Good things come to those who wait—at the airport.

When Breanne Bouma landed at Dallas-Fort Worth at 5 a.m., dazed from an overnight flight from LAX, to join a group headed to do mission work in Haiti, she wasn’t thinking about romance. She was thinking, “What’s for breakfast?” She was thinking, “Hello, Mom and Dad.” She was wearing a gray sweatshirt and comfy shoes. She had on very little makeup. She wasn’t dressed to meet her future husband.

But that’s what happened.

Physician’s assistant Jarred Minefee was part of the group of 14 traveling with Operation Hope to Montrouis to set up a medical clinic where they would tend to the health needs of people still recovering from the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. He and Breanne exchanged only brief pleasantries that fateful morning, but in the days that followed, they would become inseparable.

And on July 14, 2012, at Fort Worth’s Ashton Depot, they were married.

Breanne, who grew up in El Paso and attended TCU, gushes when she describes her wedding. “It honestly was the best day of my life. It was so incredible in every teensy little way,” she says.

The planning part was easy. “I didn’t want a wedding like everyone else’s,” Breanne says. “And we didn’t want our wedding to be just about us—that’s not who we are. Our goal was that our wedding would be something that invited people into our story.”

She also wanted her day to have a sense of humor. “We are not super serious,” she says. “We are not formal people, and we know how to have a good time. We love to celebrate life, whether it’s a wedding or a backyard barbecue. The important thing for us was to see everyone with huge smiles on their faces.”

Those notions came through in touches such as a sign at the ceremony instructing guests to “Pick a seat, not a side” and a wagon full of babies pulled by the flower girl and bearing a sign that read, “Uncle Jarred, here comes your girl.” They were evident in the happy orange and yellow flowers and the favors, which were donations to the charities that influenced Breanne’s and Jarred’s lives and brought them together. Cakes—the bride’s white shaped like California, the groom’s chocolate shaped like Texas, a third shaped like Haiti—were a nod to the places they hold dear.

And the flash mob? That was just for fun.

—Allison Hatfield

"Our goal was that our wedding would be something that invited people into our story."