Block | St Louis Wedding Photography - Salvatore Cincotta Photography

Colleen & Zach | 11.5.11
St Louis Wedding Photography | Sal Cincotta, Taylor Cincotta, Ashley Schank

St Louis Cinematography | Gage Williams, George Schank

Ceremony | St. Francis Xavier College Church

Reception | Hyatt Regency at the Arch

Makeup | Make Up Artistry A & C

Florist | The Special Event Florist

DJ | Rockstar DJ (Quain Tull)

Dress Designer | Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner

Dress Salon | Robin’s Bridal Mart

Hair | Salon Papillon

Cake | Lubeley’s Bakery

Tell us how you first met.

Her Version…

My cousin Bridgette was getting married, and my sister & I were handing out programs before the ceremony. While we were standing by the doors I noticed some of the groomsmen had come into the back of the church. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of one of the groomsmen, and he had a gorgeous smile. I immediately gestured to my sister to look at him and I couldn’t stop smiling. Right before the ceremony started, I pointed him out to my mother and I said to her, “Do you see that boy up there? I’m going to marry him someday.” My mom of course thought I was crazy, and with good reason, I didn’t know anything about him, even what his name was! I looked in the program at all of the names of the groomsmen and secretly hoped he was the “Zachary Block, friend of the groom,” since I used to name all of my Ken dolls “Zach.”

After the wedding ceremony, we went home and I decided to change into a different dress before the reception. I made sure to pay special attention when the DJ announced everyone in the wedding party, and I was pleasantly surprised when he called “Zachary Block” and my Gorgeous Smiled Guy walked into the ballroom. At this point I made many subtle attempts to get him to talk to me (i even deliberately bumped into him once!) but unfortunately I was not too successful. However, about 5 minutes before we were going to leave, I was waiting at the bar for my last drink and when I turned around he was standing right there! Our eyes met and we both said “You!” at the same time. He then said “You’re the girl from this morning! You are wearing a different dress though! Wait, how old are you?” (not funny!). After the 5 fastest minutes of my life passed by, my sister told me it was time to go, so we exchanged phone numbers. Zach called me not even 30 minutes later and we talked for the entire night. We hung out the next day and the rest is history!

His Version…

It all started at something like 8:00am on a Saturday morning. It being the pre-game festivities for Dom’s wedding. At some point that morning, we all felt compelled to go to church. I could still taste the White Russians and cinnamon rolls when Big Money and I stepped out of the sacristy to peak at who could possibly be arriving this early. Priest? No way. Alter kids? Not a chance. Program hander-outer girl? Oh yes. It only seemed appropriate to be entirely honest about my observations . . . being in church and all. I said to Money, “Hey, she’s pretty hot.” “Yeah, too bad she’s fourteen,” he replied. At twenty-five to thirty pews away, she certainly looked young, but worth investigating.

When we had more of an audience, we all decided to head to the back of the church to get the show on the road. We had a demanding day of beer, food, washers, beer, and a reception ahead of us (and all that before communion!); time was not to spare. While mingling with the patrons, I gave a glance to my program hander-outer girl, to which she replied with a glance of her own. Hardly church appropriate, but all very necessary in this dance.

I remember running out of beer at least once and then having to pick up washer boxes to kill some time before heading to the reception. Then someone fell down the stairs with a plate of Cheetos. The next thing I know, I’m standing next to a sailor, a construction worker, a very well dressed Indian, and a very enthusiastic cop . . . all wearing pink vests (I think we are in the wrong bar!). I thought, why am I dancing? So, I went for a drink. Just point at the bartender, he’ll know what I need. Shots in the next room? Excellent idea Steve, back in a flash. Now, having offended a majority of the single ladies at the reception, I retreated for a memento of this fine occasion: a long island ice tea. While weaving my way to the bar, I make a fortunate bump into a girl in a black dress whom I have not had the pleasure to offend. She turns. She gasps (Like she’s Cindy-Lou-who and I’m cramming her tree up the chimney). I exclaim, “It’s you! You changed dresses!” She seemed impressed, but I had to ask: “How old are you?” Well, she was old enough to have a phone number, an escort to her car, and a good-night kiss on the cheek. Later that night, at the after party at Andy’s, I lost all motor skills and slumped in a chair with my phone to my ear. I had a long conversation with my future fiance. I’m not sure what we talked about, but it was special. I fell in love there in the company of my best friends, several of which resembled the village people.

Tell us about the proposal.

Her Version…

Zach had always talked about how much he enjoyed going to Mackinac Island on vacation when he was younger. I loved hearing about how there were no cars on the island and you either had to walk, ride a bicycle, or take a horse drawn carriage to get around. My cousin Katie was getting married in Glen Arbor, Michigan which was only a few hours away, so I begged him to take me to this magical place that sounded as though it was straight out of a fairy tale.

On Saturday morning Zach rented a horse and carriage to take me around the island and show me the gorgeous views of the lake. We had a very temperamental horse, Beth, but I asked if I could try and steer her for awhile. Zach [reluctantly] agreed, and of course the second he gave me the reigns, she started walking all over the place and almost off the road! I noticed Zach was trying to get something out of the bag in the back of the carriage, and he kept saying “Stop the horse,” but I was too busy concentrating on keeping the horse on the road and out of the lake, that I kept saying “why!?”. The next thing I knew, Zach tossed a perfect little red box into my lap and simply said “Because I want to give you this. Will you marry me?” So then I burst into tears, but managed to say “yes, yes, yes!!” It was an absolutely perfect proposal, on a perfect day, with a perfect ring, from my perfect prince.

His Version…

Our engagement was all about one girl. She was a little heavy for me at first, a little slow, not to mention the temper. But, after staring at her rear-end for an hour, I just did it. That is the story of Beth.

Beth was our horse. We were on Mackinac Island for the weekend before Colleen’s cousin’s wedding. I figured this place would be right up her alley. It’s very old school: no cars, all bicycles and horses, and the stage drivers wore top hats. Our bead-and-breakfast was down the road from the stable. We walked down there after breakfast for the quick tutorial and off we went. By quick tutorial I mean she told us to pull back to slow down, pull right for right, left for left, and snap the reins to go. Beth would take care of the rest. From there, I just tried to avoid running over pedestrians. We only had a two person buggy, so privacy wasn’t really a problem. But, I had to figure out how to drive a horse and manage the ring, and the knee thing. It was kind of a mess. We were probably about an hour into the ride along the west shore, nearly at the northern tip of the island. If I had a map, I could point it out. So, Colleen had been telling me how I was driving wrong and that I should just let her drive. I thought, “This could be bad.” There were a lot of trees and the buggy had fenders. But, I thought this could be my chance to pull the ring out and, well, you know. I gave her the reins and went for the red box. I turned for two seconds to get it out of the bag, then back around and we were heading for Canada. Beth had taken advantage of Colleen and I went into emergency-horse-steering-mode. There was a horse, some leather, small children scattered about, and the ring box went into Colleen’s lap.

It wasn’t as elegant as I hoped, but she had it. I said something like: “I want to give you this.” Creative, right? Well, it worked; so back off. Colleen started freaking out, jaw on the floor, hands waving, fingers spread like a third grader draws a turkey. I think she asked if I was serious. I’m not sure what my reply was, but I’m probably better off if she forgot it. The island is a little loose with their DWI laws, so we had some champagne on the last leg of our buggy ride. Then I made her not tell anyone until we met her family in Glen Arbor.

Oh, and she said “YES.”

What is the one thing you love most about each other?

Colleen // I love how he always makes me laugh and treats me like a princess

Zach // The way she laughs.

Tell us something quirky about each other.

Colleen // When he gets drunk he likes to imitate Chewbaca from Star Wars
Zach // The fact that she can remember exactly what everyone is wearing on any given day, but usually nothing else from that day.