Feast your eyes on the beauty that is Katherine and Alex’s Heinz History Center wedding. The high school sweethearts’ chose to get married on the same day as Alex’s grandparents’ anniversary, but that wasn’t the only love story they wanted to pay homage to. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, the couple also wanted to convey their love for this city while peppering in some nostalgic touches. They chose a steel blue color palette in honor of Pittsburgh’s nickname “The Steel City”, which was accented beautifully by floral arrangements from Sapphire & Lace Design in a rainbow of shades. After saying “I do” at one of the most iconic buildings in all of Pittsburgh, Antique Coach Excursions escorted the newlyweds off to the party. There, miniature Heinz ketchup bottles served as escort cards while a vintage telephone from After The Tone was a unique guest book. With the help of Common Plea Catering, Katherine’s grandmother was able to bake the couple’s wedding cake using the same well-loved family recipe that her parents had on their big day. After which, Mineo’s Pizza was the meal of choice for the after party menu. If you’ve got a big heart for this fantastic city as much as we do, then you’re surely going to love the tasteful touches and sweet moments that this day brings with the portraits from Tyler Norman Photography and video from Just Hitched Films.

About the Couple

We met in high school math class in 9th grade. We went to every high school dance together, continued to date long distance for six years, and both ended up back in Pittsburgh after our graduations.

Alex decided to buy a ring right before a fall trip to Acadia National Park. After a long hike up Mount Dorr, Alex, who had been carrying the ring in his pocket the entire time, got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! It was a cool, sunny day. It was so clear you could see the surrounding islands in the ocean. It was very beautiful, peaceful, and private.

About the Wedding

We picked Alex’s grandparents’ anniversary as our wedding date. Since we both grew up in Pittsburgh, we really wanted to emphasize the small hometown feel the city can give and all of the history that goes along with it. All the businesses, icons, and changes in this city are a love story in themselves. We had our ceremony at a historic site and important spot for Alex, who went to Pitt. The high school where we met (Vincentian Academy) no longer exists, so it was important for us to really carve out the start of our marriage into parts of Pittsburgh history that hopefully will withstand the test of time. Our relationship was supported by our friends and families through the years and we really wanted to be able to engage and unite them into the celebration with live music, photos, and food. We very carefully picked all the details. We stuck to a steel blue color palette as blue is flattering on most and Pittsburgh is traditionally known as the Steel City. We took in the enchantment of the Heinz History Center and played in other pieces of history with our transportation and vintage telephone for the guest book. We created small ketchup bottles with wax seals for our escort cards. However, we wanted our wedding to still feel modern, so we brought in Sapphire & Lace Design to tie in everything. They provided modern candlelight and centerpieces. They created this amazing chandelier that all our guests could enjoy and dance under together. Given the combination of the bright red of the Heinz details and softer steel blue color scheme, we decided to keep our flowers a rainbow masterpiece that felt artistic and timeless.

Our cake was actually baked by my grandma, Nancy, using our family’s traditional wedding cake recipe – the very same recipe my parents had at their wedding. Common Plea graciously opened their kitchen to my grandmother and did everything possible to help make this happen without any hesitation. They welcomed her into their space and worked alongside her so she could carry on this special family tradition. Sapphire & Lace then beautifully decorated the cake with fresh flowers, making it every bit as beautiful as it was meaningful. It truly was a collaboration, and we are forever grateful to everyone who helped bring it to life. It was really important to us to share these details with our guests and the vendors went above and beyond to make this possible.

John Parker Bands had us dancing all night. Our first dance song was “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. We picked this song because it really spoke to us about a young love and we still feel the young love we had over a decade ago alive inside us. John Parker even learned this song for us, as it is not one of the most common wedding songs. He kept the energy alive and added personal touches throughout the night, explaining why Alex and I wanted certain songs played. He even played an encore when the guests needed one more song before the night was officially over!

We took our after party to the Homewood Suites hotel bar after. We served Mineo’s Pizza. The hotel made it so easy and affordable, and was extremely flexible with our large wedding group!

We had an amazing wedding day thanks to everyone involved and I would do it a million times over!

Favorite Moment

Spraying champagne on Smallman Street with our photographer and videographer!