COASTAL COUPLE
Jessica & Mike Duncan reveal the everyday habits, honest conversations, and small choices that have kept their marriage strong HOW DID YOU MEET? JESSICA: He came walking up at a party I was at. He was mad that there was a party going on at his house while he was at work. And he walked up and I said, “Who is that? He will be mine.” He didn’t see me that day, though. MIKE: I saw her several times because she hung out with an older crowd. She always caught my eye, but I knew she was really young. I kind of tried to steer away from her. But, it was some kind of animal magnetism, I tell you. We couldn’t be left in a room alone because we felt like we were going to attack each other. JESSICA: In a good way. There was definitely a connection right away, and it wasn’t verbal. It was like we could just look at each other and know what each other was thinking.
HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE IN LOVE? MIKE: I was not looking for love and then after I met her, she was the one person I couldn’t live without. JESSICA: I knew I was in love with him on our very first date. When we had our first kiss at the end of the night, I was shaking. I just knew I was in love with him.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES TOGETHER? JESSICA: I definitely think my favorite memory of our relationship was one of our trips. It was the Grand Canyon for our 20 year anniversary. We did four days of camping off the beaten path. We got to see parts nobody ever gets to see. We got to hike down and swim in the Colorado River and lay down at night and see the Milky Way. It was amazing. MIKE: I was going to say the same thing. We were on a big plateau and I didn’t know how many thousands of feet up we were, but she wanted to do it. We hiked all the way down to the Colorado River and jumped in. But, the fact that she just didn’t even think about it and wanted to do it, I was like, “Okay here we go.” That was awesome.
32 | COASTAL WEDDINGS MAGAZINE
WHEN DID YOU GET MARRIED, AND WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE WEDDING? JESSICA: In 2000. My favorite part…we made it more about us. We tried as much as possible to not make it about everyone else, which is really hard to do when you’re planning a wedding. Where we got married and the songs we chose were just very unique. It was definitely us. MIKE: Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Do you remember when they announced that we were married? There was a tiger cage right behind us. I threw my hand up in the air, and the tiger roared right when that happened. Everybody laughed. IF YOU COULD GIVE YOUR MARRIAGE A SLOGAN, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY? JESSICA: Better together. MIKE: Yeah, I like that. JESSICA: Or the one we put on the inside of our rings. “You complete me.”