Maggie + Andrew’s Modern Storybook Wedding

Everything about Maggie + Andrew's St. Louis wedding day was made of dreams. From the ethereal florals of rose and hydrangea in a spectrum of ivory, blush, champagne and creamy white to the rich gold accents and abundance of orchids - it was truly, as Maggie describes it, a storybook wedding. Gorgeous wedding stationery with gold raised ink on ivory corner rounded stock, complemented with a blush soft shimmer envelope. Matching response card. Mike Cassimatis Photography captured everything from the grandness of the Shrine of St. Joseph to the jaw dropping details of the reception.

Gorgeous wedding stationery with gold raised ink on ivory corner rounded stock, complemented with a blush soft shimmer envelope. Matching response card. Beautiful calligraphy in gold by paint jar productions. Stationery by Poeme.

Tell us a little about you and your husband, Andrew.

I was born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana but grew up in St. Louis. Andrew was born and raised in St. Louis. After graduate school at Saint Louis University, I settled in St. Louis. I am a speech-language pathologist at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. Andrew is a Materials and Manufacturing Manager at Watlow (a family owned engineering & manufacturing company headquartered in St. Louis). Andrew is also currently getting his MBA at Washington University in St. Louis.

What was your favorite detail?

Andrew and I are very detail oriented, so we made every element important! However, we certainly couldn’t have made it all happen without the help of our amazing wedding planner Simcha and my parents, Jim and Cathy.

The weekend started with a rehearsal dinner at St. Louis Country Club hosted by Andrews parents, Marybeth and Allan. It was a wonderful evening with family and friends.

The invitation was really important to us! The invitation truly sets the tone for your day, as that is the first impression prior to the big day for your guests. We used Poeme in Cincinnati to create our gorgeous invitations and all of our stunning stationery. Our invitations arrived in a blush envelope with soft gold calligraphy to tie in the color palate we used for other details of the day.

I am a foodie (Andrew would prefer to just live off Chick-fil-A and tacos) so we made sure our guests had a fabulous dining experience from the appetizers, to dinner and cake, to the late night food… No one left hungry, but everybody left without Chick-fil-A.

Andrew and I love to have a good time. So finding a really good band to dance the night away with was at the top of our list. We used The Downtown Band from Nashville, Tennessee. They were unreal! The 12 piece band had every single one of our guests on the dance floor the whole night!! We will forever cherish the memories of dancing and having so much fun with all of our family and friends!

After the excitement of the big day is behind us, one of the things we are most grateful for today is finding a top-notch photographer to capture the memories of our special day. We were thrilled to work with Mike Cassimatis. His work is just remarkable and the photos certainly speak for themselves. But most importantly, he was a fabulous fit for us. Mike loves detail just as we do and we just could not be more pleased with his work! For any future photography, he will be the only person we call.

Gorgeous wedding stationery with gold raised ink on ivory corner rounded stock, complimented with a blush soft shimmer envelope. Matching response card. Beautiful calligraphy in gold by #paintjarproductions. Stationery by Poeme.

What’s your style?

Casual vs. Formal – I love mixing casual with formal. I feel like mixing the two is unexpected but yet often creates something so fresh and elegant

Vintage vs. Modern – Modern traditional

Chocolate vs. Vanilla – Vanilla

Wood vs. Brick – Brick

Roses vs. Peonies – I love both!!! But Peonies are one of my favorites but their season is too short! I wish I could have them all year round!

Beach House vs. Cabin in the Woods – hands down beach house! The only way I would go for cabin over beach house is if the cabin is ski in ski out in Colorado or Utah.

Diamonds vs. Pearls – I absolutely love both! Pearls are so classic and diamonds are forever and give off so much shine…. Honestly I have to go with both!

Pie vs. Cake – I am not a huge sweets person but I would go for cake.

Feather vs. Fern – With seeing both words I immediately think I don’t care for either feather or ferns.

Fall vs. Summer – Summer!

Lipstick vs. Lip Gloss – Call me old school but I go for lip liner, lipstick and gloss

How did you and Andrew meet? What was your first impression of him? What was his first impression of you?

Andrew and I met in the spring of 2014 at Planter’s House in Lafayette Square in St. Louis MO. We both were having drinks at the bar with friends and Andrew introduced himself to me. We really hit it off and Andrew asked for my number. The following day he asked me out to dinner and we had our first date that night at Pastaria. I guess you could say the first date went well considering we went out the next two nights

Everything+about+Maggie+%2B+Andrew%27s+St.+Louis+wedding+day+was+made+of+dreams.+From+the+ethereal+florals+of+rose+and+hydrangea+in+a+spectrum+of+ivory%2C+blush%2C+champagne+and+creamy+white+to+the+rich+gold+accents+and+abundance+of+orchids+-+it+was…

Tell us about the proposal.

Andrew and I had planned a trip to Seaside, Florida the week before Thanksgiving in 2015. I had never been to Seaside before but it was one of Andrew’s favorite spots. He had grown up going there and loved it and could not wait to take me. Once we got there, it was clear to me why it was one of his favorite places. Seaside is just so unbelievably charming and just so darling!

We were having an absolute blast there and I really did not know he was going to propose. But one evening we were there, Andrew had told me that we had plans to meet some of his family friends for sunset drinks. As we were leaving to “meet Andrew’s family friends”, I noticed how late I was running and Andrew usually lets me know that I am running late but he did not even mention a word of how tardy I was making us, which I found a little odd but just figured we were on vacation and we had no time schedule. Once we got to the beach in front of the gorgeous Jackson pavilion, the family friends weren’t there (at first I thought for once I am early!).

Andrew started to share with me how much he loved me and some very sweet and romantic feelings and then got down on one knee and proposed. Then right after he put the ring on my hand and kissed me, he told me that the woman down below on the beach was our photographer who had captured the whole proposal. It was perfect in every way for the both of us! I must say he did a great job planning and went above and beyond to make that day so special. And now Seaside is certainly a place we visit often and cherish forever!

Describe your wedding day. Is there a particular moment that remains in your memory most vividly?

Andrew and I really wanted the ceremony to focus on the importance of our marriage in the setting of a Catholic church full of tradition and faith. Our ceremony was at the Shrine of St. Joseph. We had asked Father Jack Siefert from our Parish to say the mass because he knows us on a personal level and that that really meant so much to us. He truly made the ceremony so special. Also the music during the mass was very important to us and truly set the tone for the day. We were so blessed to work with Dee at Rosewood Ensemble. They are so talented and did the music during our ceremony took our breath away. Lastly, to stay true to my Irish roots, we had bagpipes escort Andrew and me out of church.

In regards to our vision for our reception, we really wanted to have a modern storybook romantic wedding that was unique to us. But more importantly, we wanted everyone to have fun and enjoy the day as much as we did.

In order to create our modern storybook romantic wedding reception, we had to have the perfect location for the reception and beautiful flowers. So we had the reception at the Coronado. The Coronado is so beautiful and we cannot say enough good things about Rob, Butler’s Pantry and all the staff at the Coronado. Also, unbelievable flowers were very important to enhance the Coronado’s elegance and created a one of a kind romantic ambience. We used lots of roses (white, champagne, ivory, & coral/blush), tons of white orchids, hydrangeas (white and green), bells of Ireland, and coral hypericum. We also used countless votives, floating candles, and additional pin lighting to create an unbelievable romantic setting. We absolutely loved our flowers and we had such a blast working with Frankie and his amazing team at Festive Couture Floral. We still get compliments on our flowers to this day.

How did you approach wedding planning?

We had amazing help from my incredible parents, Jim and Cathy, and from our fabulous wedding planner Simcha Lourie who introduced us to amazing people. I don’t pin at all! In fact, during vendor interviews, if they asked for pins I knew we were not meant to work together. Having a pinterest wedding was not what we wanted. So our approach to planning was really creating a team of unbelievably creative and talented people to make the day come together and it turned out above and beyond our expectations.

Tell us about finding your dress, your gorgeous bouquet and any other special details.

I wore Amsale. My mom, sisters, and I met in Chicago to go dress shopping. I found my dress at Belle Vie Couture. The owner Amanda Bonnell is such a doll and was so helpful. The weekend of dress shopping was fabulous and filled with memories with my mom and sisters that I will cherish forever.

My bouquet had two lockets tucked in the flowers with photos of my parents wedding and both sets of my grandparents on their wedding days. Also, I wore a ring from Andrew’s grandmother, Elizabeth, who I unfortunately never had the chance to meet but have heard so many wonderful things about.

As a wedding gift, I gave Andrew Lucchese crocodile tail boots to wear with his tux.