These two lovebirds’ story was too cute not to share and so they used it as a backdrop for their St. Louis celebrations. Cheree Berry weaved their tale throughout all of the stationery and with Cosmopolitan Events leading the way, we have one super creative, super personal soiree. Jon Koch captured their happily ever after and my Pinterest boards are getting a hefty update from all the goodies right here.
From The Bride… Here’s the story I wrote for my 3rd grade class to tell my students I got engaged: Once there was a girl named Bridget who went to Indiana University. She was very fun and outgoing and could not wait to venture out on her own! While she was in college, she decided to study abroad in Ireland. While she was there, she met a boy named Brian who went to Butler University, and they quickly became great friends. While they were in Ireland together they traveled all over and made lots of great friends. When it was time to return to the United States, they decided to remain friends and stay in touch with each other.
After college, Bridget moved to the big city of Chicago to pursue her dream of working in advertising. She moved in with her best friend from high school named Whitney and Whitney’s best friend from DePauw University, Katie. The three girls loved living together and had so much fun together. Soon, Bridget’s friend Brian from studying abroad also moved to Chicago and became friends with Whitney and Katie too.
One weekend, all of Bridget and Brian’s friends from Ireland came in town for a “study abroad reunion” and Katie came along too. It became clear that weekend that Brian had a crush on Katie (even though Bridget warned him to stay away from her friend!), and they started getting closer sharing new music and their favorite bands. Katie and Brian became inseparable from that weekend on. They enjoyed going to concerts together, traveling to new places, playing tennis, getting together with friends and playing with her dog.
But then, something very bittersweet happened. Brian got an amazing promotion within John Hancock that would take him to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sadly, Brian moved away from Chicago and Katie. Soon after, Katie got a dream teaching job offer in St. Louis that she couldn’t turn down and she left Chicago as well. So Brian and Katie lived in different cities for two years traveling back and forth to see each other.
After over two years of long distance, Brian decided that he wanted to ask Katie to marry him. Brian started conspiring with Katie’s best friend Cassie to find out what Katie wanted and designed a beautiful ring he thought would be perfect for her, and it was. He was originally planning on asking her parents’ permission on a weekend visit to see Katie, but soon found out her parents would not be there! Brian wanted to do things right so he drove ten hours to talk to her dad without Katie even knowing he was in St. Louis in order to get her dad’s permission to ask for her hand in marriage.
On Brian’s next visit, he had a plan to propose to Katie before they saw The Script (one of Katie’s favorite bands) in concert at Art Hill on Thursday night. Unfortunately the weather was uncooperative so Brian spent the entire concert carefully guarding the ring in his pocket. The next day, he asked Katie if she would like to take her 100 pound yellow lab Payton on a long walk in Forest Park. It was a beautiful fall day so Katie happily obliged. They walked all around the park and enjoyed each other’s company. When they got to the top of Art Hill, they stopped to look at the scenic view. Katie was lamenting that poor Payton was too short to see the beautiful fountains below over the wall, when all of the sudden, Katie looked down and saw Brian on one knee holding a sparkly ring. He asked her to marry him, and she said yes! Katie and Brian were ecstatic, and even her dog Payton was overjoyed to have Brian join their family.
Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to get married in Santa Fe where my family visited each summer. Brian wanted to have a big party where all our friends and family would be able to attend. We decided to merge the two together by having a Santa Fe themed wedding in St. Louis (my hometown). Our goal was to recreate the feeling of being in Santa Fe through the flowers, food, décor (plank tables with low hanging chandeliers over them), and jewelry. The flowers and place cards included succulents to incorporate the southwest theme. Catering St. Louis custom designed a dinner menu with Southwestern flavors including cumin rubbed beef tenderloin, green chile crab cakes, and green chile grits. We also searched to find wood plank farm tables and hung eclectic chandeliers low over the tables to recreate the intimate feel of our favorite patio in Santa Fe. I wore my Navajo squash blossom necklace for the ceremony and my squash blossom bracelet for both the ceremony and reception. I also opted to wear cowboy booties under my dress. Our hotel welcome baskets were also from the Santa Fe Cooking School with a Southwestern snack sampler.
When Brian and I first got engaged, I wrote a story about it to tell my third grade class at the time. We decided to use this story throughout our save the dates, invitations, and day of paper products created by Cheree Berry. Our save the date was a mini-book telling the story of our relationship. Our invitations also included another mini-book as the reception card. Finally, each of the table numbers at our wedding was as chapter in our story. Cheree Berry custom created a pattern for many of the paper products using my squash blossom bracelet as inspiration as well.
My favorite moment was walking into the reception as husband and wife seeing all my family and friends. I was so overjoyed to be married to the man of dreams, and proud to be able to show him off as my husband! The room also felt so inviting and warm, and looked even more perfect than I imagined. We could truly feel the love and support from all of our loved ones in that moment.
Brian’s favorite moment was sitting together listening to the speeches from my dad, the best men, and matron of honor. This was our opportunity to finally sit back and relax with our loved ones. Brian highly anticipated my father’s speech after his speech at my sister’s wedding, and his speech did not disappoint. Brian’s best men also made us laugh and cry through their amazing storytelling and use of props.
Photography: Jon Koch Photography | Event Planning: Cosmopolitan Events | Floral Design: Wildflowers | Wedding Dress: Badgley Mischka | Cake: Encore Bakery | Ceremony Venue: Webster Groves Presbyterian Church | Reception Venue: Catering St. Louis | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Coren Moore Inc. | Catering: Catering St. Louis | Transportation: Best Transportation | Ceremony Musicians: Rosewood Ensemble | Hair & Make-Up: DanielleStyle | Paper: Cheree Berry Paper | Reception Musicians: Griffin And The Gargoyles | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Algonquin Golf Club | Wooden Table Rentals: Chicago Farm Tables