Erin + Jay: A Midwest ‘Tuscan Winery’ Wedding

When Erin Konkol reached out to me (Tiffany) well in advance of her September 2014 wedding, I immediately took a double-take at the name in her email. Erin Konkol? I went to high school with an Erin Konkol.. this girl’s email signature shows she’s in Florida, but there’s no way there’s another Erin Konkol, right? So I hesitantly mentioned a high school connection in my email reply, and to my delight she wrote back “YEP, it’s me!!” Erin was 4 years behind me, so we didn’t have classes together, but in our small high school classes of under 70 girls (yes, an all-girls Catholic high school), I definitely knew who she was. Because Erin now lived in Florida, we handled our consult on the phone, and seeing each other for the first time in over 10 years at her cake tasting was like no time had passed. How funny reunions can be!

During Erin’s consult, she told us that she wanted an Italian theme. She wanted a string quartet playing, she wanted the World’s Fair Pavilion with the amazing hilltop view of Forest Park, and she wanted the feeling to be decidedly “Tuscan.” Well, that’s all we needed, and Amanda and I spent about an hour after the call rattling off our ideas and feeling really excited.

We started working with Exclusive Events on some décor ideas we had. Mainly, we wanted to divide the pavilion space right down the center with an enormous pergola, which would be draped with greenery, under which dancing would take place. Hubba hubba..

We also had Exclusive Events work with us on a ceremony chuppa that would work cohesively with the amazing view, and not obstruct it. We wanted something for them to stand beneath, but we wanted the guests to be able to take in that always-spectacular view.

Kelly at Crimson Petal was on board right away when we gave her our ideas. Even when we called her with this conversation:

Us: “..Also we want to put green grapes in the centerpieces. Like, real grapes, and we want them draping out.”

Kelly: “Oh, my gosh, I LOVE THIS. That’s not a problem!”

Yes, we used real green grapes, and they were really fun without being kitschy. After all, this is a Tuscan winery, right? Oh, we’re still in St Louis, MO? That’s OK, let’s pretend!

We knew the color palette would be very organic and natural – greens, golds, ivory. The wedding party looked amazing in the color palette and the flowers were out of this world.

And La Patisserie Chouquette once again delivered on the “simple & elegant” (& gilded!) cake directives. It would be impossible for us to ever be disappointed with this bakery. Run, don’t walk to their shop, ladies and gentlemen.

Even with a large guest list, the entire event felt intimate and super romantic, and everyone had a blast dancing the night away to the band and DJ (they dueled throughout the evening), as well as popping over to the first-time-ever-in-St-Louis slow motion video booth, from Millennium Productions. This was so much fun, and you can view their entire slow motion video at the bottom of this post.

Funny enough for us, as we were preparing for the ceremony to begin, I spotted a familiar face in the crowd – another bride’s mother! A couple months later, at her daughter’s wedding, Erin’s parents would be in attendance of that wedding too and they had a REALLY good time.

Everyone danced the night away under the pergola, in the moonlight, inside the pavilion that we drenched in amber uplighting and had projected ivy across the ceiling. It was all completely magical.