Gina + Michael | Easter Octave Lace and Florals

Joyful, romantic simplicity in the Kansas springtime.

Gina and Michael first met in what they consider the unlikeliest of places: a country dancing bar in Kansas City. Both were attending with a Catholic young adult group, and quickly hit it off. At the end of the night, Michael walked Gina outside.

“I got into my car,” she says, “and I was overwhelmed with a deep sense of peace and clarity that I had just met my future husband.”

They quickly started dating, regularly attending Mass and Adoration together and striving for a relationship grounded in prayer. “What really struck me about Michael,” Gina says, “was how virtuous he is. It didn’t take long before we were both confident that God was calling us to marry. Something we both noticed in our discernment was a peace rooted deeply in prayer. I had heard many times before that peace follows God’s will, which was absolutely true for us.”

Michael proposed on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, in the Adoration chapel of Gina’s parish, after a day spent in significant-to-them places all over Kansas City. It was the same church where they were married, 13 months after their first meeting and during the Octave of Easter.

From the Bride:

Since our wedding took place in the octave of Easter, we wanted it to radiate the joy of Christ. Being in the Easter season, we selected a passage from Revelation 19 for our first reading. “. . . Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” We wanted to allude to the fact that while we are overjoyed to celebrate our marriage here on earth, our ultimate purpose is to be with God in heaven. We hope and pray that we will one day be in heaven in the eternal marriage supper of the Lamb, the union of the Christ and his Church.

This is not the ultimate wedding feast we were created for. Our marriage is meant to point us to something greater: heaven.

We hoped to uphold the reverence and the beauty of the liturgy during our wedding Mass, and tried to put as much effort into planning the liturgy as we put into planning the reception. A talented group of friends formed a beautiful choir, for instance, and the ushers set up kneelers during communion so the congregation had the option to receive the Eucharist on their knees.

After receiving the Eucharist, kneeling next to my husband, I thought: I could freeze this moment and it would be a taste of what heaven must be like.

One very special part of our wedding was my twin sister’s involvement in it. She is a Religious Sister of Mercy, and it has been so special to see our vocations unfold alongside each other. She was a reader at the wedding Mass and gave a toast at the reception.

Her toast left the entire room in tears as she revealed that Michael and I met only a few days after she completed a 54-day Rosary novena for my vocation. She then unveiled the wedding gift from her religious community: a beautifully framed Papal Blessing from the Vatican! It was a special moment I will cherish for the rest of my life.

After getting engaged, Michael and I decided to pick a patron saint of our relationship who could be our guideposts on our own journey to heaven. After praying about it independently, we both felt called to embrace Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin as our patrons, primarily because the story of how we met almost felt like a modern-day retelling of their story. We ask for their intercession in our nightly prayers as a couple, and gave Louis and Zelie prayer cards as wedding favors.

People always told me my wedding day would go by so fast. I made a conscious effort to be truly present and soak up every bit of that joyful day. I felt no stress or worry on the wedding day, and I feel like I remember every moment. It was a grace for sure!

Side by side gazing at Christ: this is the vocation of marriage.

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Gina + Michael | Easter Octave Lace and Florals

Joyful, romantic simplicity in the Kansas springtime.

From the Bride:

SPOKEN BRIDE