Spoken Bride Vendors | Spotlight, Vol. 7
/Are you recently engaged and ready to book your wedding vendors? Newly married or attending a wedding, and in search of gifts that affirm the vocation to marriage?
We are proud to serve you through the Spoken Bride Vendor Guide, the first online resource for distinctively Catholic wedding vendors: hand-selected professionals from around the U.S. with not only an abundance of talent, but a reverence and passion for the sacrament of marriage that brings a uniquely personal, prayerful dimension to their client experiences.
With a range of stories, hobbies, and devotions, it’s our privilege to share who our vendors are and connect them with their ideal clients--you, faithful Catholic couples who are energized by working with like-minded, prayerful individuals. Each month, we’ll be introducing, or re-introducing, you to members of Spoken Bride’s vendor community, and we encourage you to learn more through their full vendor listings.
Our Vendors for This Month (click to jump):
Saving the Date
Wedding Planning, serving the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas.
After years of planning collegiate athletic events and corporate conferences, Savanna Faulkner’s friends began seeking her expertise as they planned their wedding days. Before long, Savanna says, “I was planning strangers’ weddings.” She began pursuing wedding planning as a business, and Saving the Date transitioned from side hustle to full-time work in 2017.
A love for the Catholic faith infuses everything about Savanna’s client experience, both visually and behind the scenes. “Love is so beautiful,” says Savanna, “and easily the reason why I am so passionate about people. I love to make people feel seen, heard, and understood.” Inspired by the rich sacred art and sensory beauty of the Church and liturgy, she finds design inspiration in her faith and carries it into her couples’ weddings.
Favorite movies: Top Gun and 27 Dresses
Ministries I’m involved in: The pro-life movement is a huge part of my life. In fact, my parents became so convicted in their pro-life beliefs they adopted two foster kids! I enjoy volunteering my event-planning expertise to local non-profits for their fundraisers.
The best part of working on weddings: Being with people. I love working [hard], just to hear how happy the bride and groom are. Also, the gravity of involving me to be in charge of one of the biggest days of someone's life is incredible. I love that I can portray confidence and peace to the couples who decide to put their big day in my hands.
To learn more about Saving the Date, click here.
Fire and Gold Photography
Photography; serving Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Western New York. Available for nationwide travel.
Laura Schaefer fell in love with photography in high school and worked on developing her skills during college. Inspired and fortified by the image of gold being refined by fire, making God’s children “stronger and hopefully holier” after a miscarriage, Laura founded Fire and Gold Photography in 2017 and shoots weddings alongside her husband, Matthew.
A Franciscan University alumna and resident of Steubenville, Ohio, where the university is located, the Catholic faith permeates all of Fire and Gold’s work and relationships: “I am a Catholic photographer,” Laura says, “and those words are in that order for a reason. Catholic first; photographer second. My faith is my way of life and it informs every choice I make. [Matthew and I] both love the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva, and I would say that this quote captures how we view our work as photographers: ‘If you seek sanctity in and through your work, you will necessarily have to strive to turn it into personal prayer.’”
I take my coffee...Laura: I wish I could say black but let's be honest, I love creamer. Matthew: Black.
We’re most inspired by: [how God] takes delight in the beauty of His creation. We love photography and running our business because it’s how we get to create and capture beauty. We see it as participation in God’s own creation of beauty. He is Beauty itself, and we honestly see my work as a form of prayer.
Love means: Sacrifice. To love as Christ loved. To give of yourself fully and completely, without reservation or strings attached.
It can sound like an academic answer, but we have learned to live this in our marriage and actually living it out takes it from the classroom to the real world. Loving in the good times and bad; loving until it hurts. Loving even when the other person isn't acting lovable. Calling each other on in holiness and becoming the best versions of ourselves. Loving our children and teaching them virtue. Pouring yourself out completely for your family yet always being filled through the grace of the sacrament.
To learn more about Fire and Gold Photography, click here.
Quiet Light Creations
Gifts; ships nationwide and internationally.
Angela Marinelli, a longtime jewelry and rosary maker, always prays while crafting religious items. One day while praying over a rosary she was creating, overwhelmed with a sense of “darkness in the world” that she’d been hearing on the news, Angela heard the whispers of a call to share her gifts in a fuller capacity. Quiet Light Creations, founded on a love for Our Lady and the Saints, offers handmade rosaries, chaplets, and bracelets that become instant heirlooms when chosen for a couple’s wedding day.
Angela still prays for the recipient of every item she creates, with a hope that through her work, the Catholic faith is shared in an authentic, simple way: “A quiet light is easily overlooked, but once it catches your eye and you pause for a minute to think, it makes you wonder. The quiet light of the tabernacle candle points to someone so much greater, just like the quiet light our Blessed Mother embodies points to someone so much greater.
“The simplicity draws you into the mystery of faith without the temptations of being known or being acknowledged for our good works. I hope that my shop will share the message that we are all striving saints, we are not perfect, and the trap of comparison even in holiness is not what we are meant for.”
I root for... the Pittsburgh Pirates, Penguins, Steelers and the Chicago Cubs, Blackhawks, Bears. Family loyalty!
Favorite music: James Taylor, The Head and The Heart, George Ezra, Matchbox Twenty, and Twenty One Pilots.
Love means: Trusting that another soul will return the love you give, so much so that the thoughts and worries about yourself being taken care of are cast far out of your mind. Love is choosing another continually and consistently, always showing your love for them more than saying it. Love means being attuned to all the little things they do for you and for everyone else, and doing those things for them.
A sure sign of love is feeling at peace and at rest. Authentic love casts out all anxiety and fear. To love means to offer that place of rest in yourself where others can dwell in peace.
To learn more about Quiet Light Creations, click here.
FertilityCare
NFP and Fertility Education; offering in-person instruction in the Miami area and long-distance services nationwide.
Sarah McKeown was first introduced to the Creighton Fertility model during her engagement. As a nurse, she found herself particularly drawn to the medical science behind the method. Within several years, Sarah had discerned and answered a call to pursue NFP education more fully. She began accepting and teaching clients the Creighton FertilityCare Model in 2016.
Sarah’s call and conviction have only continued to grow as she’s served her clients; many, but not all, are Catholic, and she loves the opportunity to “[teach] people about the beauty of their fertility; the way God created women's bodies and how we are called to live our marital sexuality in a responsible and generous way...I think having NFP instructors available long distance helps fill a need for many couples who may not have access to someone in their city or don't know how to get started.” She describes her business as “marriage-centered, empowering, and insightful,” and says, “have felt more called to teach NFP than I have with any other job, including being a nurse.”
Favorite wedding day memory: The priest celebrating our mass was Fr. Mike Schmitz, who is amazing! At one point during his homily he said, "this couple doesn't know what the future holds, and they will have difficult times ahead, but even so, you look at the other person and say, you're worth it."
And at the same time Fr. Mike said those words, my husband looked at me with tears in his eyes and mouthed, "you're worth it". It was so beautiful; I don't know how he knew Fr. Mike was going to say that, but it was such an amazing, grace-filled moment.
On my bucket list: Have as many kids as God will give us, visit one of those resorts in the South Pacific where your little bungalow is on stilts over the water, and become a saint!
The best part of my work: I love to see women become confident in their ability to tell fertile vs. infertile days of their cycles. Couples feel so much more freedom to enter into marriage without the need or use of birth control. They can learn to love each other freely, totally, faithfully and fruitfully the way God intended.
To learn more about FertilityCare, click here.