Wedding Day

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral

Ceremony

Landmark Center

Reception

Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Reception

Spring

Our Wedding

In the summer of 2018 I was graduating from Litchfield High School and looking forward to studying Religion at Concordia in Moorhead. As college prep, I followed some cute Concordia boys on Instagram. During our family trip to Norway, one of the cute Concordia boys was posting pictures that he was in Norway as well, posting a picture of the same exact Bergen fish market my family was at that day. Running the small risk of sounding like a stalker, I messaged him and he seemed not too creeped out. We talked about the delicious fresh raspberries at the market, choir at Concordia, and the all-too coincidentally parallel trips we were on. We both stayed up a little too late messaging back and forth, even though we had early morning flights to get on. The next couple months, yes months, we would message back and forth and post pictures from Norway in hopes that the other would respond. All the while, completely ignoring each other in passing on campus. Finally, Erik approached me in the cafeteria. He was wearing a blue Nordic sweater and I was sitting a table alone while I waited for my friends to get their food. “Hey I thought I should just introduce myself in person so it isn’t weird. I’m Erik.” I recorded this day in my diary just because of the small interaction with the boy in the blue sweater. We continued messaging, always ending the day with texting each other about our days. Our in-person interaction remained a bit awkward. The next one was in passing at the campus center. Erik just gave me a nervous salute. I remember calling my mom, “What does it mean if a guy salutes you?” The one directly after that was our first conversation in the music building. For some reason, this Tuesday night, Erik was sitting at a table in a suit and tie, looking over a piece of music, when I was walking out of my voice lesson. I asked him what he was up to, and he was doing some last minute memorization before singing on stage. Attempting to be flirtatious I said, “Can you hum a few bars?” To which he responded, “Do you really want to hear it?” A little shocked I said, “Sure!” and he led me to the piano lab where he sang his entire song, looking into my eyes as I just stood there. After nervously telling him he’ll do great and has nothing to worry about, I ran back to my dorm, slammed the door and fell the floor in a lump, saying to my friends, “He sang to me!” After more messages back and forth, I finally convinced Erik to take me on a date. He picked me up for a Sunday afternoon coffee at Red Raven. We talked for 3 hours, only ending it there because I had to get to my volunteer location on time. On November 19th I asked Erik if it was okay that when I went home for Thanksgiving, I would tell my Grandma I had a boyfriend. (We had both told each other about our grandparents, how much we loved them, how much we missed those who passed, and our own experiences with Alzheimer’s and Dementia after listening to Mah’s Joint by Jon Bellion) He agreed and we made it official. In February of 2019, my Grandpa Don’s health began to decline. I knew I wanted to go down to Litchfield to visit him, but had no car. During a tearful conversation in the Hoyum study room, Erik offered to drive me home. While visiting Grandpa Don, I explained that Erik was a singer like me, and Grandpa asked, “Well can ya sing something for me?” And Erik, bless his heart, asked him what song he wanted to hear. I will forever cherish the video I have of Erik and I singing Amazing Grace for my Grandpa just a week before he passed. I knew then that Erik was in my life to stay for good. Since then, we’ve weathered so many storms. My mental health struggles, a global pandemic, the loss of a classmate and Erik’s Grandpa Chris. Through it all we’ve continued to hold one another up, make fun out of nothing, and at the end of the day be able to go to bed thanking God for another day. On Christmas Eve of 2021, I had just led my first Christmas Pageant as Children and Youth Minister at St. David’s. On the car ride back to Litchfield, I got quite emotional, feeling so happy about where life was taking us, how far I had come in regards to my mental health, and now working in my dream job, and how unbelievably happy and lucky I was to wake up on Christmas morning with Erik there with my family. As we entered my parents’ driveway, I noticed candles lined up to the backyard. Clueless, and filled with the Christmas Spirit, I said, “Aw, they’re lighting our way home for Christmas!” Erik led me down the snowy, candlelit path, and started his speech by saying, “This is going to be the best Christmas yet,” and ended by getting down on one knee. After I got over the shock, and asked a couple times, “Are you for real? Is this for real?” I said YES, and our families, watching from my childhood bedroom, cheered. I am so happy to share this story with all of you, and to share in celebration of our wedding. I feel so lucky that Erik is joining the Brock family, and I feel honored to be joining the Belz family. We both are so grateful for all those who have been a part of our story so far, and for the many years to come.

Anna’s Side of the Story…

Summer of 2018 was a big one. Junior year of college was about to start, I changed my major for what felt like the 50th time, and I was lucky enough to travel to Norway with my family. Little did 2018 Erik know that the biggest event of that summer was the out of the blue message on Instagram from the love of his life. We texted back and forth for a while. About Norway, Concordia and what we will be/were studying, and how weird it was that our trips lined up so close to one another both in timing and purpose. We texted a ton, if you told me that our respective phone screen time was up to 25 hours a day I wouldn’t question that one bit. School starts and the texting continues. It was half and half about how are days were and what we missed the most about Norway. Weird thing though— we didn’t speak in person at all. Schedules were busy, sure, but we would pass by each other between classes and never said hi. So weird, right? Two things at play here. 1. Anna kept doing this thing where she would walk by me and not look at or speak to me. I was getting completely iced out! I thought she hated me. I guess this was flirting? 2. I was really nervous. One afternoon I was studying in DS, likely finishing my 6th cup of coffee for the day, and I saw Anna walk to her table and set down her lunch. I took a deep breath, walked up to her table, and finally introduced myself. “I think it’s weird that we text all day but we’ve never actually met. I’m Erik.” Finally, I conquered my nervousness and after that we never had an awkward interaction again. Next time I saw here I saluted her. Like we were both officers in the military. I think that when I saw her my brain completely blanked. I have zero idea why it happened but I guess it worked! A few days later, we ran into each other in the music building. I was wearing a suit, sweating uncontrollably as I tried to remember ANY of the German words in the 5 page song I would sing half an hour later. Memorization has not and never will be my strong suit, regardless of the language. Anna walked up, asked what I was doing, and the asked if I could hum her a few bars of the song I was trying to imprint in my brain. So, we went to the piano room nearby and I sang to her. I remember looking at her while I sang - hoping that the nervousness on her face was because she liked my singing and not my mangled German. Our first date was at a coffee shop near Concordia called Red Raven. We talked for a little over 3 hours, sitting across from one another at a booth in the back left corner of the coffee shop. That was the best date ever. We spent a lot of time driving around in my silver Honda Pilot. We listened to a ton of music, mostly from the playlists we made for one another. I always parked in the same spot when dropping her off at Hoyum. On November 19th we made it official. That night when I was dropping her off after a date she mentioned her Grandma. She said that every time she sees her Grandma she is asked if she has a boyfriend or not. She asked me if this time she could tell her Grandma that she does and I said yes. Our Grandparents are very important to both of us. We would often talk a lot about the immeasurable impact our Grandparents made on us and how much we appreciated and missed them. Anna’s Grandpa Don started to decline in health during the winter of 2019. She desperately wanted to visit him in Litchfield but didn’t have a car. I offered to drive her down and we were in Litchfield that weekend. Being able to meet and talk with Grandpa Don was incredibly special. He actually had a large poster on his wall of Anna in a green jersey from her high school hockey days. It was so clear how much he meant to her and her to him. We talked about how Anna and I were involved in choir at Concordia and Grandpa Don asked us if we could sing a song for him. Singing Amazing Grace to Grandpa Don together with Anna is a memory I’ll never forget. The last four years of being together have featured a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Anna persevered through mental health struggles, the pandemic came and severely altered both of our college experiences, and my Grandpa Chris passed away. Having Anna as a best friend and rock made the lows more bearable and the highs even better. Fast forward to 2021 and we are living together with Lucy the dog in St.Louis Park. Proposing to Anna was something that I thought about a lot. We had talked about our future wedding a lot and what type of ring she wanted. She would often send me Pinterest links to engagement rings. One afternoon I got a call from my mom and at the end of the call she asked, referring to a possible proposal, “So is this the year?” I laughed and told her that no this was not the year. Once the call ended, Anna walk over and said, “So this isn’t the year, huh?” (90% of phone calls in my family are on speaker) and I said no. After that interaction, I knew that this year actually WAS the year. It’s not always easy to surprise Anna, she’s just so damn smart. Later that week I met dad at J B Hudson in Minneapolis to look at engagement rings. Lucky for me, I had about 100 Pinterest posts from Anna to refer to while deciding which ring would be best. I ordered the ring later that day. It happened so fast but it all felt so right. Fast forward to Christmas Eve of 2021! Anna and I were in the car headed west from St.David’s Episcopal Church to Litchfield. That night was our first Christmas service at St.David’s since Anna started work there as Youth Minister. The drive to Litchfield was an emotional one. We talked about how happy we were to be spending Christmas together in Litchfield, how great things have been for Anna at St.David’s, and how great her mental health had been. I spent that hour and 30 minute drive checking the clock every thirty seconds - knowing that every passing second was a second closer to the proposal. We pulled into the drive way and she immediately noticed the candle lit path leading to the backyard. She said “Aw, they’re lighting our way home for Christmas!” YEP! That’s exactly why those candles are there! I’ll never forget how dark and cold it was as we walked down path towards the backyard patio that was surrounded by candles. I got down on one knee, lost and then regained consciousness, and asked her if she would marry me. After asking if I was serious a couple times she said yes! The salute all those years ago really did work after all!!! I’m very happy to share this story with all of you, and can’t wait until we can be together as a family next July. I’m incredibly fortunate to be joining the Brock family and I’m so lucky that Anna will be joining the Belz family. Love you all, here is to the years to come!

Erik’s Side of the Story…

Our Story

Photos

Kirsten Brock Cortes

Sarah Iverson

Christian Belz

Anni Rogness

Abby Alsleben

Kassie King

Sally Nelson

Parker Erickson

Lova Hellberg

Jackson Booth

Caleb Stiles

Daniel Kaupa

Griffin Cortes

Andrew Iverson

Family friend, and theater “little sister” to the bride 

Antonia Muellerliele

Nephew of the Bride and soon to be nephew of the Groom!

Callan Cortes

Soon to be brother-in-law of the bride and groom!

Jacob Boettcher 

Wedding Party

Q + A

The Saint Paul hotel is located just across the street from our reception at the Landmark, making it the most convenient option. The wedding party and our immediate family will be staying here with us. We have a special discounted rate based on room availability. Book early! “Regarded as one of the nation’s premier historic hotels, The Saint Paul Hotel is the gem of its namesake city.”

St. Paul Hotel

The Hampton is located right next to Cosetta’s by the Xcel energy center; a 9 minute walk from the reception at the Landmark. Although, we’d recommend an Uber after dark. A block of rooms will be held until June 15th, 2023. This is the most budget friendly option! “The Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown Saint Paul, MN Hotel offers a prime location in the heart of the city along with free WiFi, free hot breakfast and more.”

Hampton Inn and Suites 

The Celeste is a great option if you’re a church nerd like the Bride and looking for a unique and historic hotel. It’s a 10 minute walk from the reception at the Landmark. We’d recommend at Uber after dark. A block of rooms will be held until May 15th, 2023. We recommend calling to make a reservation. “A former convent and renowned music and arts conservatory, this historic property has always had a higher calling. Celeste of St.Paul has been welcoming guests since 2019, and raised the standard of comfort and service among all Twin Cities hotels to an entirely new level.”

 Celeste Hotel

Hotels

Things to Do

Registry

Anna and Erik

Anna and Erik

Photos