Design / After attending the same church in DC, this St. Louis couple invited their former priest to travel here and officiate the wedding

After attending the same church in DC, this St. Louis couple invited their former priest to travel here and officiate the wedding

Karen and Fady tied the knot at St. Mary and St. Abraam Coptic Orthodox Church, which hosted “a very traditional ceremony, with lots of symbolism,” the bride recalls.

by Courtney Scott January 20, 2022 at 3:48 PM January 21, 2025

A walk to remember: After grad school, Karen moved to D.C. and attended the same church as Fady, though the two didn’t meet until a mutual friend’s birthday party, where they exchanged numbers. Then, in June 2020, while visiting her family in St. Louis, Fady decided to forgo breakfast with family and got dressed up for a walk in Forest Park. “Not making a grand breakfast was bizarre enough for an Egyptian family,” Karen says, “so I should have known.” Sure enough, her family was waiting at the park, where they got engaged.

Ceremony & Reception: Their former priest from D.C. traveled to St. Mary and St. Abraam Coptic Orthodox Church in St. Louis to officiate the wedding, alongside their local priest. “It was a very traditional ceremony, with lots of symbolism,” says Karen, whose sister, Olivia, helped pick the colors, design the stationery, and orchestrate other details. Friends and family traveled from as far as Egypt to attend the wedding and reception. For many, it marked the first time together in the more than a year since the pandemic began.