10 Year Anniversary | Noerenberg Gardens, Lake Minnetonka

Oh this family…they sure tug at your heart strings. It was both a blessing and honor to be able to document such a special and meaningful time in their lives. This is RJ and Kathie’s beautiful story…

WHAT ARE YOUR PROUDEST MOMENTS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS?

Our girls are obviously our proudest accomplishment. We love their loving hearts and their vulnerable openness to be completely themselves whether silly, sassy, or sweet. We are also proud of our business growth and goals as partners in a second generation bridal business, recently celebrating a 30th Anniversary. Lastly, we are proud to finally have roots. We used to move every six months and accumulated over 16 addresses together as a couple. Having roots for the past four years in Spicer, Minnesota is something we value and find a blessing to our marriage and our family.

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE HEALTHY AND HAPPY?

RJ: making time for date nights has been important for our marriage, no matter how challenging that can get, we make it a priority.
Kathie: I always remain open to accepting advice on marriage and parenting! Ha! 10 years certainly makes us no experts and we are still learning. Accepting change and learning to grow ‘together’ would be the biggest advice I could give the younger me.

HOW ARE YOU CELEBRATING YOUR 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY?

We took a trip to Italy last summer as our big 10 year celebration. Italy was a dream and as hard as it was to leave our girls, it was a wonderful reminder how much fun we truly have together as friends and lovers. This year, aside from revisiting our wedding ceremony site, we are sneaking away to the “Keywest of the Midwest”. Okoboji is a stones throw from Kathie’s home-town so we are dropping the kids with family and sneaking in a little weekend away together.

TELL ME MORE!!
We married at Noerenberg Gardens September 5th, 2009 with reception to follow at BayView Event Center in Excelsior. At that time, Mound was our home and that area has always held a special place in our hearts. We now have two girls, Preslie 6 and Haddie 4. RJ works for Lakeland Broadcasting while Kathie works as an Interior Designer and operates the St. Cloud Wedding Expo and Central Minnesota Brides, magazine. We met the summer of 2005 on a co-ed volleyball team in Mankato. RJ played hockey professionally in the minor leagues after college, taking us from Mankato to Augusta, GA and Tulsa, OK for several years. Eventually moving back to Mankato and now Spicer to follow career paths.