A Butterfly Release, Four Wedding Gowns & a Grandma Flower Girl on This Big Day

Meg and Austin tied the knot on August 16, 2024 at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club.

Their Story

When Austin Hagaman was in an Uber after his first date with Meghann (Meg) Ludemann, his sister texted to ask how it had gone. “Met my future wife tonight,” he responded. Sometimes, you just know.

The pair had met on a dating app in a near-miss encounter. Meg, a journalist working in social media for Yahoo, had joined the app the same day Austin, who works in wealth management, was going to delete it. But they connected. “We started to talk,” Meg says, “and we just never stopped.”

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The Proposal

In summer 2023, Austin proposed near Asbury Park’s Stella Marina Bar & Restaurant.

Meg didn’t know he had secured her dad’s permission and invited their families. Since Meg associates butterflies with her mom, who had passed two years earlier, Austin had his sister scatter decorative butterflies on a bench near where he planned to propose.

Meg noticed them, and saw her family looking on from the restaurant, just as he seized his moment.

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Details of the Day

Meg wanted “a European country stone cottage-feel” and found exactly that in Fiddler’s Elbow. With an “edgy elegant” style in mind, the couple settled on a black-and-white palette, with pale pink flowers and gold accents.

Large flowering trees enhanced the space. For their August 16, 2024, wedding, the dress code was black tie, and the wedding party was all in black—as was the wedding cake, which featured figurines of the couple’s dogs, Stephen Gary and Ted Rooney.

Steak and duck were the main course offerings, along with “breaded scallops that people talk about to this day,” says Meg. The couple extended their reception an extra hour in lieu of a separate after-party. The dancing was capped off with pizza trucks and boxes of Girl Scout cookies for late-night snacks.

Gowns Galore

Without intending to, Meg ended up with five gowns.

She found one quickly, but later she worried it was too quick and shopped some more. That turned into a second dress and a third. She tried to sell one online but instead found a fourth. And then there was her mom’s dress, which her uncle located just in time to be altered.

Each had its moment: She wore her mom’s dress for her first look with her dad. One was worn for portraits, one for the ceremony and one for dancing. (And one didn’t make the wedding.)

Meg’s 94-year-old grandmother was there to zip the bride into her first dress—and be a flower girl!

First Dance 

They chose a slowed-down version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” The song embodies the Boss’ belief that great music—and great love stories—are more than the sum of their parts.

“One plus one equals three,” says Austin, quoting the concept that he had previously thought impossible. “She made me believe it.”

Unforgettable Moment

A solitary monarch butterfly lingered after the ceremony butterfly release. It followed Meg into the venue, and stayed the whole night. “The wedding coordinator said, ‘This is definitely your mother,’” Meg recalls.

Honeymoon

The Hagamans went to Paris and the south of France before returning to Manasquan.

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