Meet LYDIA & Alex
10.09.21
The day I will marry my best friend. The one i laugh with, live for, dream with, and love.
Days Until Our Wedding
Lydia:
We had our first date at Crane Alley, a restaurant in Urbana, Illinois, in November 2016, where we were both living at the time. We met when we were both graduate students at the University of Illinois. I was pretty nervous about going on a date with Alex since we hadn't known each other that long. I remember talking a lot on the date and feeling like we both had a lot in common. At the end of the date, he walked me to my car. I wasn't able to play it cool and texted him as soon as I got home (maybe 20 minutes after the date was over) and told him that I had a great time and wanted to see him again.
Alex:
Our first date was at a bar/restaurant called Crane Alley in Urbana, IL. We met when we were both in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We drove separately to Crane Alley and I remember waiting outside in the cold for Lydia to get there. I wasn't too nervous but I think Lydia was. We were seated in the back and I was worried about Lydia being able to find something that she liked to eat because she is a vegetarian. I remember thinking that it was cute that she always covered her mouth when she was eating and talking because she didn't want me to see her talking while eating. I thought that we had a lot in common during the first date and hoped she would go on a second date with me. I also vividly remember an older couple that was seated next to us that kept smiling at us, I think they realized we were on a first date.
First Date
Lydia:
Both of us had known for a while that we were going to get married, but in the fall of 2019, we started talking about it more seriously. We went ring shopping together and picked out my engagement ring, so I knew a proposal was coming, but just wasn't quite sure when.
Alex:
Lydia had told me that she didn't want a big proposal. We both knew that it was coming and she didn't want anything in front of a lot of people or anything like that. I knew that the people at Crane Alley, where we had our first date were pretty friendly. I found the managers email on their website and emailed them out of the blue. They had really nice black leather menus with printed sheets in them for the menu. I wanted to just buy the leather menu case from them and print out my own sheet to put in it that would ask Lydia to marry me. The manager was really into the idea and told me they were printing menus next week and if I wanted them to print anything on them. I got them to add, "Lydia Joan Frank will you marry me?" to the dessert section. They ended up sending me a whole bunch of pages with that saying on it.
Proposal
The Bridal Party
THE GROOM'S SIDE
Nicholas Kaczkowski, Best Man
Brother of the groom
Patrick Baumhart, Groomsmen
childhood friends of the groom
Austin Beeber, Groomsmen
childhood friends of the groom
Mitchell Greenberg, Groomsmen
childhood friends of the groom
THE BRIDE'S SIDE
Theresa Wildhaber, Maid of Honor
Met/has known the bride since we went to undergrad together at Truman State University
George Frank, Bridesman
brother of the bride
Karl Frank, Bridesman
brother of the bride
October 9, 2021
at 4:15 in the evening
To Celebrate Our Marriage
PLEASE JOIN US ON
612North Event Space + Catering
612 N 2nd St
St. Louis, MO 63102
Reception Immediately Following
Reception Parking & Arrival Information:
Valet parking across the street, wedding ceremony is on the 4th floor of the building
ACCOMMODATIONS
Courtyard by Marriott St. Louis
DOWNTOWN/CONVENTION CENTER, 823-827 WASHINGTON AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63101
Call Marriott Reservations at 1(800) 321-2211 or (314) 231-7560. Friday September 17th, 2021 is the cutoff date that hotel rooms in reserved block will be released--although they can make reservations after that date, they will want to be aware of any post-season baseball events that might make the hotel rooms fill up. Make sure to identify themselves as part of the Frank Kaczkowski Wedding Block.