Kali Pillard and Jed Meeker are pronounced husband and wife on Saturday September 1, 2012. in a cornfield in Coggon. Meeker proposed to Pillard in the same spot. (Christy Aumer/The Gazette/KCRG-TV9)

COGGON —Nearly two years ago, 25-year-old Jed Meeker asked for Kali Pillard’s hand in marriage in the middle of a cornfield just north of Coggon on Highway 13.

And on Saturday, the couple tied the knot in the exact same spot.

Tina and Dennis Hogan, owners of the cornfield, said they have seen the couple’s love grow over the years.

“Kali used to baby-sit our girls,” Tina Hogan said. “This was an absolutely perfect day, and the weather is great.”

Meeker said Pillard had once told him she would only marry him if it was “in the middle of a cornfield,” prompting the unusual proposal and wedding site.

On Saturday, about 200 guests drove down a gravel road then walked through an tree-lined arch to a small maze of corn, where a collection of white chairs and carved wooden signs awaited them.

Pillard’s veil fluttered in the wind as the pastor read Matthew 13:1-9, citing a farmer and his seeds, and “whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The pastor said that despite the drought, “the seed you’ve planted has grown in good soil, because it’s beautiful.”

The couple then prepared to release butterflies from a small white box.

“The butterflies will now be released to carry forth the good news of your promises of love and commitment to each other,” the pastor said.

The couple later went to Manchester for their reception.

Pillard and Meeker are both from rural Ryan. Pillard works as the human resources director at the Good Neighbor Society in Manchester, and Meeker works at Red Star Yeast in Cedar Rapids as an industrial maintenance mechanic.