A few weeks ago, my family and I took a wonderful trip to St. Louis for the wedding of some very good friends. My husband was the best man, my daughter was the flower girl...and you can probably guess who designed the invitations. :)
It was my first trip to St. Louis and I have to say I was VERY excited to see the arch. Ever since Mrs. Edward's class in the 5th grade I have wanted to see it...not really sure what it was that captured and held my imagination for so long, but it sure did feel good to finally see it and take a ride to the top.
We stayed in the historic St. Louis Union Station Hotel, which is housed in a converted train station. The hotel was amazing...and very convenient to the arch. The beautiful main hall is also available for weddings...a gorgeous space if you don't mind getting married in a busy hotel lobby. There were at least 4 weddings going on in this hotel while we were there.
Lobby Photo via Hotel Website
After our visit to the arch, we headed over to the groom's house to help out. The bride and groom created all of the centerpieces for their wedding reception by starting plants from seed and dressing up the seedlings in simple terracotta pots trimmed with ribbons. Each pot got a little tag to identify the plant or herb and guests were invited to take the plants home after the wedding reception. Armed with a glue gun, one groomsman was on bow duty...the others were spearing tags with skewers. I loved the schoolhouse chalk board they had in their breakfast nook with all of the planting times mapped out.
Meanwhile, the bride and groom sneaked out to collect wild flowers for the bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages.
That night we hit The Schlafly Taproom for dinner. Great food and great beer. We gobbled up some beer bread with cheddar butter and bleu cream cheese...mmmmm.
Photo via Schlafly website
The next day was filled with more wedding preparations and the rehearsal. There was a huge picnic held that night under a romantic pavilion in Carondelet Park. When we arrived, the tables were set with wine, cheese, crusty bread and fresh cold grapes...all of which were quite welcome given the sticky southern heat. The groom, an artist, designed the wedding logo which they used on everything. The combination of the Celtic symbol and the crossed Hurleys (sticks) are symbolic of the bride's Irish heritage and the couple's shared love for the Irish sport of hurling.
The church wedding was early the following morning. My little one was very excited to put on her fancy dress and walk down the aisle as the flower girl...having aced her rehearsal the night before. She wore a silk dress with a tulle skirt full of petals that I purchased from Fireworks, a locally owned gallery in Seattle. The dress originally came with a large red flower pin, but I customized it by adding one of my own flower creations and a silk sash made from a recycled thrift store blouse. For shoes, I tea-stained some plain white satin ballet flats and trimmed them with green silk rosettes made from leftover silk scraps from her sash. For her hair, I used a vintage pearl headband and added a larger matching rosette made from the same green silk. All three rosettes featured vintage pearl flower buttons in the center.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
After the ceremony, everyone was invited back to the groom's house for fried chicken and a little downtime before the reception that evening. We sent our little flower girl back to the hotel with her grandparents for swimming and play time at the hotel's amazing pool.
The reception that evening was at Sqwires Annex in the historic Lafayette Square neighborhood. The building used to be a wire factory and still retains a lot of it's "industrial charm." We got there a few minutes early so we popped into Sqwires pub while we waited. I was loving the decor! Check out those recycled glass pendant lamps.
On to the cocktail reception...
As is customary in Irish tradition, the bride and groom both drank from a silver wedding cup...I have another blog post planned to talk about that tradition, so be sure to watch for that.
After a great reception and a LOT of dancing, we piled into a cab and took off to an Irish pub for live music, Irish dancing and yes folks...more drinks...but I'll end my story here.... ;)
I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek into what was a truly warm and wonderful wedding chock full of personality and style. The whole weekend was infused with endless personal details and a whole love of love. Cheers! XOXO Cindi
