Jill + Joe | St. Louis Wedding

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The Details…  Jill’s & Joe’s wedding, as told by Jill:

WHERE:  Forest Hills Country Club in Chesterfield (St. Louis), Missouri (for the ceremony and reception).  The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman, who also officiated Jill’s parents’ wedding back in 1980!

THEME/STYLE:  I went through a LOT of changes on this part – it was so hard to narrow down all of the ideas!  It kind of began as a “country chic” theme, but then it turned out being more of a “vintage with a unique & quirky flair” theme!  We ended up incorporating all types of patterns throughout the wedding, such as chevron, polka dot, and floral, and mostly everything was navy and yellow (with just a hint of bright pink). I also found cool vintage candlestick holders to bring in the vintage vibe, and had a dessert table featuring navy and yellow sweets in apothecary jars and tasty desserts on unique serving trays. We also displayed pictures of our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents on their wedding days – we thought it was a cool way to celebrate our families! I still don’t know what you’d call the theme of the wedding, but I think I can sum it up as very “Jill & Joe!”

BRIDE’S DRESS: “Summer” by Maggie Sottero from Karen’s Wedding Boutique in Ballwin, MO.  Betty (the owner of the shop) was so helpful, and Jean (the seamstress) actually came to the wedding to bustle my dress – she worked very hard on it and wanted it to look perfect! To give my dress a little unique flair, I bought some white feathers from Hobby Lobby, and Jean sewed them into the flowers that were already on my dress. I loved the one shoulder look – the shoulder part was actually removable. I planned on taking that part off and going strapless during the reception, but I forgot!

SHOES: I wanted some shoes that were either navy or yellow (my wedding colors), but couldn’t really find any good ones.  I ended up finding my shoes for 50% off at Dillard’s – they were a bit unusual for a wedding, but I loved them anyway! I got navy blue and white polka dot Sperry wedges which ended up being perfect – my garter was also navy blue with white polka dots, and so were some other details throughout the wedding!

JEWELRY/ACCESSORIES: All of my jewelry and accessories came from Etsy!  My hairpiece, earrings, bracelet, garter, and clutch bag were all handcrafted by artists I found by browsing around on Etsy, a magnificent place for wedding stuff! My earrings and bracelet were actually made by different artists, but it turned out they were created from the same type of stones! So pleased with everything I purchased – and they were all unique items, which made it even better!

HAIR + MAKEUP: My hair was done by Jennifer Kube of Salon Lofts, who happens to be a friend of the lovely Sarah Corbett! Jennifer did an amazing job with my hair – I received so many compliments, as well as some “how the heck did she create that?” comments! Jennifer did a great job of creating my vision – an “unkempt”, off-centered, loose bun! The makeup was done by Tamara Tungate, who has a studio in downtown St. Charles. Tamara is so sweet and a pleasure to work with. I loved how she did my makeup – I don’t usually wear a lot, but she used just the right amount and I was so pleased with how it turned out!

WEDDING FAVORS: I admit I had some CRAZY ideas for wedding favors. I probably came up with about 20 that I wanted to do! In the end, Joe and I decided that we’d rather use the money for donations, instead of towards favors that people probably lose/throw away. So we made a donation to the Joplin Tornado Relief Fund (Jill has family that lives in Joplin), and the American Cancer Society (we both have family members that have been affected by cancer). We did however create little flags for our straws (we did 400 total), and we tucked them into each napkin, along with a menu. I guess you could call that a favor too!

THE FLOWERS: All I have to say about the flowers is that they were EXACTLY what I envisioned! Mary Tuttle (of Mary Tuttle’s in Chesterfield) was on the same page with me throughout the entire process…I didn’t even have to tell her about half the stuff I wanted, she just knew!  Each table received 3 mismatched, different sized vases with all kinds of different flowers – and the guests got to take the vases home! I loved my bouquet as well – Mary put just a touch of feathers in it!

THE CAKE: This delicious and awesome creation came from Tim Brennan of Cravings in Webster Groves. Tim is a family friend and wanted to make our wedding cake before we were even engaged! We chose a chocolate fudge cake that had homemade raspberry jam within it, and also a white cake with lemon icing. SO delicious and looked so great as well! I loved the tiny detail of Swiss dots on the cake – Tim knows I like things with texture!

INVITATIONS + STATIONARY: This was all created from scratch by Stephanie Dye, my coworker, with help from Jamie Bauer, another coworker! These girls worked incredibly hard on coming up with exactly what I had in mind. I am pretty indecisive, so it was not an easy task!  Once this part was completed, the rest of my wedding actually came together perfectly…I was still up in the air about some things, and seeing the colors, patterns, and overall look of the stationary helped me envision the rest of the wedding! The printing was completed by Bruce Hawk of Phoenix Printing. He was great to work with!

FOOD + DRINK: All of this was provided by Forest Hills – my only wish is that I had more time at the wedding to eat everything!

BRIDE’S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: I should probably say something lovey dovey here, but the moment I remember most clearly is when my veil fell off during the ceremony! I didn’t know what to do with it so I just tossed it aside, and then I heard a lot of laughter coming from the wedding guests. I guess it was slightly embarrassing, but afterwards I heard from a lot of people that it was a very “Jill” moment. Ha! But if I were to describe my favorite lovey dovey moment, it was probably Joe seeing me for the first time in my wedding dress, he had this look of wow/shock/amazement on his face, and he couldn’t even get any words out right away! It was very sweet

GROOM’S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT:  Picking one moment from such a memorable day is hard, so I’ll give you a couple.  Seeing Jill for the first time was one of them for sure.  I remember the excitement was very high, and she looked beautiful!  A second favorite moment was the chair dance.  Aside from almost falling out of the chair, it was just a really fun part that everyone seemed to enjoy.  Especially us!

THE HONEYMOON: We went to Maui, Hawaii and stayed at the Hyatt Regency – I recommend that everyone goes to Hawaii at least once in their life! It was the most wonderful trip we’ve ever been on, and we hope to make it back there again some day!