Blog Appétit

I decided to switch things up a little for today’s post because who am I this week? 2 posts in two days, what am I sick?

Nope, healthy as can be but hit a little creativity/burn out rut the past few weeks. If I’m being honest, trying to be creative for the blog, wedding, aprons and my day job can really get exhausting so I admit I’ve been a little creative brain dead lately. Not sure that’s really a thing but I’m making it one for now because my brain was begging for some mindless netflix binge watching nights that involved nothing but a bowl of popcorn, puppy snuggles and Steve and I in pjs on the couch. 

After a few weekends of laying low at home, giving my brain a much needed break and enjoying some quality time with Steve before life gets real crazy (literally we don’t have a free weekend again until July), I wanted to share Steve and I’s full story on how we met and started dating as I get asked this often as well as why we decided to have our wedding in Chicago.

So instead of the usual tips/tricks or recipe post, it’s story time and at perfect timing as WeddingWire is doing an adorable #ourkindoflove campaign where they are asking couples to share what makes their love unique. For Steve and I, we always say “we still get butterflies like we did on our first date” and after knowing each other for 15+ years, #ourkindoflove is never ending:) If you share your own #ourkindoflove photo on your social outlet, you can enter for a chance to win some great prices. For more information, visit their site here.

Now to story time.

Our Love Story

Steve and I actually knew each other since about 3rd grade. Crazy, right? Steve attended grade school with all of my cousins who are basically my other siblings, so I went to all of their school picnics, fall festivals, school plays, etc. Steve and I maybe exchanged a total of 10 words in our grade school days, but we were around each other quite often. When we got to high school, we both hung out with mutual friend groups so again maybe exchanges 10 more words, 99% of them being “hi” or “bye” as we walked past each other at friend’s parties or school football games. It wasn’t until December of 2009 at a friend’s annual Christmas party that our 10 word trend became a thing of the past.

At the time, Steve and I attended colleges in different cities but were both home for Christmas break. My best friend and I went to our girlfriend’s annual Christmas party one night when she invited Steve’s best friend (whom she was dating at the time) to join and bring Steve. The party started with just a group of my high school girlfriends where we did dinner and a gift exchange before inviting guys and more friends over to join later. So while waiting for the guys to join, my best friend kept telling me she wanted to set me up with Steve. “You guys are the same person, it’s scary. You have to talk to him tonight”. Ok sure, I’ll talk to him. I mean I’ve known him for years but really don’t know too much about him anyways, I thought.

The gift exchange wrapped up and shortly after, my friend’s boyfriend at the time and Steve walked in. We were all sitting in the family room chatting and playing some game when I remember them saying they would be right back, they were going to get another drink (those sneaky friends). Steve and I stayed on the couch and chatted the entire night away. Also, side note to help you vision this: I was your typical college girl who loved a good themed party so of course was wearing a dress made out of christmas wrapping paper with a big gift bow in my hair and Steve on the other hand hated a themed party (still does to this day, but will dress up if I make his costume;)) so was wearing jeans and a pocket tee. So girl wearing wrapping paper as clothes and boy wearing normal clothes when first meeting, ok back to story.

The night quickly flew by and next thing I knew it was time to leave. I, having one too many cocktails in me, had a little liquid courage and asked for his number. Then embarrassingly enough when he went to put it in my phone, I already had it because my girlfriend put it in when she was trying to call her boyfriend (his best friend) one night and he didn’t have his phone on him but was with Steve. Talk about embarrassing.

I got home from the party and he texted me right away (after wrapping paper dress and creepily having his number, I was shocked to say the least). Guess I didn’t scare him off too bad;) We spent the entire christmas break talking and hanging out almost every night. He even asked me out on our first date in January where I introduced him to sushi and dessert. One date after the next and multiple Skype calls later, we became official (I guess that’s what we called it back then) that February. 

We did the whole long distance thing for two years attending different colleges and then our junior year of college, Steve transferred to Mizzou to pursue his degree in Nuclear Medicine. After two years together at school, I graduated and moved to Chicago for an internship while Steve finished his schooling at Mizzou. After another two years of long distance Steve landed a job in Chicago quickly after graduation and moved to the city too. 

Another  fun fact: we shared a studio for three months while we waited for my lease to end so we could get a bigger place together. Talk about true living together test.

The following August, my lease ended and we got our first place together. We lived together for about 2 years before we got Rosie, our puppy, because I had zero clue Steve was buying a ring to propose at that time or probably would have held off hah. A few months later, Steve proposed in the park at our favorite spot. Full proposal story here. And that’s it, the rest is history:)

Why we chose to get married in Chicago

Being from the same hometown and both having family back in St. Louis, we find we get asked this question often and while there’s actually many reasons for this, the main one is we like to say we started our life together in this city. We did long distance so many times and the short time we were together at Mizzou, we both lived with three other roommates and were typical college kids who’s only concerns in life were what bar we were going to that night, so Chicago was really where we started our chapter together. A few other reasons:

• I work in the Chicago wedding and event industry so am much more familiar with Chicago vendors than our hometown, St. Louis so it seemed to make more sense.
• We also wanted to do something different. We haven’t been to a Chicago wedding and know most of our family/friends haven’t either so wanted to create a fun and unique experience for our guests.
• Lastly, we LOVE this city! We always laugh because our parents ask when we plan to move back but as of now (granted you never know where life will take you) we have no plans of moving back. This city has become a home for us and we love all the new friends we have met and opportunities we have had here.

I will be honest, Chicago is a LOT more expensive than St. Louis so yes, I’m sure we could have gotten a much better bang for our buck there but we wouldn’t change the location for the world. We are so excited to have all our friends and family in town in just a few short months and can’t wait to show them around the city we call home and love so much!

Story time is over, time for bed. But really, because I’m writing this at 1am so should probably call it a night. 

I hope you enjoyed hearing about our love story and don’t forget to head over to WeddingWire to share your’s for a chance to win some great prizes! What makes your love unique? Are you getting married in a different city than your hometown, if so where?

Photography: Aimee Mazzenga

Megan’s outfit: Rent the Runway

Steve’s outfit: Made to Measure Suit by The Tie Bar

Makeup: Makeup by Aga

Hair: Mario Tricoci Salon

This post was sponsored by WeddingWire. All opinions and photos are my own. Thank you so much for supporting my favorite brands that help keep Blog Appétit up and running!