#RandeePierce Wedding

After another year spent in England, we planned our next visit back to the States. This time, it was to have our wedding and celebrate with all of our friends and family back in St. Louis! After Ron's proposal in November 2017, we immediately started researching for the big day, feeding all of our preparations into our RandeeWedding website. Ultimately, we decided that we wanted to get married in St. Louis, in the same neighborhood where Ron and I first lived together. 2018 was a whirlwind year getting everything ready in 10 months, but after dating for 7 years, this wedding couldn't come soon enough! This is a pretty long post with lots of photos of our exciting week, so please click below to read more! 

Our wedding date was Friday, September 21, 2018. We landed into an incredibly hot, sticky and humid St Louis only 4 short days before the wedding. Luckily I'd already bought and fitted my wedding dress in Newcastle, so it came along with us as a piece of carryon luggage (was not letting it out of my sight!!) In the first few preparation days, we confirmed vendor bookings, checked on all the decorations, reviewed the timelines, welcomed some out-of-town guests, and applied for our official marriage license at the St Louis City Hall. I painted all of my bridesmaids' nails a matching color, finished wrapping up all of our bridal party & family thank-you gifts, and picked up Ron's tux. 

On Wednesday night (T-minus 2 days to the wedding), Ron and I each had our bachelorette / bachelor parties with our bridal troupes. Due to how far apart we all lived, it was not possible to celebrate with them all together before this! I had no idea what was planned for the bachelorette night; I arrived to the Lewis and Clark Restaurant in St. Charles with my family, to find a party room reserved for a big group of my family and friends. They surprised me with some more shower gifts while we all enjoyed dinner. This was followed by drinks at a few other bars along the St Charles main street. It was really nice to see the guests from mine and Ron's sides of the family get to know each other better, and we all had a wonderful time! Even after the sun was down, the air was still so unbelievably sticky and humid, we couldn't stand to stay outside on any of the lovely patio spaces. I was starting to worry how I would be able to comfortably move around in my poofy wedding dress for the big day! 

The next morning, Ron and I finally got to see our wedding venue in person for the first time! After having booked the space, designed the layout and planned all the decorations based on videos and photos, we finally got to see how it all came together. We headed to the venue to set up, as there wouldn't be any time to do so on the actual wedding morning. Then, we all got changed into our rehearsal outfits, ran through the ceremony rehearsal without a bump, and promptly headed off to dinner on the gorgeous patio of McGurks in Soulard. During the dinner, Ron and I handed out personalised gifts to all of our wedding party, thanking them for everything they had done to help make our perfect wedding a reality. Have I mentioned yet how hot is was in St. Louis?? We were melting!

Finally, the big day was here! After a relatively comfortable and stress-free night of sleep, I woke up at 4am on Friday morning jittery with enough excitement that it was time to get up. Ron had slept that night with his family at the hotel near the venue, while I stayed at my parents' house with my bridesmaids. I remember having a coffee in the dark, quiet kitchen and re-writing my vows onto a clean card while it rained outside. I was actually quite calm about the rain, despite the fact we had outdoor photos planned and no umbrellas. I was more relived that the rain would mean cooler air than we'd had for the past few days, and was very confident everything would work out perfectly. And you know what? It did. We had an incredibly beautiful wedding day!

​Eventually, everyone else woke up and it was time to dive into the day...

After the ceremony ended and we finished our altar photos, the bridal party headed off onto our rental bus for outdoor photos down the street at the beautiful Lafayette Park. When Ron and I lived together in St Louis, this was our favorite park to go for walks after work or on sunny days, so we have great memories there. It was a great mini-celebration with the bridal party ahead of the full reception! 

It was time to head back to the party, where we all made our grand entrance to the reception, Ron and I gave a welcome speech to all the guests, everyone enjoyed dinner and drinks (and of course cake), danced, and finally got to catch up with all of our guests individually through the evening. 

After the wedding, Ron and I spent two days in our "honeymoon hotel" to relax after all the wedding craziness. We spent the time alone, reminiscing the day and eating the rest of the red velvet wedding cake. During this time, I also received sad news about the passing of my beloved Uncle Bob. Ron was supportive while I tried to balance my grief with the obvious happiness of our new marriage.  If I needed any more examples of how he would be the perfect husband to me, that was just one more.

After we checked out of our honeymoon hotel, we headed back to my parents' house where everyone was having a joint family brunch. We celebrated Michelle's 23rd birthday, Kristen's 28th birthday and Ron's 30th birthday all in one cake-fueled extravaganza! Sara also gave Ron and I an unexpected wedding present; a photo of our first meeting (with Ron dressed as Darth Maul) signed by Ray Park! 

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and head back off to Newcastle.
​Next step: start planning an amazing honeymoon for 2019!