"Beauty pierces her heart and draws her into the sacred. She wants not only her wedding, but her marriage to reflect this in every way: through awe-inspiring liturgy, decor, and photographs, each infused, above all, with the radiant beauty only made manifest in sincere holiness. No matter her past, she has a love for all that is pure. She desires nothing more or less than to make a complete gift of herself. She chases fearlessly after virtue, knowing excellence is the path to true freedom, and freedom is for love. Deeply, profoundly, she is in love..."

Introducing Spoken Bride's 2020 Vendor Week! Tips, Education, and Exclusive Planning Info from Catholic Wedding Pros

January 10, 2020/ Editor Spoken Bride

This January 11-19 is our annual Vendor Week: days dedicated to showcasing the best of the Catholic wedding industry through Spoken Bride’s blog content and social media.

Videography: Visual Rose Films by Nick DeRose, a Spoken Bride Vendor. The bride, Kate Capato of Visual Grace, and wedding photographer, Emma Dallman of Emma Dallman Photography, are our vendors, as well!

The Catholic wedding industry? Yes, it’s a thing! We are proud to offer the Spoken Bride Vendor Guide, the first wedding directory specifically designed to connect brides and grooms with planners, photographers, florists, artisans, and more who share the same faith and bring a distinctively Catholic outlook to their client experience.

Don’t miss our first vendor takeovers, featuring Evan Kristiansen of Evan Kristiansen Photography and Nia Husk of Prolific Services, a certified fertility education resource, over this weekend! Follow us on Instagram @spokenbride.

At the start of this post-holiday engagement season, we invite you to browse the Spoken Bride Vendor Guide as you begin booking your wedding vendors. Each of our vendors is a true gift, offering their talents for the glory of God and sharing of themselves, their stories, and unique personalities.

Are you a Catholic wedding vendor interested in learning about Vendor membership? Read about membership benefits and join our waitlist here.

Follow along on our blog and Instagram this week for exclusive and personal education, tips, Days in the Life, and Q+A you’ll only find from Spoken Bride vendors. Forthcoming topics include…

Tips for planning a pre-ceremony “First Prayer”
Considerations for marrying at a church that isn’t your home parish
Vendors’ tips for first steps in finding, choosing, and booking your wedding professionals
Ways to communicate the importance of your Catholic faith with your vendors
Instagram takeovers by a marriage therapist, a jeweler, an NFP instructor, wedding photographers, and more

Recently engaged and booking your vendors? Browse the Spoken Bride Vendor Guide:

Above all, weddings are about the personal: who you and your beloved are, and the professionals you invite in to help tell your story for generations to come. Our vendors are single, engaged, and married, alive with passion for their craft and their Catholic faith. They, and we, are so eager to share and correspond with you this week! Don’t hesitate to engage online and on social media with your questions and thoughts—it’s our hope that this week is mutually enriching, informative, and fruitful as you prepare for your wedding and marriage.

November 25, 2019

Spoken Bride Vendors | Spotlight, Vol. 8

November 25, 2019/ Editor Spoken Bride

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):

Gathered Together Events
Ashley Eileen Floral Design
Johnna Wilford, Women's Wellness Coach
Something Blue, LLC

Photography: Kenny Nakai Photography — *Photography:* *Kenny Nakai Photography*

Gathered Together Events

Wedding Coordination; serving Michigan and available for travel.

Allison Krcatovich--one of our brides!--grew up watching the film Father of the Bride and dreamed of “being the female version of [the wedding-planner character],” she says. In 2018, after the birth of her son and over six years in the hotel event-planning industry, Allison quit her hotel job and founded Gathered Together Events, her own coordination company.

Though Gathered Together Events serves a range of couples, Allison has a particular love--and brings particular expertise--to Catholic brides and grooms. She cherishes the opportunity to act as a resource and support for couples whose top priority is bringing their faith to the center of their celebration. Allison describes her services--including consultations, day-of coordination, full wedding coordination, and custom packages--as “service-oriented, joy-filled, and intentional.”

Favorite saint: Teresa of Calcutta. Her care for others encourages me in my work. My business logo is blue as a subtle nod to her and to our Mother Mary.

The best place I’ve traveled: Dubrovnik, Croatia on my honeymoon.

I’m inspired by: My family. I want to support my family with a job I am truly passionate about because I know it will make me a better wife, mother, daughter, friend. Seeing each of my couples so incredibly joyful on their wedding day inspires me in my own personal family life.

Learn more about Gathered Together Events

Ashley Eileen Floral Design

Floral Design; serving the Denver area.

As her family mourned the loss of her grandfather, Ashley Krupp realized for the first time “ how florists walk with people for very important moments in life, and how flowers really do impact those occasions.” In those moments, she felt certain the Lord was calling her to use flowers as a gift and service to others.

Ashley soon took floral design classes, worked in several floral shops, and was eventually promoted to lead floral designer. In 2018 she used her earnings from the lead designer position to educate herself in business and design and launched Ashley Eileen Floral Design.

Ashley loves the creative pursuit of transforming her clients’ ideas into reality in the design process, as well as the sheer beauty of wedding florals: “Part of the reason I love doing flowers, she says, “is because they are beautiful and reflect the transcendental kind of beauty. I feel called to work with flowers as my ‘small v’ vocation and to affirm the good, true and beautiful in marriages that reflect God’s plan.

“I like to say flowers aren’t really necessary for someone to get married--at the end of the day, she’ll be married to her husband and that is beautiful. However, flowers reflect the gratuitous kind of beauty or love that God lavishes on us; the kind of beauty that stirs the heart and draws the couple and their guests more deeply into the sacrament. I think the beauty of a wedding done well (aesthetically and theologically) help to evangelize by stirring people’s hearts.”

On my bucket list: To help with the flowers at the Kentucky Derby and Rose parade, to own property with acreage, and to visit Havana, Cuba.

Favorite books: Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Introduction to the Devout Life, Forming Intentional Disciples, and the Harry Potter series.

How my faith informs my business: Everything I do comes back to God, what He’s blessed me with and my desire to share Him with others. I think beauty is a gift that allows us to know him on a deeper level, because it cuts straight to our hearts. I think a lot of millennials have a keen awareness and appreciation of beauty, and I see this as a subtle starting point to also share God’s goodness and truth with others who might not know him otherwise. I’ve designed my business model to be relationship-based; it's important for me to get to know my couples so I can walk and pray for them in a real way.

Learn more about Ashley Eileen Floral Design

Johnna Wilford, Women’s Wellness Coach

NFP Instruction; serving Lexington, Kentucky in person and nationwide through online education.

Johnna first heard of NFP as she converted to the Catholic faith during her marriage preparation--in fact, she says, “I actually think NFP is one of the things that helped me decide to become Catholic! NFP is so empowering, and such a great tool for communication with a partner, so I quickly became very passionate about it.” A serious runner and women’s health advocate who already owned a fitness business, Johnna became certified in NFP instruction and made it an additional pillar of her business.

A recent bride herself, Johnna has a unique, particular passion for viewing women’s health holistically, teaching clients about the relationships between hormonal and reproductive health and physical fitness. She loves walking with her clients as they consider their fertility, fitness and wellness before marriage--”not,” she says, “simply in a ‘fitting into the wedding dress’ way. Women’s Wellness offers in-person and online coaching in fitness, fertility awareness, and reproductive health.

I root for...the Alabama Crimson Tide. Roll Tide! It's sort of hard not to be a fan when you went to college there!

Ministries I’m involved in: I am a member of a local social justice ministry that works to improve policies in the city. This year we are working on improving the drug problem in town, working to improve education, and decreasing gun violence in the city. I am also an NFP teacher for the Marriage and Family Office in my diocese.

Favorite Saints: My patron saint is Joan of Arc, not only because of the name similarity, but because I have a passion for fighting for what I believe in! I also love Mama Mary and try to pray the rosary every day.

Learn more about Johnna Wilford, Women’s Wellness Coach

Something Blue, LLC

Wedding Coordination, serving the dioceses of Indianapolis, Lafayette (Indiana), Evansville, and Fort Wayne-South Bend; available for limited travel in neighboring states.

While sitting at the same reception table at a wedding, friends Joy Foster and Mary Dorhauer discovered they shared a common dream: establishing an event planning and coordination business. As they talked, they wrote down a vision for a Catholic wedding planning business on the spot, hoping to create a service that would “help couples plan a most reverent and beautiful liturgy, along with a really great party; witness the beauty of our Faith and the beauty of the Catholic view on marriage to their Catholic and non-Catholic guests; and be a joyful ministry to brides and engaged couples, so that they and their families could be fully present and enjoy their wedding day, instead of worrying about whether things were getting done or not.”

Joy and Mary’s dreams took root in 2018, when Something Blue, LLC was founded. Along with general inspiration and reception planning, Something Blue specializes in helping Catholic couples plan their nuptial liturgies and personally supports them through the gift of prayer: “Our love of the liturgy and the beauty of marriage inspires us to share that love with couples and their families,” Joy and Mary say. “We customize a novena for each couple and begin it so Day 9 is prayed the morning of the wedding. We offer copies of the novena to the parents of the bride and groom, along with the wedding party, church hostess & clergy, and any vendors that we know are Catholic, should they wish to join their prayers with ours for the couple. We see Something Blue as a ministry, in addition to a business.”

The best part of working on weddings: The joy! It’s a chance to share in a little slice of someone else’s happiness. Being able to watch the bittersweet moments as fathers tearfully embrace their daughters one last time [during the procession]. Smiling at the triumphant grins on the faces of grooms as the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. exit the church for the first time. Witnessing families come together to celebrate a fresh branch of their family tree. Most of all, the moment during a Nuptial Mass when the priest elevates the Holy Eucharist, with the eyes of the bride and groom upon him, the Body of Christ. It gives us goosebumps every time!

Favorite wedding-day memory: (Mary): On our first date, my husband and I went to Mass and then covered the car of a mutual friend in Post-It notes. It was revenge for a joke she played trying to set the two of us up. I guess she got the last word though, since we got married and now have two children!

When planning our wedding, I told our priest I wanted to go straight from the church after the recessional to the Adoration chapel, spending our first minutes as a married couple in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Our priest insisted we walk from the church to our car and drive down the chapel. We went back and forth on this, with me getting more and more frustrated, until I grudgingly gave in. When we emerged from the church, there was our car, covered in brightly colored post it notes spelling out I Do!

We take our coffee: (Joy): black. (Mary): I wish I could say I take it black like a hardcore adult, but the truth is, I need sugar and cream and lots of it.

Learn more about Something Blue, LLC

October 31, 2019

Spoken Bride Vendors | Spotlight, Vol. 7

October 31, 2019/ Editor Spoken Bride

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?

Our Vendors for This Month (click to jump):

Saving the Date
Fire and Gold Photography
Quiet Light Creations
FertilityCare

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.

January 12, 2018

Vendor Spotlight | Keara Anne Weddings

January 12, 2018/ Editor Spoken Bride

It could be argued that God’s mercy encompasses not only his bottomless forgiveness, but his particular will for each human person. His will--his every grace, plan, and intention for us--is a unique gift of love. A gift of providence specific to each of his children.

It could be claimed, as well, that providence and timing are inseparable from vocation: the Father’s fingerprints cover each of us in his plans, and his path, for our sanctification and ultimate homecoming. The first time Keara Mooberry--a wife, mother, and former high school math teacher--dove into wedding coordination, she’d fallen in love with the process of creating a peaceful, intentional day for her own nuptials and, later, for her brother’s big day. Except she was working full-time while pregnant with her second child, her husband was about to go back to school, and they were making plans for a cross-country move from Phoenix to Philadelphia.

After settling into her new home in Pennsylvania, the Holy Spirit continued whispering to Keara’s heart for planning and service. Recognizing her gifts for calmness and foresight, an old friend reached out to Keara, asking her assistance in planning a Catholic wedding. Excited to work with her first non-family client, Keara and her friend began monthly meetings. It was a time of professional self-discovery, with Keara carving out a supporting role to the bride’s planning as she prepared to take over final responsibilities during the month of the wedding.

Above all, the experience was marked by creating a sense of peace. In this busy season of couples’ lives together, Keara understands the need to identify opportunities for calm during wedding planning, and strives to cultivate that calmness and peace with each of her clients.

Doing God’s will brings peace to the heart. As you journey to the altar, there is an abiding contentment and joyful anticipation at having found the one who will sanctify you for life. If, like Keara, your life’s work brings that same sensibility, it’s beautiful to glimpse the delight he takes in showing us our strengths, opening doors to put them at the service of his love.

From Keara: Sometimes I think the role faith plays is easier to see after the fact. I can see now how God was telling me, not yet, Keara when we were still in Phoenix. I can see how he kept my desire for serving brides on my heart as I made other major life transitions. I can see how he reconnected me with my friend so I could support her in her wedding and marriage preparation journey. At the same time, my friend served me with the opportunity to get my hands wet in this joy-filled field.

Now, I feel encouraged working with brides, particularly Catholics who love working with a planner who shares their faith. It’s a benefit both for logistical reasons--like planning a timeline for the day around the wedding Mass--and for the purpose of working with a vendor who will be praying for them and supporting them in their discerned vocation.

I like to think of brides more as friends than clients. I love to walk next to them in a supportive role as they prepare for their wedding day and marriage. I also take a very logical/logistical approach to helping them manage their wedding details, because I believe that without a logical approach or good logistical planning, the beautiful details of a wedding can get muddled and overwhelming. My goal is to provide peaceful planning to brides and grooms and their families so that all they have to focus on is the joy and beauty of their wedding day.

Eric Foss Photography

Mariah Gentry Photography

November 03, 2017

Uniquely Catholic Wedding Favors

November 03, 2017/ Editor Spoken Bride

While wedding favors are by no means necessary, many couples want to thank their guests for their support and love with a memento of some kind. And while you can find lots of fun favor ideas on Pinterest, it’s a bit more difficult to find uniquely Catholic wedding favors--especially if you haven’t been to many Catholic weddings yourself. We compiled a list of some of our favorite Catholic wedding favors, and hope that those of you who are in the planning process will find something that suits your needs.

Calligraphy by Sarah Ann Design. Photo by Angela Sostarich.

A print with your favorite spiritual quotation

Hand-lettered prints with quotations from Scripture or the Saints are all the rage right now, and for good reason: they are wonderful reminders of the truth and beauty of the faith that look beautiful in any living space. Our associate editor Christina purchased small “Love is the beauty of the soul” (St. Augustine) prints for each of her guests from Rose Harrington Art. Other options to explore for this kind of favor include Spoken Bride vendors Just Love Prints and Telos Design, as well as When Beauty Met Truth, Be a Heart Design, and Brass & Mint Co. (just to name a few).

A holy card featuring your patron saint(s)

A personalized holy card is a wonderful (and inexpensive) way to both share your faith and encourage your guests to continue to pray for you and with you after the wedding day is over. You could choose a patron saint, an image of Mary and Joseph’s wedding or the wedding at Cana, or any favorite religious image. On the back, consider including your names, wedding date, and a prayer--either a traditional Catholic prayer to that saint, or a prayer that you and your fiance write yourselves.

Bottles of holy water or blessed salt

Holy water and blessed salt are powerful sacramental to keep in the home (or the car, or a purse…), so why not bless your wedding guests with their own bottle? You can find small plastic holy water bottles online (something similar would work for blessed salt), and as long as you have the time to fill them up with tap water or salt and a priest friend who will bless them, this favor won’t add much time or money to your wedding planning.

Rosary or chaplet

A rosary is the wedding favor that keeps on giving; not only will your guests be able to use it for personal prayer, but if you purchase a more unique-looking rosary such as this St. Benedict cord rosary, they will remember to pray for you and your groom each time they use it.

A CD Featuring your Wedding Music

If you and your fiance are music lovers and have the time and talent to do so, consider burning CDs for your guests featuring your own recordings of the music from your wedding Mass, or a collection of your favorite hymns or spiritual songs.

Are you planning on giving out favors at your wedding? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!

May 19, 2017

Vendor Spotlight | BodaMaestra

May 19, 2017/ Editor Spoken Bride

Maestra, in Spanish, means masterpiece, and that’s just what Esme Krahn wants your wedding--boda--to be. Esme was working full-time, coordinating weddings on the side, in Mexico when she first met a man named Joe, from Virginia, through online dating. Their initial conversations bloomed into a long-distance, cross-continental relationship that culminated in a Washington, D.C. proposal.

A lifelong Catholic and a lover of the Church and of her native Hispanic culture, Esme channeled her college event coordination experience into wedding planning the first few times she assisted with Hispanic Catholic weddings, and was awakened to a God-given gift. Now residing stateside with her husband, Esme earned her wedding planning certification through Weddings Beautiful Worldwide and transitioned her career into full-time wedding coordination and design. She’s served the D.C. Metro area through BodaMaestra, offering full and partial wedding planning or management plans, for over a decade.

Click through BodaMaestra’s gallery of recent weddings and Instagram feed and you’ll find a range of gorgeous celebrations Esme has designed and coordinated for couples and venues of every origin; she happily takes on clients of any background. For Hispanic and American couples alike, her blog is a mine of practical information for brides and grooms seeking to plan a spiritually and visually beautiful day that exudes gratitude to God and to family and friends, with pieces on everything from creating an initial mood board to preserving your wedding cake to choosing the Catholic wedding readings best suited to you as a couple.

Yet Esme's specialty, the need she seeks to meet and the call she has answered in the wedding industry, is guiding Latin American couples in honoring the traditions of their heritage, through a nuptial Mass and reception that reflect the customs and rich culture of their families’ home countries. Latin America is a traditionally Catholic region with a uniquely exuberant sensibility when it comes to worship, dress, music, and other aspects of any celebration. The new union of man and wife is certainly cause to celebrate, and Esme’s ability to transform these aspects into something visible and beautiful in the particular and very needed niche she’s been called to, something guests can sense and be drawn into the the heart of God, is so inspiring to us.

Ultimately, it’s this focus on the Father’s love, goodness, and beauty that anchors all of Esme’s work and her client experience. She willingly and joyfully prays for each of her couples as they prepare to walk down the aisle, and encourages them to look beyond the wedding day as they complete their plans. Any wedding professional offers a service in the business sense of the word, but it’s this active sense of intercession, preparation, and grounding in virtue that makes Catholic wedding coordination, particularly BodaMaestra’s, distinctive--abounding in generosity and service in the truest sense.

From Esme: It is an honor to experience a couple's wedding day, as well as their preparation journey as I get to coach them and advise them on how to handle different situations. The beauty of marriage resides in becoming one and goes far beyond a one-day celebration. It is a longtime journey where the ultimate goal is to fulfill your vocation as a married couple and future parents, with God among you. To this day, I have helped dozens of couples, American and Latinos and anything in between!

I like to be there for my clients. At the outset of each coordination process, I hold discovery meetings where I find out what's truly important to the bride and groom. No couple is alike, so I take time to find out what each one’s main priorities are, what fears are hunting them and the overall feel they are looking for on their wedding day. My couples and I are a team where everyone has responsibilities and decisions to make. Our planning meetings are productive and a stress reliever--by the time the wedding day rolls around, the only thing they have to worry about is each other! My couples can trust me 100% that I will troubleshoot any day-of issues and will execute their plans as agreed. Each day is accompanied with a prayer for their life as a couple and for our team's abilities to shine and perform flawlessly.

BodaMaestra has been featured on United with Love, Ruffled, Borrowed & Blue, and Emmaline Bride.