Engineering Love | Southern Illinois Wedding

The Couple

Alex Piolatto from Manteno, Illinois
Colleen Lindsay from Creal Springs, Illinois

How They Met

We met when we were both in our senior year of college at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  Alex was a senior in Civil Engineering, and I worked in the Dean's Office at the College of Engineering creating the Dean's Report as a wrap-up of the year to provide to alumni and donors.  Alex was featured in the Dean's Report because he was a standout senior.  I sent an email to him to introduce myself and get his bio and photo to include in the report.  The rest is history!

Falling in Love 

I would say that the over the next two years, spending time with each other and exchange students over the summer that I worked for CESL at SIU, and over my trips back to Southern Illinois on long weekends home from my graduate school program at UIUC, we began falling in love.  Every weekend when I came home to see my family, I had to take a trip to Carbondale to see Alex, who was working on his own graduate school program, still at SIUC.  Through salsa dancing at Longbranch, Indian Night at the Carbondale Civic Center, hikes in Giant City Park and trips to the movie theater, we began seeing each other as more than friends.

The Proposal

We had been together for almost eight years when we got married, so the proposal itself was something we agreed upon in advance as a way to continue our relationship through a public party with our friends and family.  My Mom sent me her engagement band and wedding ring, the ones that my Dad had given her her over 30 years ago, and I had them sized. 

Wedding Venue

We went back to Illinois to get married (we both now live in Los Angeles).  We wanted to be around our family and hometown friends for this special day.  We were married around the lake that I grew up living next to, the Lake of Egypt, which was part of a larger plot of land that originally belonged to my Great-Grandpa.

Wedding Inspiration

I wanted the wedding to be simple, DIY and vintage. There was no wedding planner and no florist.  My Mom and sister-in-law helped me gather what I needed and I put it all together in the last few days leading up to the wedding.  I picked the flowers from the side of roadways that I grew up driving down, and the rocks at the bottom of the mason jars were from the creek on my parents property.

Favorite Part

My Mom gave the parent's speech for my side of the family, since she is my only surviving parent, and she spoke about her love for my Dad.  About two weeks before our wedding, she found a cassette that my Dad had saved of their wedding ceremony.  This was the first time she had seen it since their marriage in 1981.  She transferred the cassette to a CD and had the DJ play the section of their wedding when they were exchanging their vows.  There wasn't a dry eye in the reception hall.  My second favorite part of the wedding was seeing everyone who came.  It is always nice to be "home" back in Illinois and to see everyone who was a part of our day.

Memorable Moment

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to have a Mother-Daughter dance with my Mom.  My Dad passed away four years ago, and I knew that the traditional Father-Daughter dance was going to be hard for me to skip over.  I made a decision early on to delete it from the schedule, but, at the last minute, I decided that I would dance with my Mom to a song that had been meaningful to both her and my Dad: "My Girl.”  It was not a planned dance, but we rocked it anyway.

Advice

Don't get too caught up in the details and make time to eat!  You have worked so hard to make the day a success, so have fun!

Wedding Vendors

Photographer: Britni Woodworth Photography // Wedding Venue: Egyptian Hills Resort // DJ: Robco Audio // Madame Saint Vintage