KARA + JASON

Kara met Jason through her bridesmaid/high school best friend Lexi, who got a job with St Louis Public Schools and Jason worked with her. They first met at a house party, but didn’t talk that night but Jason clearly remembers Kara standing by the wall with a 6 pack looking around and not knowing who to talk to. About a year later, they ran into each other at a bar on a weeknight by pure coincidence. They ended up hanging out and drinking for the rest of the night and shut the bar down. Jason also clearly remembers being very hungover the next day at work. When they left the bar that night, Lexi told Kara that she sensed a spark. But they hadn’t exchanged numbers so it wasn’t until several months later when Lexi secretly invited Jason to come to her birthday party at BallPark village that they would see one another again.  When Kara saw Jason walk into the room, her jaw dropped to the floor. She still can’t explain in words what she was feeling when their eyes met, but she knew she couldn’t wait to talk to him. (And she suddenly became super bummed that she was there with a date!) Jason and Kara snuck conversations in that night every chance they got. Kara loved Jason’s smile and outgoing personality. He can talk and talk and talk and talk LOL and it sucked her in. Jason loved Kara’s eye’s and smile and the way her mouth moves when she talks. He liked how honest and genuine she was and appreciated the fact that she was being herself, making him feel like he could be hisself too.
When Kara was walking out of the building with her date, Jason ran up behind her and shook her hand, telling her it was really great seeing her again. What her date didn’t know was that Jason haddiscretely put a napkin in Kara’s hand with his number on it. She kept her cool but inside she couldn’t wait to get rid of her date. She texted Jason the next morning.

They went to Food Truck Friday in Tower Grove Park for their first date.  It was the beginning of May and the weather was gorgeous. The conversation was so easy and the two felt like they had known each other forever. When they were walking back to Jason’s car they had their first kiss! Jason remembers his face hurting at the end of the night from smiling so much.

Kara knew Jason was the one pretty early on in the relationship.  Jason wears his heart on his sleeve and she always knew exactly how he felt about her.  He made her feel like no one else on the earth had made her feel before, so she knew he was someone that she could see myself spending my life with. Jason likewise knew Kara was the one from the beginning because he felt like he could be himself around her, and felt at home when he was with her. “I wasn’t nervous around her like you get around some people when you are first dating. It all just felt easy.”

The two dated 6 years. Jason had been working with Kara’s best friend Sarah who is a jeweler to get Kara’s ring made. They had no idea when it would be finished because of having it custom made.  Last November, Jason planned a big birthday party for Kara.  Lexi and another friend/bridesmaid of Kara’s, Angela were coming from Quincy for the birthday party. Sarah let Jason know that the ring was done, and that Angela was going to bring it down to him that weekend. He didn’t plan it that way, but he knew when he got the ring that he had to give it to Kara that weekend.
When he went to go pick up an ice cream cake for her birthday, Jason had them make an additional cake saying “will you marry me” on it. Once everyone arrived and were hanging out by the bonfire, Jason called Kara down to give her a “birthday present”. She was so confused and annoyed that he’d made her come all the way down to the fire.  When he pulled the cake out of the bag and handed it to her she continued to be confused and actually said “How could you be proposing without the ring being done?” Jason then pulled the ring out of his pocket and asked her to marry him. She was in shock and he actually had to say to her “So are you gonna say yes or what?”  which snapped her out of it, and of course she said yes!

Ultimately, COVID did not change their plans, although it threatened to multiple times in the weeks leading up to the wedding. Several members of their wedding party and family members were potentially exposed to the virus the week before the wedding,  causing them to all have to get tested. Their officiant ended up testing positive and was not able to perform the ceremony. Also to make things even more stressful, the city and county announced new restrictions the day before the wedding which in turn accounted for about 20 people who did not end up coming last minute.  Regardless of all of the stress and tears shed, the two had the most beautiful, touching, intimate wedding.  Nothing would stop these two from finally having their day to promise forever.

We are so thrilled to share this beautiful couple, and their wedding day with you today!!
Enjoy Kara and Jason’s Wedding Day!

Kara and Jason’s rings were the coolest, most personal rings I’ve ever seen.  Just like their relationship, it was worth the wait!
Before Kara saw Jason for the first time that day, she had another very special man she needed a first look with.  The sweetest father-daughter first look!And then the big moment!
Jason’s favorite moment of the wedding day was seeing Kara at their first look.  “When I turned around and saw her, I was like “wow” and just smiled and laughed out loud.”Their officiant who was supposed to marry them was technically done with quarantine, but out of respect for the safety of the couple and their guests decided it wasn’t safe enough to preform the actual ceremony.  Instead, he came for their first look, and preformed their vows with their witnesses to make it official.Oh these two.  From the moment we met them at their engagement session, we adored them. They are such kind, genuine, likeable people. We feel incredibly fortunate to have been chosen to capture their day.It was raining almost the entire day, but all of a sudden the sun came out for 2 minutes.  It was a race to get as many photos with sunshine in as possible.The vision or inspiration for the day was “urban fairy garden chic”, a term Kara made up herself.  “The colors I focused on were jewel tones with lots of gold and then the greenery and flowers to make it feel like a garden in the fall. The tables had fairy lights in the centerpieces and everything just shined and glistened off of the gold and jewel toned napkins. I loved having the wedding party wear velvet which made it feel so luxurious and I loved the way it shimmered in the light of the room.”
I absolutely LOVED these hoops for the bridesmaids.  The carried so well and looked gorgeous in photos!Every man should love his mama the way Jason and his brothers love theirs. Kara’s favorite moment of the wedding day was walking down the aisle together as husband and wife after the ceremony. “I felt so happy and just couldn’t believe this moment had arrived. I really tried to soak up that feeling and take in the moment.”First Dance Song – “Nobody” by Brian McKnightFather/Daughter Dance – “Isn’t she lovely” by Stevie WonderMother/Son – “Mama” by Boys to MenGetting a few moments with the bride and groom after all the formalities are over is one of our favorite times at a wedding day.  The nervousness has all fallen off and the couple is just relaxed. Thankful to share these moments with these two.

Due to COVID we decided to live stream the wedding which turned out to be so the perfect solution to our friends and family not being able to attend. We sent “welcome” boxes to family members homes that would have otherwise been in the hotel as we wanted them to still feel like they were sharing the day with us. We loved getting to see their comments on the videos and now we have a recording of our wedding that we would have otherwise not had.

Since we did the live stream, Jason needed to have a microphone on his suit so people at home could hear the ceremony and since that had to happen several minutes before the wedding, the guests at home got to hear all of Jason’s pre wedding jitters which were pretty funny. This didn’t happen on our wedding day – but anyone who knows me, knows I am a crazy cat lady and while my dress was being stored at my parents house, one of their cats snuck into the room and ate 2 or 3 holes in my wedding dress! It was super stressful in the moment but I had to laugh about it because I felt like only this would happen to me. We were able to get it fixed up by adding extra appliques and no one was the wiser.

Kara – no I wouldn’t, ultimately everything I had imagined it looking and feeling like was able to happen.
Jason – yes and no. No because despite all the obstacles we were able to celebrate with the most important people to us. Yes, because I almost wish I would have proposed to her sooner so that way we wouldn’t have to deal with the pandemic.

I would say a blessing was the small intimate guest count. Having fewer people there made it less stressful!

I don’t think there is anything we can say to make anyone feel better about going through the experience other than to just keep your eye on the prize. Keep in the forefront of your mind why you are doing all of this to begin with. I think going through the stressful moments only brought Jason and I closer together. If we can get through this year together, we can get through anything together!

The couple recently bought a house and call Afton MO home.

See more of Kara and Jason’s beautiful day in the slideshow below!

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