According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, roughly only 3 percent of American women were married at age 18 in 2013. Senior Meagan Freire was a part of this 3 percent. Meagan is one of the few people who made the bold move of getting married before graduating high school.

Getting married is a huge decision to make, especially at such a young age. Though this was a serious decision to make, Meagan confidently determined that she would marry Francesco Freire. Meagan had to convince her parents to allow her to fly out to San Diego to get married because they wanted her to put the wedding off for at least a few months. Meagan convinced her parents that there would be no point in waiting, as that would cause them to lose savings.  

“Being married has kind of forced me to grow up and I’m totally glad about that because my entire life has been full of ambition and goals but now I actually have a reason to keep going,” Meagan said.

Meagan and Francesco decided to get married at a young age because they always knew they would get married and “when you know, why wait?” Along with their love for each other, getting married at a younger age offered them more financial stability since Francesco was in the Navy.

“It was a constant struggle and a lot of things got in the way,” Francesco said. “It was an insane journey just to be able to belong to the one I love. I’m super lucky and blessed to call her my wife. It has benefited our commitment and trust towards each other.”

Meagan and Francesco had known each other for six years after meeting at church and dated for around six months before getting married. On Jan. 19, they took an Uber to their quaint wedding in a courthouse in Chula-Vista, California. The bride chose to wear a black dress from Hot Topic, and the groom decided to wear a suit from Macy’s making it “the perfect 50’s style wedding.”

“They are very young indeed, but they both have the desire and strong-will to make their new life the best they can,” mother-in-law Ada Perotti said. “They have the rest of their lives to grow and progress together.”

After graduation, Meagan plans to move to California and live with her husband for a year and complete the Pathway Program at Brigham Young University. While Francesco is deployed in mid 2018, she’ll stay in Utah with her uncle to attend college and major in animation.

“After breaking up with my first boyfriend, I kind of said a prayer and I was like ‘if this is what dating is like I really want no part in it,’” Meagan said. “I wanted the next person I feel affection towards to be the one I marry. And I kid you not, that night I went to my church activity, I sat next to Francesco and we had a long conversation. It was just weird how that night after I said that prayer, I was with him.”

That night may have started a new relationship for the couple and was only the beginning of prayers and special moments for the two of them together.

“Later on down the road, there were other things that happened, other prayers that were said and it just always led back to us together,” Meagan said. “I just find that so incredible, like all these coincidences. It’s just every time I say a prayer, it seems like he’s there and that’s just something that has been really powerful to me.”