Underclassman Kristen was assigned randomly as his associate clinician to observe the graduate student’s speech and language therapy sessions at the university clinic.
“Obviously I noticed Robert right away since he was one of the only males in the speech program. I admired his confidence and his passion for speech pathology. I also admired his cowboy boots – but that’s a whole other story. Love at first sight? Pretty dang close,” she admitted.
He considered himself fortunate in the large class.
“I looked her up on Facebook. To say I was excited would be an understatement. The class turned out great. We were professional through the entire time.”
Looking for mutual interests after their educational pairing, he discovered a common language: baseball. Robert was “ecstatic” when she agreed to a first date at the Springfield Cardinals’ season opener. His recollection included a rainbow performance.
“We sat six rows behind home plate. During the game it started to rain. We can leave, I thought. No, no, no, you don’t leave during the game, she said. Here I was trying to be smooth and coy and I think right then I have never known anyone who was such a die-hard fan.”
The Cardinals won.
The fireworks sparked future success.
“Robert and I are crazy about one another, but also we both come from close-knit, loving families. The support that they had instilled in us transferred into the support that we give each other,” Kristen said, who liked him as an all-around good guy. “He puts down what he is doing to help somebody else. He is so genuine to everybody.”
Her dad and two older brothers, ever protective of her, gave him their stamp of approval in late 2012. Already “sitting on the ring” almost two months, Robert wanted to seal the relationship. The newly recruited fan of football at the University of Alabama, her dad's alma mater, grabbed her family’s suggestion to propose when all would gather to root for the Crimson Tide in its annual rivalry against Louisiana State University.
He invited his mother to come from Marshfield. Surprised at seeing his mom at her parents’ home in St. Peters, Kristen had to be turned around to find Robert down on one knee.
“I immediately started to cry, sweat and break out into hives all at once. He popped the question, I said ‘yes’ and we all celebrated with another Alabama win,” the new bride-to-be exulted over every facet.
Robert’s hometown minister officiated with the pastor of Salem United Methodist Church, Ladue, a church that “spoke” to both of them. A positive scenario unfolded on Sept. 7, 2013, a date snugly tucked into school calendars, Alabama football on a bye week and a win for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Before the ceremony, they shared a moment, holding hands from opposite sides of a door. He wrapped his handmade gift for her in Christmas paper, securing it with a glue stick, to open that morning. On it, “Kissed here” recreated their first date, “Wed here” showed the church and “Lived here” would be their first house, acquired on their wedding weekend.
Like other family members before her, she asked her uncle, a professional musician, to sing and play at her wedding. Robert’s sister, a professional actress, delivered a reading.
Both educators by career, they invited “lots of kids,” including a young niece pulled in a wagon, to be part of the wedding. When Kristen looked to add something old to her attire, her mother blindly pulled from her own mother’s cedar chest a piece of lace for the bride’s gown. The groom wore cowboy boots. His ring with three diamonds from his father’s wedding ring was a good sign for Robert, certain that his dad, deceased since 2009, would be “best friends” with Kristen if they knew each other.
“I will always remember the doors opening to reveal Kristen in her wedding gown, particularly because I became a blubbering fool as soon as I laid eyes on her. She was absolutely stunning,” he said. As the church doors opened, she looked up to see Robert, “just Robert, at the end of the aisle and I couldn't wait to get to him.”
For a party bus, the groom selected a school bus to carry them from church to the reception next to the lake at Lake Saint Louis. On a wedding party stop for photography, a bridesmaid fell in a “jump” photo, but returned later from the hospital with her broken ankle in a protective boot.
Their reception theme was baseball. it was, after all, “how our relationship started," they said. Kristen chose to serve her favorite popcorn snacks. Redbirds, one in cowboy hat and the other in white veil, kissed atop a chocolate groom’s cake. Guests autographed baseballs. Robert wrote greetings, sayings and directions on chalk boards. The groom sang Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” as a reception surprise, a throwback to the karaoke he shared with her family when he met them at her college graduation.
With both bride and groom working on school schedules and Kristen pursuing a master’s degree, they postponed a honeymoon until summer with three priorities: all-inclusive amenities, on a beach, without children.
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