A Peacock-Themed Castle Wedding at Meyer's Castle in Dyer, Indiana

While attending a Bruno Mars concert with mutual friends, Nicole (31 and network administrator) and Liyan (30 and a project manager) instantly hit it off. Four years later, while hiking at Pictured Rocks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Nicole brought along her camera and started taking pictures of the scenery. Liyan then took the camera to take pictures of her, and while she was busy posing, he proposed. He was able to capture her surprised expression with one hand and a ring in the other. Unable to find a ring that he thought would suit Nicole’s minimalist style, Liyan designed the diamond himself. “I love the fact that he knew me well enough to design a ring without my input,” Nicole says. While they originally wanted a destination wedding, they instead decided on a venue close to home so that Liyan’s 95-year-old grandmother could attend. They threw an elaborate, peacock-themed wedding merging their Chinese and Filipino cultures at Meyer’s Castle in the heart of Dyer, Indiana. When asked why she wanted a peacock theme, Nicole said, “It symbolizes openness, immortality, protectiveness, and prosperity in Chinese, which we wish to achieve in our relationship and lifetime commitment to each other."