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Couple married by Major Brent Taylor celebrates first anniversary

Posted at 5:27 PM, Nov 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-08 22:03:14-05

OGDEN, Utah — One couple in Ogden is coming up on their first year anniversary of marriage, but what makes this anniversary so special is the person who married them — Mayor Brent Taylor.

Kelsey and Marie McManis said they were on a date when they decided they wanted to get married that night. It was November 29.

“I’d been planning on proposing, just not that quick,” Kelsey McManis said.

The couple called their ecclesiastical leaders, and when none could perform the ceremony, they thought to ask their mayor.

“At that point his name came to my mind and I messaged Mayor Taylor on Facebook,” Kelsey McManis said. “Couple of minutes later he messaged me back and said yes, he would definitely marry us.”

The McManis’s met Taylor at the Ogden Temple where he performed the ceremony.

“For the whole 10 minutes he was with us, he was just happy smiling,” Marie McManis said. “He even put his arms around us, took pictures with us on the temple grounds.”

Now in the McManis home sits a marriage certificate with Taylor’s signature and a memory of what they said was the most important 10 minutes of their lives.

“He was so friendly,” Kelsey McManis said. “I will just never forget his huge smile.”

Killed by an inside attacker in Afghanistan. Taylor not only leaves behind a widow and seven kids, but also those who were touched by his life after knowing him — even just for 10 minutes.

“It was really heart wrenching,” Kelsey McManis said. “Knowing that a man had impacted our life and taken the time out of his life.”

Weeks away from their first anniversary, the McManis’s said they’re still working on getting sealed inside the temple — something they hoped Taylor would have been there for.

“He said if he can make it back in time that he’d love to be there,” Kelsey McManis said.

A sealing they said, they can do to honor him.

“He basically gave up his life for his wife, his family, for the community and the country,” Marie McManis said. “He’ll always be remembered and he will always be in our hearts, and so will his family and children.”