By Emily Williams-Robertshaw
Both Lauren Theiss and Frank Gleason were raised in Birmingham, she in Vestavia Hills and he in Mountain Brook.
Both Lauren and Frank followed in the footsteps of their fathers as medical professionals working at UAB.
The couple didn’t meet during their youth or in the halls of the hospital but, instead, at Innisfree Pub in Lakeview.
They met at a seemingly inopportune time. The two began dating while Frank was in his final year of medical school. Luckily, he matched at UAB, where he has continued into his surgical residency.
A year later, it was Lauren’s turn to graduate to her own residency in surgery.
“Luckily, I matched with UAB,” Lauren said.
After four years together, Frank found a way to surprise Lauren when he asked her to marry him lakeside in November of 2019.
“He’s just not a planner at all,” Lauren said. “But he planned a weekend at his family’s lakehouse. He had my whole family and his whole family there and he made a whole itinerary.”
Shortly after they were engaged, the couple set a date for the wedding, Dec. 19, 2020.
The plans were for a classic pre-pandemic celebration. A Catholic Mass at St. Francis Xavier would be followed by a large reception at The Theodore accommodating 350 of their family and friends.
As if planning a wedding around two busy surgical residency schedules wasn’t enough, a global health crisis came knocking at the door.
“It was a roller coaster, for sure,” Lauren said.
While they stuck to their guns for a time, luck was not on the world’s side as COVID-19 raged on.
“Given that a large percentage of our friends and family are in the medical profession, the fact that we would have to downsize seemed pretty inevitable,” she said.
Adding to the injury, The Theodore closed.
“Before the Theodore reopened, we signed a contract with Cahaba Brewing Company for the same big reception,” Lauren said.
“Come August, we decided we needed to pivot.”
With the couple looking to drastically downsize the ceremony, their caterer, Thomas Cox with Table and Time, suggested they look into Honeywood Valley in Sterrett.
“It’s a lodge on a private lake,” Lauren said. “It sleeps about 13 people, but it also can be used as a wedding venue.”
It was a complete divergence from the original plan but a welcome one.
Their first dance would be held in the rustic 100-year-old Amish barn, and then they would retreat to the lodge overlooking Lake Lomah.
“We ended up just doing immediate family, so 13 people,” she said.
Both Lauren’s brother and sister got COVID-19 around Thanksgiving. They recovered with ease while quarantined.
“I was so stressed for the two weeks leading up to the wedding,” she said. If one of their family members had to quarantine, the wedding could go on, but if Lauren or Frank became sick, the entire plan would be void.
“Frank was on a busy service at work,” Lauren said, which added to her worries.
Lauren was called in to get her first COVID-19 vaccine just three days before the wedding.
“Our families were so lucky, one, that we were healthy and fortunate enough to be able to do that during such a stressful time for so many people,” Lauren said. “Also, that this was totally normal and a blast.”
A Family Retreat
Frank’s parents hosted the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding at Golden Age in Mountain Brook Village.
“That’s a place that is very special to us, because we go there all the time,” Lauren added.
The following day, they had their full Mass at 2 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier, and the entire family made their way out to Honeywood.
“We went to the barn to have our first dance and then we all went down to the lodge to have a catered meal,” Lauren said.
The group also tuned in to watch the Crimson Tide beat the Florida Gators, Lauren added, “as one does when the SEC Championship is on your wedding day.”
What may have been most special was the family time spent at the lodge. All 13 in attendance stayed at the retreat for two nights.
Birthed from the chaos of planning and replanning was a wedding experience more special than she imagined.
“I had never been to a small wedding,” she said. “One of my best friends from college did something like this pre-COVID. She just didn’t want to have a big ceremony and just did a small family weekend and a large reception later.
“As we were deciding to do this, I talked to her and she said, ‘You’re going to appreciate this so much more.’ And she was right,” she said.
“I remember thinking on the day of the wedding … while I was getting ready, in our original plan, I wouldn’t have seen Frank until 5 o’clock,” she said. “I would have spent the whole day apart from him.”
By downsizing the event, the couple had the opportunity to not only spend time with their own families one on one, but each other’s. Lauren attributes that success, in part, to their families already having a strong connection.
Lauren’s father, Dr. Steven Theiss, and Frank’s father, Dr. Brian Gleason, met through a basketball league at UAB well before the couple knew each other.
“As a medical student, I actually worked with Frank’s dad,” Lauren laughed.
It made for not only a fun vacation but a relaxing one.
Lauren noted that her wedding vendors’ willingness to adapt to the ever-changing plans was another great relief.
“I was really nervous to tell everybody about this decision we had made to basically postpone our big reception, and I knew that the wedding industry was really suffering,” she said. “I just didn’t want that to be harmful to any of our vendors, but not a single vendor gave us any pushback.”
She worked with Engaged Wedding Library in Homewood, which helped the couple and their families plan and replan every facet.
“We’re so lucky to have that resource in Birmingham,” she said. “(Sidney Nomberg), who we worked with the most, was actually the one who told me that The Theodore had closed.
“They helped us with our small event even though they didn’t have to.”
After returning from Honeywood Valley, the couple went on a short honeymoon to a resort in the Great Smoky Mountains.
“We were only there for about three nights because Christmas was the weekend after our wedding,” Lauren said. The couple plans to take a larger wedding trip sometime in the next year or so.
Now that Lauren and Frank had their small ceremony, they are moving forward with the big celebration this November at Cahaba Brewing Company.
“I’m excited for our reception and I’m glad that we did it the way we did,” she said.
