Handmade cards, a custom arbor, and a trombone all had a part to play in this couple's wedding

Calla & Ashley | September 27, 2019

Tower Grove Park and Wild Carrot

A Reconnection: Calla and Ashley had been friends for more than six years. After their friend group drifted apart, the two, who happened to both be single at the same time, decided to catch up over brunch. It was “like a light switch flip,” says Ashley. They knew within a few weeks that their friendship had become love. Within two years, they found themselves in a race to see who could propose first. Ashley won, proposing on a bench on Flora Place, and Calla followed a few weeks later, as the couple was biking on the Katy Trail.

Ceremony & Reception: Natural, local, and personal was the vision for the ceremony, which was held in Tower Grove Park. Calla learned calligraphy and made the invitations and seating cards by hand; Ashley built the arbor and cedar log benches. Friends handled other details, such as the flowers and desserts, and Calla’s dad even played the trombone. The Wild Carrot reception was simultaneously artsy and industrial, just as the couple wanted. “Everything felt like us,” Ashley says, “like, if our personalities could be a wedding.”