Stephanie and Paul
August 14, 2004
St. Louis, Missouri

ABOUT THE BRIDE: Stephanie grew up in Rolla, Missouri. She graduated from Truman State University with a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Journalism. Stephanie currently works as the Senior Wedding Planner for Details Event Coordinators.

ABOUT THE GROOM: Paul grew up in Florissant. He graduated from Truman State University with a B.S. in Finance. Paul is currently in his second year of SLU law school.

HOW WE MET: A group of 12 of Stephanie's friends from Truman went to Panama City for Spring Break in 2000. The first day they were there they went to Wal-Mart to stock up on a few essentials for their hotel and while they were in the check-out line they noticed there were a few guys they recognized from Truman. There ended up being 13 guys all together from Truman who were spending Spring Break down in Panama City too! They invited the girls to spend some time over at their hotel before going out one night and the girls ended up going and that is where Stephanie met Paul. (So don't let anyone ever tell you that you won't meet anyone worth dating on Spring Break!)

ENGAGEMENT: I love Christmas presents maybe more than anyone else in the history of the world! On December 18, 2003 there was nothing on television and I was SO bored. I told Paul that we should exchange one of our Christmas presents to each other early. He had yet to buy one for me so I suggested going to Walgreens and buying a joke present for each other. Then we could wrap it up and then exchange them. He agreed with this idea (only someone truly in love would agree to some of my quirky ideas) so we went to Walgreens and secretly bought each other a present. When we got back to my house we went to different rooms and wrapped our new purchases. We met up in the living room for the big exchange. I gave him his present first and it was a bobble head Pug doll (we have a pug named Rampage). He had four small presents for me and said to open one particular one first because it was the best. So I opened up the present he handed me and it was a small M&M figurine with mini M&Ms in it. Then he said I could pick whichever present I wanted because the rest of them were pretty much the same. So the next present I opened up was a small mahagony box and when I opened it there was an engagement ring. I looked up and he had gotten down on his knee and was proposing!

PLANNING: Planning my wedding was actually a lot easier for me than it would be for a normal bride. Since I work in weddings everyday I had a definite advantage because I knew what I liked, what I didn't like, and what vendors were the best in St. Louis. I never got stressed out about anything bad happening at my wedding because I have coordinated so many weddings and nothing has ever happened at a wedding that you can't fix. So I knew there wasn't anything to worry about. Plus, I got to make all of the decisions and I never really passed anything by Paul because he knew I was going to make the right decisions regarding the wedding.

ATTIRE: I wore an ivory dress from The Ultimate Bride. My bridesmaids gowns were lilac tea-length dresses with an ivory sash by Dessy from The Ultimate Bride. The tuxedos were from Savvi Formalwear.

THE CEREMONY: The ceremony took place at The Junior League of St. Louis. When I was walking down the aisle towards Paul I didn't even see my bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the flowers, or the officiant. All I focused on was Paul. Now when I see pictures I realize how beautiful it was!

After the ceremony everyone went outside and had hors d'oeuvres, iced tea, and lemonade on the patio.

THE RECEPTION: When it was almost time to ring the dinner chimes I went into the room to see how it looked before all of my guests were allowed in. When I walked into the room the candles were lit, the centerpieces were perfect, the cake was set up -- it was all AMAZING! It was exactly what I had imagined!MY RECOMMENDATION TO ALL BRIDES: Truly enjoy your day. I work with so many brides who are so worried about the small things that they completely miss out on the really big thing -- they are getting married! You have hired your vendors because you like the work that they do, so trust them to do the job that you hired them to do. And besides, if you are stressed on your wedding day -- it will show up in the pictures.

VENDORS WE USED:

Wedding Coordination - Details Event Coordinators
Invitations and printed materials - The Envelope
Reception - The Junior League of St. Louis
Photography - Tom Warwick from Warwick Photography;
Flowers - Caroline Kelsey Designs
Ceremony Musicians - Landolfi Quartet
Chair Covers and Overlays - Sitting Pretty
Reception Music - TKO D.J.'s

If you have questions or comments for Stephanie and Paul, please e-mail them.