reflect them as a couple and they wanted it to be unique. So Leah started flipping through magazines as she waited in checkout lines at the grocery store and Googling “unique weddings,” drawing inspiration from the pictures she found.

The bride and her family designed and created almost every detail. Leah’s aunt helped make the ceremony programs—a craft that took three full days, morning to night. She also made the wed ding cake and cupcakes for Leah and Ryan as their wedding gift. The bride’s father built the cupcake towers and table centerpieces.

Hot glue came in handy for this do-it-yourself wedding party! Foil was rolled into balls and moss was hot glued to the foil-balls as part of the centerpieces. Ribbon was hot-glued to the centerpieces and cupcake towers. Susan printed Leah and Ryan’s engagement photos and glued them to leftover cardstock and hung the pictures from the centerpieces—mountain laurel branches collected from the bride’s family’s neighbor. Leah’s father filled each box with 80 little concrete to hold the branches in place. And the engagement-photo “ornaments” are now hanging on Leah and Ryan’s Christmas tree!

FESTIVITIES ON THE FARM

At the reception, guests found their seat assignments on Starbucks-themed place cards. Leah says, “We are very, very, very big coffee drinkers, and we thought the coffee-theme was a perfect way to personalize the reception.” Guests dined from a pasta bar, which, of course, included homemade spaghetti sauce made by the bride’s grandfather and Alfredo sauce made the morning of the wedding day.

After cutting the cake, Leah and Ryan served ice cream to all 225 attendees, which gave the couple another chance to visit with each of their guests. The bluegrass band Star Line Drive kept the party festive. As a fun addition to the celebration, the couple played the “shoe game.” Leah and Ryan sat in chairs back to back, she with one of her shoes and one of Ryan’s shoes, and he with one of hers and one of his. They were asked questions like “Who will take out the trash?” and they would “answer,” without being able to see each other’s answers, by raising the appropriate person’s shoe. Trivial Pursuit question cards were also scattered on the guest tables, so friends and family could quiz the newlyweds. If Leah and Ryan answered correctly, they got to kiss; if they answered incorrectly, they didn’t get to kiss.

SKY-HIGH PHOTOGRAPHY

Leah arranged for her uncle to fly over the family farm in his private plane as soon as everyone arrived at the reception to take an aerial photo of the couple and all of their guests. The party gathered in an “H” with Leah and Ryan in the middle. “It was neat to have a picture of everyone with the reception all
set up,” says Leah.

Instead of having guests wait while the couple and their wedding party had photographs taken after the ceremony, they slipped out for a formal photo shoot while guests were finishing their dinners. “From the moment I was contacted by Leah about capturing her and Ryan’s wedding day was very excited. It was apparent how truly in love they are,” says photography Amanda Kisamore. “Their planning made my job so easy. They truly get photography. They are relaxed, fun, and go with the flow. They concentrated on the moment, and so, their photographs turned out so natural.