Seasons of Love: Fall

Katie and Damien Carufel are proof that opposites attract, Katie says. These best friends tied the knot on November 1, 2008, at the University Club of St. Paul, more than seven years after they started dating. “It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long at all—we have so much fun together,” she says.

When it came time to plan, Katie says, “There’s always been something that I loved about the fall.” There were sentimental reasons to book a fall wedding, too—they began dating at the end of October, her birthday is in October, and Damien proposed November 3, 2007. A love of eggplant purple also inspired the fall setting. And her fairy-tale dress helped set the stage for what Katie hoped would be an elegant, romantic wedding.

Armed with wedding planner Valerie Podolinsky from Event du Jour, Katie took on the task of crafting a fall wedding scene. One of the most important parts? The photographer. “Valerie reiterated the fact that it’s really, really the only thing you have left of that day,” she says.

Damien and Katie knew that the perfect backdrop for those photos would be downtown St. Paul. “We both love the character of St. Paul. It has this history, and it’s all tied into how we are as a couple and what we like. We’d rather spend a night in St. Paul than Stillwater or Minneapolis.”

Katie started with the dress. Once she had it in hand, she says, “I could envision myself at a specific venue and how I would feel in the dress there.”

That place became the University Club. On their wedding day, guests moved from the ballroom for the ceremony to the foyer for cocktails, back to the ballroom for dinner, and up to the penthouse for an ultra-romantic evening of drinks and dancing. “It was all candlelit, with these floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking St. Paul and the Capitol,” Katie says.

“The greatest thing about fall is that we weren’t really worried about the weather. It was the last really nice day of the fall, and my mom kept saying, ‘Katie! It was meant to be!’ ” Katie says, laughing. “But the best part was just standing up there with Damien, knowing that this is right. That’s the most amazing feeling in the world.”