Dreams fulfilled despite spill

SALT LAKE CITY — When 33,000 gallons of Colorado crude oil broke loose from a Chevron pipeline two weeks ago, it swept a path of havoc and destruction from the edge of scenic Red Butte Garden miles west to the Jordan River.

Residents along Red Butte Creek and the Jordan River, as well as visitors to Liberty Park, saw firsthand what the thick, black petroleum can do to once-beautiful waterways.

And though the sludge carried away the dreams of dozens of young men and women, whose long-planned wedding celebrations in the idyllic Garden Park Ward were no longer tenable, a wish for one couple 50 years in the making finally became reality.

One-of-a-kind setting

Salt Lake City wedding planner Mara Marian calls the Garden Park site "one of the most beautiful spots in the city" for nuptial celebrations. The property has a history intertwined with that of the Mormon pioneers who settled the area in the mid-19th century.

The ornately landscaped grounds on Yale Avenue and just east of 1100 East straddle Red Butte Creek and include small bridges that crisscross the creek, a pond, tiled cupola and 150-year-old trees — all nestled next to the LDS meetinghouse built in 1938 and renovated in 2007.

The popularity of the setting for wedding celebrations grew to a point that, about a decade ago, events had to be limited to families who lived in the ward.

Among those lucky families is Stephanie Tibbs, 25, who never considered anywhere but Garden Park as the place where her big day would be celebrated.

"I've been dreaming of my wedding being there since I was a little girl," Tibbs said. "There was never a doubt in my mind."

All seemed to be in place for Tibbs to realize her childhood plans after friends introduced her to Kristjan Morgan, and love and wedding plans soon followed.

But sometime during the night of June 11, a quarter-sized breach in the 10-inch pipe that carries crude from Colorado to a Salt Lake City refinery started a chain of events that would prove the undoing of the Tibbs-Morgan wedding at Garden Park, as well as many others.

But one event seemed to have been kissed by destiny.

A wish unfulfilled

In 1960, another young bride-to-be had her sights set on a Garden Park wedding. Madeline Jones, of Clearfield, was engaged to marry her high school sweetheart, Wayne Barlow.