Real, timeless & Emotional

Primary Blog/Wild Carrot, MO - Jack & Claire

Monday, December 08, 2025

Wild Carrot, MO - Jack & Claire

An intimate and artful celebrations at Wild Carrot in St. Louis, Missouri, featuring organic design, warm textures, and a cozy, modern atmosphere.

About the Couple

The Proposal

We met online... technically. :)

Jack's family moved from their home in Chicago to Claire's hometown of Columbia, MO, in 2015. Jack was a rising junior in high school, and with how much we both were involved in fine arts, we definitely would have crossed paths... Except that Claire graduated that year, and was moving to Texas to attend the University of North Texas in the College of Music.

Two years later, Jack graduated high school, and planned to attend... The University of North Texas in the College of Music!

Over the next two years while we overlapped, we made a LOT of mutual friends, shared several professors, potentially crossed paths briefly once or twice, and even played in the same band... and never really truly met.

Claire graduated in 2019, and started working in Denton at Union Park Elementary.

When the pandemic hit, Claire moved home that summer to be closer to family in Columbia. Jack finished his degree in 2021 (playing in the 1 O'clock Lab Band) and began working as a professional musician and instrument repair tech. The repair company he worked for serviced Union Park Elementary, and we surely would have met... If Claire hadn't moved away already!

In 2023, Jack moved back home to Missouri for the summer, planning to move on to Chicago for the school year. When his plans fell through, he began subbing for the Columbia Public Schools, taking only music teacher and band/orchestra director jobs. We surely would have met through subbing... If we hadn't met online first!

The night we met, Claire told Jack that we would "be in each other's lives for a long time." Claire already knew.

Jack left that night, and came back to Claire's apartment two nights later. He hasn't left since.

Jack proposed to Claire, trying to make it a surprise and failing! Jack's brother asked Claire to hang out and go on a walk with him and Jack, but Claire was busy getting ready for the school year and tried to blow him off. Jack insisted they go, and Claire immediately knew what was coming. The three of us went for a walk on the trail we often walk on in the evenings and on the weekends near our apartment. Jack led us down to the creek, said some beautiful things that neither of us can remember, and got down on one knee. It was perfect! Jack even designed the engagement ring himself -- and it's so gorgeous. (Jack's other brother was supposed to be hiding and taking pictures, but he missed it... so we actually don't have any photo or video of the actual proposal. His brother feels really bad, and we try not to talk about it because we know it was an honest mistake. But it is a bummer!)

Right afterward, Claire tried to get Jack to go to her parents' home to share the news... but Jack insisted we stop at his parents' first. When we arrived, both of our families were together for a huge surprise engagement party! This was a huge surprise to Claire, and the sweetest way to celebrate with all of our loved ones!! <3 A lot of my family lives out of town, and he managed to get everyone there. It was so special!

Why do you want to capture your wedding on video?

For photos, we obviously want to be able to remember how awesome our day was for years to come, have beautiful images to hang in our home to celebrate our union, and to memorialize everyone who was there.

In debating whether or not we wanted to have video, we talked to lots of family about this. My dad's conversation with us was the most impactful. He explained that my mom and dad have a video of their ceremony from the altar facing the audience, but there is no audio. They've watched it a couple of times, but there's not much interest because of the lack of sound. That's always been a reason for me personally -- I want to remember Jack's vows -- I don't remember his proposal speech barely at all-- I want to know what he says! :)

Then my dad said that they also have a video set out at street level on a tripod of everyone exiting the church. My parents like watching this one way more, because so many loved ones who appear in the video have since passed.

Then my dad got fairly emotional, and said that he couldn't imagine having a real video of their wedding -- the reception, the ceremony, everything... It would be so special at this point in their marriage to be able to relive all that, with us their children, and to see their parents again, all the loved ones who aren't around anymore...

That got us.
I think the longer we get into our marriage, the more valuable the videos (and photos) will be. That's really what made the decision so easy for us.

Why did you choose us?

We LOVE your style... it's phenomenal.

We also just don't think we could get such extensive coverage in both locations for any lower than what you're giving us with any other company or companies... let alone at the same quality. It's really a no-brainer for us!

You guys? …What do you do?..How do you spend your days?.. What’s important in life?

Jack and I are both full time musicians, and this is important to us! My passion is working with young children, providing them the best music education possible, and giving them the social/emotional skill set that I wish I had when I was younger.
Jack is a professional jazz musician and instrument repair tech. He loves working with his hands, and he truly has a huge passion (and talent!!!) for arranging and performing music. He is arranging the music for our ceremony!!

When we aren't doing those things... we are usually moving our bodies! We love to be outside above everything else. We love to camp (tents, hammock, cabins, etc), Claire runs marathons and triathlons, we go on walks, and we weightlift together. Claire also loves running and cycling, and Jack is a big swimmer.

We have two black cats -- we each had one before we met -- and they hate each other. Mama is Jack's cat, and she is tiny and old and cranky. Claire's cat is Henry, and he is incredibly loud and needy. We're trying to think of a non-cringy way to include them in the celebration somehow, but... we have nothing so far.

We are both huge on family -- Jack is incredibly loyal, and we are both ride or die for family. We spend a lot of our downtime with both of our families.

We love puzzles and games. Jack enjoys any and all Nintendo games, Claire is more of a board games gal. Claire also does a lot of crafty things, like knitting, crochet, watercolor, etc., and we enjoy going to art galleries and festivals!
Jack is also great at bartending, and loves to pour anyone and everyone a drink. Claire made him a custom cocktail book for his birthday -- it's all themed to his favorite things :)

The Venue. Why did you choose it above anywhere else?

Cooper Chapel -- Claire found one of it's sister chapels (designed by the same architect, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright) in Hot Springs, AR (St. Anthony Chapel) several years ago, and fell in love. She knew she wanted to use it for her wedding for years. BUT Hot Springs, is a 10 hour drive from MO! So we toured the Cooper Chapel and another sister chapel, the Thorncrown, and absolutely fell in love with the Cooper Chapel.
We knew we wanted a small ceremony, and Claire really wanted a "camp" vibe to the weekend, so we looked around for different properties where we could stay all together with our guests. The Trail's Edge Cabins are super close to the chapel, have a great green space for the dinner, and will accommodate everyone.

Wild Carrot -- we toured a TON of STL venues, and this one just felt the most like us. It has great warmth with exposed brick, a gorgeous bar (we're both big cocktail people), one big space for everyone, cool vintage furniture spaced around, and we love the owner! Plus we love the neighborhood, and the out front patio space/old movie poster displays will be so fun to fill!

What experience do you want to give to your guests?

For Arkansas-- we want a cozy, intimate togetherness for the weekend. We want everyone to feel comfortable and like family -- Claire wants all the women to get together in the morning for a champagne toast before they all get ready, and the simple dinner afterwards will feel like a family barbecue with s'mores and everyone in their hoodies around the campfire after the sun goes down. We want it to be a tight-knit celebration of love, and we want to feel wrapped up in the love!

For Missouri-- we want our guests to have a BLAST! This is going to be a PARTY! We want to start off with our entrance in our ceremony outfits like we just drove up from the chapel, and have the first dance/parent dances/cake cutting/toasts/etc., so everyone feels like they're included in the special day. Our fear is that family will feel excluded from the celebration, and we want to avoid that as much as possible!

We're going to do a recital at the very beginning, almost like a substitute for vows, with us both playing different instruments together and celebrating the beginning of our lives by making music together! Then we'll do a cocktail hour, which will have an open jazz "jam," where any of our musician friends and family (and definitely Jack) can jump in and play a tune or two. We're hiring a house band for this of our professional friends, and they will also play through dinner. All this will be super classy, elegant, etc,.

After dinner we're switching to a playlist for the first dances, and once those are done, we're likely going to change into some party clothes and get things turned up for a dance party! We're hoping everyone will embrace this and hit the dance floor with us!