Dance The Night Away

A love story between two college strangers who danced their way to forever. For the month of July, we have chosen our dearest Lis Simon Bride Sarah who chose to wear her Kasey dress.

T H E L O V E S T O R Y

It all started with a wild girl from Missouri, and a small-town boy from Illinois. Nick and Sarah met a little over 6 years ago, at Country Line Dancing Bar, Wild Country (College Wednesdays). The best part of this story is that they met by pure accident because neither of them were supposed to be there that night.

Their story starts with a line dance called the “Barn Dance”. In order to participate in this line dance, you’d have to find a partner. As soon as the song came on, Sarah immediately knew she needed to find someone quick. She turned around and Nick was the first guy she saw. “I ran up to him and said “Hey, do you know this dance?” and he said “Uhh, yup”, so I grabbed his hand and pulled him onto to the dance floor (I was pretty blunt back in the day)”. As soon as the dance started, Sarah quickly realized Nicholas did NOT know this dance.. Another thing to know about the “Barn Dance” is that you change partners, and since Nicholas was not prepared, he ended up getting kicked out by another guy. “After that I just assumed I wouldn’t see nick again, but when the next slow song came on, a cute, tall gentleman tapped my shoulder and asked if I wanted to dance (the cute guy was Nicholas if you couldn’t put that together).”

They danced all night as if they were the only two people in the room and ended up closing the bar down. Ever since that day, Wild Country Wednesdays became a tradition for the both of them: We became inseparable pretty fast, and I don’t think it took long for both of us to realize we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.

T H E P R O P O S A L

December 13th, 2019

The day where they decided to start their journey to forever. Nicholas asked Sarah to be his wife under the Christmas light display (Garden Glow) at the Missouri Botanical Gardens – an early Christmas gift hey?

T H E D R E S S

“Due to COVID 19, my wedding dress experience was not what I always dreamt it would be (shopping with all my best gals physically there, while shedding a few tears over a bottle of champagne).”

Thankfully, Town and Country Bridal had done their best to deal with the situation. Sarah was allowed to bring 2 guests and her friends were present virtually. Her stylist, Lexi was the sweetest, “she made it fun and made me feel very comfortable and beautiful”. When Lexi pulled out “Kasey” and had made Sarah try it on, she immediately knew she was THE dress for her. After multiple wedding dress searches and try-ons, “Kasey” remains to be the perfecting wedding dress for her… “nothing compared”.

T H E W E D D I N G & R E C E P T I O N

May 1st, 2020, at Loveland Estates in Pocahontas, IL

A Pinterest girl’s dream venue.

Sarah describes their venue as: very TRENDY and has a light/airy/ Boho/ white farmhouse feel. It’s too hard to explain without seeing it yourself.

Heather, the owner of Loveland Estates, is proclaimed as a fantastic decorator and the most creative person she ever met. When the couple booked the venue, it was concrete! Heather showed them her vision boards and walked them through her creative process plan. “She did such a good job; I could envision exactly what she was describing. I’m so happy we took a huge risk choosing Loveland Estates, because the venue turned out even better than she said it would be, and she continues to add more and more every time I go back.”

Highlights From Your Special Day

Sarah’s favourite moment from their wedding was their “cake cutting experience”. Instead of having a traditional wedding cake, they had a tiered cookie cake. However, the one that they needed the most was missing, the knife… In panic, Nick grabbed and twisted the top cookie off the cake, and both took a bite at the same time, very “Lady in The Tramp” style. “Not everything is going to work out perfectly, and when it doesn’t, just go with the flow because everything will work out in the end.”

Details from the bride:

· We had a stunning grazing table for our guests to enjoy instead of the traditional wedding cake. We did have a miniature tiered cookie cake just for us though.
·   We had a gorgeous bar cart outside during cocktail hour.
·   Our venue had miniature farm animals for our guests to see and interact with.
·   All of our vendors are small/local businesses. Nick and I are very passionate about shopping small and locally, so we wanted to make that one of our main priorities to reflect that while choosing our vendors.

Preparations & Inspirations

Classic, romantic, and modern - three words that best describes their wedding inspiration. Also, with the help of Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, they were able to pull off their perfectly desired wedding.

Honeymoon

The couple went on a “mini-moon” to Savannah, GA. Their original honeymoon to Italy got cancelled due to COVID 19. However, they plan on going there for their one year wedding anniversary… “if we have funds”.