Real Weddings

Normans Bridal Shoppe has celebrated with thousands of brides since opening in 1980.

Druzynski Wedding

Eileen and Michael’s Fairytale Winter Wedding ~ 12-12-20

How and or where did you meet?
We met in college at Missouri State University; quite literally because of fate. I was in a service sorority called Gamma Sigma Sigma and it was recruitment week. On the second info night, a guy opened the door and one of my “sisters” introduced him to everyone. We shook hands, introduced each other, and our story started to unfold.

If you thought we started dating right away, that’s not exactly true; We became friends first. On a Saturday in March 2017, one month after we met, I asked him if he liked chicken. Thank goodness he did because we ate at the campus Chic Fil A and talked for six hours straight! A few weeks later, Michael confessed he liked me, and I said “you make me smile, you make me laugh, I like you too”. Sharing a love of Disney and a fondness for the movie, The Beauty and the Beast, we spent our first date at the Springfield 11 movie theater watching the live action take on the classic. We also enjoyed a few games of pool, and a late night dinner at Braums.

How did you get proposed to?
August 11th 2019 was a special day. We spent the day getting ice cream and touring a local museum. That evening Michael made a candlelit dinner accompanied by music and flowers set out on the table. Once dinner was finished, we danced together to some of our favorite songs. Tired from dancing and a lovely day spent together, we sat down and filled out our relationship book (a present he gave me a year previously). Michael also asked an important question: if I wanted seconds and moments later, he asked an even bigger one.

On page 42 there was a prompt which said, “A question I’ve always wanted to ask you is?” While I was thinking, Michael said “I got one” and got down on one knee. He pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him; changing our lives forever. Of course I said yes!

What was your favorite memory from your wedding day?
During the wedding planning process Michael and I knew we wanted our wedding to scream us, we were madly in love and wanted to show the world. Then 2020 hit and we knew we didn’t want to wait to become husband and wife, if anything being locked in for months only solidified that.

I had waited 3 years, 6 months, and 22 weeks to marry Michael- but who was counting? Since our wedding was such an awaited event, a lot of moments happened to make it special.

Due to getting married in 2020, many of our family and friends weren’t able to come but my sister planned a Zoom meeting with everyone in the bridal party who wasn’t able to be there. It meant so much to us that she made it possible for all of our attendants to watch even if they couldn’t be there in person.

Michael and I didn’t do a first look, in every movie and show my sister and I watched we would always look at the groom’s face and see it as the bride walked down the aisle. I wanted to be able to see my groom’s face as I walked down the aisle too. Because of this, we chose to go to a beautiful cottage almost from a fairytale and do a first touch. I was on one side of the door and he was on the other and we prayed over our day and our marriage. Michael and I pray with each other every single night. We prayed the day we started dating, the night we got engaged, and a few hours before we said I do. Now, I get to thank God for letting me have this life with the very man who built it with me.

I knew I had always wanted my Uncle to give the blessing for my marriage. He has given prayers for every family gathering and I have looked up to him and my aunt’s marriage my whole life. He was honored and it was all set, but one thing I’ve learned since I met Michael is that when you make a plan God tends to change it. Weeks before our wedding my uncle had a health scare and was now unable to attend, I thought that would be it but my sister had another surprise up her sleeve. My uncle recorded himself giving us a prayer, a recording that I will keep forever.

Growing up I was always a singer, I’d sing along to the radio, in choir, and at home. When it came time to choose my father- daughter dance none of them really matched. So I decided to write and record my own. My dad didn’t really have the opportunity to see me sing through my life but he was always around for a twirl. It was a very special moment getting to dance to a song that was created just for him and as I twirled with my dad it brought me back to that five year old in the living room.

However, the moment I grabbed Michael’s hand and promised to love him forever has the title of my favorite moment from our day.

What vendors did you use at your wedding?
Dress: Norman’s Bridal

Veil/ Tiara: Maiden’s Voyage

Tux/ wedding party attire: Amazon

Venue: Hermann Hill Weddings

Flowers: TerraFlora Flowers & Gifts

Bakery: Celebrating Life Cakes

Videographer: Seasonal Films

Photographer: Dylan’s Backyard Captures

Makeup: Hanna Hackler

Hair: Hanna Hackler
What was your experience like at Normans Bridal?
When I got engaged I knew two things. 1) I wanted to be a Norman’s bride because I was a Norman’s prom girl and 2) my mom was going to move soon and I wanted her there. So, filled with people from my life in August 2019 I tried on white. Beaming from ear to ear talking about how I finally get to marry Michael I narrowed it down to two (the one I chose had everything I always wanted- a long train, lace, sparkle, buttons down the back) and with my big sister in tow in September 2019- I said yes.

I said yes to a dress, a new adventure, and to saying goodbye to Springfield.

10 months after I had last been a vision in white and during a pandemic it was time to take it home, for in mere months I’d be a wife.

I absolutely love my wedding dress. I love how it looks like a dress from a storybook, how the detailed lace looks like snowflakes, how it was the last dress I wore as a Wefler and the first as a Druzynski, and how it made me twirl.

I love how my dress was a little something from Springfield- the place I grew up and the place I fell in love.

My experience was wonderful and truly made me feel like a princess. Norman’s completely surpassed what I had envisioned of walking down the aisle in.