Love can happen when you least expect it, and Claire Flowers should know. She met her fiancé, Roger Roberts, entirely by chance after accepting an invitation to join friends at Cafe Napoli. “It was a last-minute thing,” she says. “I was still in my tennis outfit!” She ended up meeting Roberts there, they exchanged numbers, and the rest was a bit of a whirlwind, she says. Their first dinner date took place in October at J. Gilbert’s, and the two began seeing each other nearly every day afterward.

“He realized I was the one for him when he took me on a hunting trip and I sat in his blind for three hours in 5-degree weather,” Flowers notes. “He proposed while we were on a walk in the same woods a few weeks later. He had picked up the ring that morning with the idea of proposing in the next few weeks, but then decided he couldn’t wait. He’d only had the ring for a total of 10 hours!”

Flowers says her thoughtful fiancé once sent her a bouquet of roses representing the number of hours he’d be gone on a Boston business trip. It didn’t take long for her family to become smitten with him, either. “My mom and dad love him,” she notes. “They have a lot in common, and even hang out together. Sometimes I’ll call and he’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m at your parents’ house.’” The couple will marry Aug. 25 at the Old Cathedral in downtown St. Louis, and their reception is planned for historic Saint Louis Union Station. The rehearsal dinner will be downtown as well, at Carmine’s Steakhouse. “We liked the idea of being able to walk from the church rehearsal to dinner,” Flowers says.

A Tahiti honeymoon will follow the wedding, with activities including ziplining, parasailing and snorkeling. “We’re going to stay in one of those vacation huts with a glass floor over the ocean,” Flowers says. A St. Louis native, she is founder and CEO of Claire Flowers, which sells apparel and shoes designed by her (she’ll be wearing a pair on the big day). Roberts is from Moberly, Missouri, and works in medical device sales.

resources
ceremony | Old Cathedral
reception | Saint Louis Union Station
gown | Essence of Australia
cake | Cravings
florist | Schnucks
music | Vote 4 Pedro
honeymoon | Tahiti

wedding party
maid of honor | Jane Kolb
bridesmaids | Karen Grahn, Jacquie Bussen
best man | Kyle Roberts
groomsmen | Mike Montgomery, Bret Brody
flower girls | Kendall Grahn, Hannah Grahn, Jenna Grahn
bride’s parents | Jim & Barb Flowers of Oakville
groom’s parents | Glen Roberts and Louise Roberts of Moberly, Missouri

wedding date: August 25, 2017