Amany and I had the distinct pleasure of attending our first wedding celebration in the Starlight and Zodiac rooms at the Chase Park Plaza last Saturday. The occasion - a client wedding of course.
About a year and a half ago, Jennifer G came to my office to ask me (many) questions about how the immigration and spouse visa process works. Wisely, she brought a friend and recent law school grad to the office to make sure my answers to her (many) questions were legitimate. After apparently passing that grueling interview, I spoke to Jennifer's boyfriend, Jake B, on Skype. Its funny that sometimes I meet my client face-to-face at the end of the immigration process as opposed to at the beginning. But Jake was in England at the time and we first met on Skype. I had lots of laughs with Jennifer and Jake and was happy when they decided to hire us to assist them with obtaining a spouse visa and green card for Jake.
The case itself was relatively straightforward, although every case has its own special wrinkles. I remember attending their courthouse wedding in St. Louis County many months ago and that was fun.
But Saturday marked the formal ceremony at the Jewel Box and the Chase. We had baseball with the kids all day so we weren't able to attend the ceremony, but we heard it was lovely. Bride and groom had soil from England and soil from here and they planted a tree with their joint soil.
After a day in the sun with the kids, Amany and I were both tired and weren't sure how long we would be able to celebrate with Jake and Jeni. Hah! We ended up staying for hours and had a blast. When we arrived, we took the wrong elevator up but it worked out perfectly because we found ourselves with Jake and Jeni before heading over to the celebration. Amany took this great photo of me with the happy couple.
The celebration itself was a blast. Amany loved the lamb chop appetizers. We were out on the balcony meeting friends of the happy couple. Keeping in the British tradition, many of the men and women in attendance had these adorable hats. It was like that old Old Hat, New Hat book my mom read to me when I was a kid. Dinner was fun and Dr. Zhevagas rocked the house which was a ton of fun.
One of the great perks of being an immigration attorney is helping people stay together and live the lives they want to live. Getting an invite to special client celebrations is icing on the proverbial cake. We had an awesome time !