Monique & Rory's Lucky Strike: From The Bowling Alley To The Aisle

Monique and Rory’s formal wedding at the Chateau Bu-Sche was a heartfelt ceremony that lovingly blended two families into one.

It sounds cliche, but truly live in, savor, and enjoy each moment of the process and of the day. It really, truly does go by SO FAST! We found ourselves saying that we wanted to do it again to relive those moments that seemed so fleeting looking back on that day.
Monique and Rory

The exquisite ceremony and reception featured the pretty complementary colors of blue and rose gold which the bride fell in love with since she also chose these colors to be featured on her bridesmaids and the groomsmen.

See all of the lovely details below.

Couple: Monique Patton Woody and Rory L. Woody Jr
Occupations: Monique (Lawyer) and Rory (Laborer)
Wedding Date: August 14, 2021
Wedding Location: Chateau Bu-Sche, Alsip, ILL

Quick Facts

Ceremony Entrance Song: Wedding Party walked in to “Even More’ by Brandy and Major. Bride walked in to “Why I love you” by Major.
First Dance Song: “Saturn” by Nao feat. Kwabs
Gifts For The Wedding Party: My bridesmaids and bride tribe girls received personalized beach bags filled with personalized robes, rose gold jewelry to compliment their wedding attire, personalized wine tumblers with rose gold straws, and individual bottles of champagne.

How Did You Meet?

At a bowling alley, actually. We were both bowling in a league on opposite teams.

Tell us about the proposal

I am a lawyer full-time. But, I have also developed a passion for makeup and I decided to launch Monammie Beauty and turn makeup artistry into a separate business born out of my hobby. Well, in the summer of 2018, I had a launch party for Monammie Beauty. It was attended by my friends and relatives. Toward the middle of the event, I was giving the usual “thank-you-for-attending-and-supporting-my-vision” speech. I was wrapping up when Rory comes from behind me and grabs me. When I realized what was happening, I actually said out loud “oh nah, we’re not doing this right now.” *face palm. But, he proceeded to tell me how the past two years had been amazing and he pulled the ring out and asked me “what are you doing for the rest of your life?”

From there, I let the girls vote on the dresses that they liked the most and majority won! My maid of honor picked a rose gold sequined dress that was uniform with the other girls, but set her apart with an open back and dolman sleeves. The bridesmaids dresses were also rose gold sequined, but with spaghetti straps and a small drape in the back; while my junior bridesmaid’s dress – my bonus daughter – was (you guessed it) rose gold sequined dress with a cutaway neckline and faux crop top. They all complimented each other beautifully, while also giving each girl a different look and fit. I also only had 4 bridesmaids because Rory only had 4 groomsmen and we wanted to be uniform. So, I also had a secondary color for my girlfriends who were a part of my “bride tribe.” They wore coral. I actually put a lot of trust in my girls with this one as they all picked their own dresses. I’m so glad I trusted them, they looked great!

And now……the dress. I, of course, wanted my dress to be beautiful. To me, that meant I wanted detail, drama, lace work and touches of bling. I am also tall, plus, and curvy, so I knew that it would be difficult finding something that would check all of my boxes. So, I reached out to Leah, the owner and designer of elleNelle Bridal, and told her my vision. She put together 5 sketches based on what I roughly described. Once I said “yes to the sketch,” Leah got to work! My dress was elaborate (shout out to my BFF and maid of honor who practiced getting me into my dress so much that it only took her 20 minutes on the big day!), to put it straight. It was a white satin mermaid/trumpet style gown with a sweetheart neckline and spilling out into flowy cascading organza ruffles. There were custom hand made embroidered and beaded lace appliqués hand sewn all around the entire dress with touches of Swarovski crystals and beaded 3d petals throughout. There was a corset back and a long train plus a removable extender. I paired it with a cathedral length veil. It truly was the gown I’d always wanted. I am so happy to have had Leah there to bring my mash of different concepts and ideas together to bring my wedding gown to life. I could just look at it all day to be honest!

So, for the groomsmen, we looked for colors that would complement those. I felt I wanted a dark green or a rich blue. We went to a place named Formally Modern Tuxedo and came upon these rich royal blue tuxes with two options – one with a black lapel and one without. These ended up being perfect. Rory and our ring bearer – my bonus son- wore the tuxes with the black lapel and the groomsmen wore the same color but without the black lapels. It again kept with the theme of a cohesive look, but with small changes to keep the groom and ring bearer apart from the groomsmen. I’m sure I was the only one worried about how all this looked. Rory probably would’ve married me in a trash bag, but he was fantastic throughout the whole attire search process.

What is your best memory from your wedding?

Ugh – I have so many. Our vows – I was so hesitant to write our own vows because I tease Rory all the time about not being the most expressive, so I just didn’t think it would work. But, it turned out beautifully! Our vows were so reflective of who we are as people – Rory is much more to the point and emphatic about his love and feelings. I am much more wordy and tend to be more elaborate in how I explain things. I think they connected us even more and we got a lot of guests telling us how much they loved the vow portion of the ceremony. But, there are truly more favorite moments that I can’t even list them all here – seeing my bonus son get really emotional about everything; having a close loved one officiate the ceremony; even the late night snacks (White Castle’s!) were a hit that a lot of guests commented brought the right amount of a ‘down-to-earth’ feel to a formal event. It was great.

What is the best wedding advice you can give to engaged couples?

It sounds cliche, but truly live in, savor, and enjoy each moment of the process and of the day. It really, truly does go by SO FAST! We found ourselves saying that we wanted to do it again to relive those moments that seemed so fleeting looking back on that day.