A Simply Beautiful Outdoor Wedding at Haue Valley

Meredith & Kris - October 6, 2017

Their love story

Meredith and Kris met in February 2015 on the dating website eHarmony. The two connected quickly and chatted through text before an anticipated first date. Meredith and Kris met in Clayton at the Tropicana Bowl, but instead of bowling, ended up chatting all evening. Meredith was pretty sure he was "the one" by the end of their first date, and by the end of date number two, she knew this was the real deal. 

Their love is truly effortless. According to Meredith, "There have been so many signs along the way that we were meant to be." We love when that kind of love is made official here at Haue Valley. 

The Proposal

After almost two years of dating, Meredith had been giving Kris trouble that she was ready to marry him. After all, she had known since their first date! Kris kept asking Meredith to go to the zoo, and finally one afternoon she agreed. It was a completely rainy day, and they decided to go have lunch at the BoatHouse in Forrest Park and before heading off to the zoo. On such a dreary day, they had the zoo to themselves and ventured toward Penguin Cove. On the drive to the zoo they talked about how penguins mate for life, and when they find the penguin they want to be with forever, they drop a pebble at their mates feet.

When the two entered the indoor area of Penguin Cove Kris reminded Meredith that peguins find the perfect pebble for their mate and then he dropped to one knee and said he found the perfect one for Meredith. Of course she said yes! 

Choosing Haue Valley

From Meredith

"We debated between going out of town for a destination wedding versus staying in the St. Louis area. The more I looked into traveling for our wedding, the more difficult I realized it would be. We knew we wanted an outdoor venue, but we weren't finding anything in the area that we liked. We had not heard of Haue Valley when my Dad called and said he had had some work done on his house and the man's wife worked at a venue called Haue Valley. I looked it up online and thought it looked great. When I looked at the availability there were no openings until 2018! This was January 2017 and I didn't want to wait that long! So, we put off going to see it. I checked the site again about a week later and I saw a date in October had opened up! So we immediately made an appointment to go see it. Kris and I both loved the venue from the start! We met with Dana, who was amazing! Afterwards we went to dinner and discussed and knew it was the place for us. We got in touch with Kristin right away and said we were ready to book it!"

Wedding Day Details

Meredith and Kris were blessed with beautiful fall October weather, and moments were captured beautifully by Stephanie Bannon Photography. Videography, DJ, photo booth, and uplighting were provided by Applause Weddings, and we were just amazed by all the beautiful florals from Renee's BoKays and Meredith's dress from Mia Grace Bridal.  It was truly a lovely outdoor fall wedding.

Vendor Credits

• Photography: Stephanie Bannon Photography
• Video, DJ, Photo Booth, Uplighting and Monogram: Applause Weddings
• Catering: The Hawthorne Inn
• Dress: Mia Grace Bridal
• Florals: Renee's Bokays
• Sweets: Sarah's Cake Shop