Jennifer Frigge & Steven Soumpholphakdy Wedding

It was a fateful day in March 2017 - March Madness was in full swing and the Wisconsin Badgers were in it to win it. Jenn lived in Milwaukee at the time, and since Indiana Basketball had embarrassed her (and the whole Frigge family) for quite some time, she would sometimes jump and becomes an honorary Badger fan. She was out with Olga, a fellow Hoosier, and a Rachel, an actual Badger fan. They were all watching at a bar when Rachel received that fateful FaceTime call from none other than Steve. Rachel and Steve have been friends since freshman year at Wisconsin, and Steve tends to FaceTime Rachel often. This time, Steve was visiting Paul - another Badger from freshman year who was also conveniently Rachel’s ex- boyfriend- and they  were watching the games but in Memphis, TN. Steve, who likes to make bits happen way longer than they should, was trying to get Rachel and Paul to talk to each other over FaceTime (it did not go well). Finally Steve asked Rachel what she was doing, and she told him she was out with her friends Jenn and Olga. Steve loosely knew Olga through his then thriving Bachelor league (R.I.P), but he wanted to know more about Jenn. They exchanged numbers, and Jenn sat by herself plugged into the wall at a bar while they both texted and ignored everyone.  And the rest is history!

When Jenn and Steve met, they unfortunately lived in different cities and did a long distance relationship for about 5 months. Jenn was living in Milwaukee but was in the process of moving to Chicago, to start her new job at Walgreens. Steve was living in Minneapolis working for Dell, but he always wanted to move to Chicago to be closer to friends (90% of Steve’s friends happened to all live in Chicago). He finally moved in late August of 2017, and they moved in together in February 2018!

By the time 2019 came around, the 700 square foot apartment Jenn and Steve were sharing (and Steve was working in) was feeling a wee bit small. They hired their friend (and top Chicago real estate agent Jill Silverstein) to help them find their perfect Chicago home. They have settled into their much more spacious condo in Roscoe Village, where they love to host parties and hang out on the massive couch in their living room.

Jenn is the easiest person to surprise, as all her friends convinced her that they were getting engaged in Spring 2020. Steve made a reservation for her 30th birthday dinner at their favorite spot- Gibson’s Italia- but had a couple of surprises up his sleeve. Jenn left work early that day, and walked in with rose petals everywhere. Steve proposed, Jenn said “yes!”, and the champagne started to flow! They were able to celebrate their engagement and her 30th birthday dinner that night, and the celebrations continued all weekend at Jenn’s pre planned birthday party!

Pushing our wedding out a year led to us spending a year cooking and baking (follow along on Instagram @svensrecipes) and spending - LOTS - of time in our home. But it has made us more grateful and excited for our wedding to come- we can’t wait to celebrate with everyone TWICE as hard!