Magnificent waterfall wedding at Oregon's Mt. Hood

Maddie and Mo originally planned a destination wedding, but their pandemic back up plans weren’t half bad. They ended up doing a hike to a beautiful waterfall at Oregon’s Mt. Hood. Surrounded by nature, they said “I do” at a gorgeous, intimate wedding ceremony beside a stream.

The lovers met on Tinder.
Maddie messaged Mo first saying “hi. you’re cute.” The first time we met up, it was not planned at all. Mo got stood up by their friends for Tuesday night Trivia at their favorite dive bar. They had mentioned that they were going to have to fail at trivia all alone, and Maddie asked if Mo wanted company… which they did. But they were also afraid that Maddie might be a crazy-person, so Mo called up one of their good friends (Gabrielle, the officiant for the wedding) and had them come to the bar. So Maddie shows up, with a gaggle of lesbians, at a dive bar (not her scene) to play trivia (again, not her scene), but some how Mo didn’t totally scare her away and it ended up working out just fine.

How long have you been together?

We will get married exactly 4.5 years after we started officially dating.

How did you get engaged?

Maddie and Mo had planned a trip back home to visit Oregon from Arizona. Mo thought that it would be a great time to ask Maddie to marry them. So they found this cute place on the Oregon Coast – where they had planned a little getaway. It was this little section of beach where people would put their painted rocks. So Mo made a rock that said “Goat” on one side and “marry me?” on the other, and had planned on planting it on the beach while we were putting our own rock that we had painted together down. The plan was great. Until Maddie saw a picture of the proposal rock a few days before we left for Portland….

Flash forward to the first day of our Oregon adventure. Maddie and Mo had planned to visit the Portland Night Market (a tradition when they lived in Portland) right before meeting up with a bunch of friends and family at a local tap house. While Maddie was taking a nap, Mo had the idea of proposing at the night market and started texting G. The night market was where Mo decided that they really loved Maddie, so it held a special place in their heart. Both Mo and G decided this was a great plan.

So Mo and Maddie get to the night market, right as they open. Maddie is walking around, wanting to try all of the samples of everything, Mo is trying not to throw up and probably looked like a terrorist with their hands in their pockets being all nervous. Mo tells Maddie that there is a place that they want to get a photo – on the balcony, overlooking the market. So they eventually go up there, Mo thinking that they are going to start crying and throwing up at any second. Find the spot that Mo wants to be at, and rather than grab their camera from the bag, they grab the painted proposal rock, thrust it into Maddie’s hands, start cry-talking about Maddie being their home and their heart, and probably some other gushing stuff that honestly neither of them remember, got down on one knee (Maddie followed suit) and asked Maddie to marry them. She said yes. We were in a kind of secluded spot, but some folks – who just happened to be the people running the night market – happened to see us. They gave us some time to cry and hug and kiss, but then came over and offered their congrats and got us champagne. And then we headed to meet up with all of our Oregon friends and family and was able to have a impromptu engagement party.

Is there anything special or unique you’d like to tell us about your wedding?

I mean, we are getting married during a pandemic!

We knew that we wanted our wedding to be outside. Mo sent a photo of a waterfall and “wrote” on the photo that they wanted to get married at the bottom of the waterfall… as a joke. But as is the case with a lot of goofy stuff that Maddie and Mo end up doing, the joke became reality.

So here we are, getting married at a waterfall, during a pandemic. I am not sure that there is a lot of people who can say this of their weddings!