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It’s All in the Details
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2 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

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& B O U Q U E T S
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
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ON THE COVER 6
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‘Unapologetically us’
Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs makes
NFL team part of their day’s theme.
13
17
Blessed with a ‘Yes’
First date was golfing, eventually
leading to him teeing up a proposal
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‘This is your day’
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SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 3

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SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 5

STORY BY ALEISA SCHAT |
PHOTOS BY MEREDITH GRAVES PHOTOGRAPHY IN KANSAS CITY, MO
TONY & ALEX
‘Unapologetically us’
6 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

Orange City native Alex Vander
Veen didn’t have a football
team of her own growing up.
“I grew up in a farming family.
We never watched baseball
and football — we maybe watched NA-
SCAR,” the 29-year-old said.
When Alex, a marketing and public relations
major, met Tony Clinesmith during
her sophomore year at Simpson College in
Indianola, she quickly found out he was from
a suburb of Kansas City, MO. Clinesmith was
a college wrestler studying
criminal justice; Alex was
a record-holding swimmer
studying public relations.
Clinesmith made it clear
right away: Kansas City and
its sports franchises had his
ultimate allegiance.
“Tony grew up in Kansas
City, and the story I always
tell is — literally, I think it
was our first date — he was
like, ‘Well, I’m from Kansas
City. So, if this works out,
that’s where I’m going,’”
Alex said. “And I was like,
‘That’s cute. I don’t know if
you have a second date.’”
Tony did get a second
date, and the two kept dating
— but theirs was a love
story that unfolded in parallel.
Alex fell in love with Tony, and in falling
in love with Tony, she fell in love with Kansas
City.
Falling in love with Kansas City meant falling
in love with the Chiefs of the NFL.
“From the time I was born, my mom has
had season tickets up until high school for
me,” Tony said. “So, in my lifetime, I’ve only
ever not had them for about eight years.”
Alex is a graduate of MOC-Floyd Valley
High School in Orange City, and she grew
up on 12 acres at the edge of Orange City;
her father helped her uncle farm family land
nearby.
Tony is a Kansas City native, but his childhood
took place in Excelsior Springs, MO, a
borderland between country and city.
“I’ve always been someone who kind of
likes to ride in the middle between country
and city, and that’s kind of the sweet spot
around here,” Tony said, referring to Kansas
City, where the couple now lives. “We drive
15 minutes one way, we’re in the city. Drive
15 the other way, and you’re looking at cows
and deer. I grew up on 15 acres, and I was
always outside, playing sports or on a go-kart
or a dirt bike.”
Football fans
Tony’s childhood was rural in some ways,
but he spent a lot of time at Arrowhead Stadium,
cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs at
their home venue in the city.
“Before the recent times, it was kind of a
bonding in misery,” Tony said. “The Chiefs
had a rough patch. The Royals were awful for
a long time.”
The Royals were World Series champions
in 2015, but it was the first championship for
the Major League Baseball team since 1985,
before Tony was born. The Chiefs have won
three of the last five Super Bowls, but during
Tony’s childhood, the team was significantly
less successful.
When they first met, Alex had only been
to Kansas City once. However, when she and
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 7

and Tony started dating, they started
traveling back and forth between Iowa
and Kansas City.
“Growing up, I never had a team,
and it was really funny because when
we first started dating, he was like, ‘I’m
going to convert you,’” Alex said. “And
I’m like, ‘From what?’
“I’m very competitive — I already
loved sports — but I never had a reason
to select a team because my family
never had one. Every time I would
visit him in Kansas City, his mom
would buy a new Royals T-shirt or a
Chiefs T-shirt or something — she
would have something new for me
from those teams like on their kitchen
island when I visited.”
Alex and Tony started dating in the
spring of 2015, two years after Alex
graduated from MOC-Floyd Valley
High School.
“And then he took me to my first
Chiefs game — like, right away,” Alex
said.
“I’m pretty sure it was like the first
or second home game,” Tony said.
Tony was watching Alex as Alex
watched her first game.
“I mean, she was happy the whole
time — I assumed it was going well,”
Tony said. “She would ask me a bunch
of questions. So, that’s how I really
started to figure out, ‘OK, she actually
likes this.”
“I grew up watching Iowa State
games,” Alex said. “And then I went
to the Chiefs, and I was like, ‘This is
the coolest.’ It was like Iowa State on
steroids. And the Chiefs won.”
It was Oct. 25, 2015, and the Chiefs
beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 23-13.
“So, that’s where I fell in love with
the Chiefs,” Alex said. “My first birthday
present from him was a Travis
Kelce jersey.”
Alex had researched all the players
before she received the gift — and well
before pop music sensation Taylor
Swift famously began dating Kelce,
the Chiefs’ spectacular tight end. Alex
had quickly identified him as the
Chiefs’ most attractive player.
“I researched the cutest players.
Yeah. And like Travis Kelce was obviously
the one, right? So, like, that was
his first ever birthday present to me.”
She came to expect public places to
be a sea of red.
“I swear every person in Kansas City
on Friday wears red on Chiefs day,”
Alex said. “Now, it’s almost a cultural
shock when I leave Kansas City, because
that’s kind of an expected thing,
and when I go to Iowa or somewhere
else, not everyone’s wearing red.
You’re like, ‘Wait, this whole Mexican
restaurant isn’t all Chiefs’ fans?’”
Alex and Tony moved to Liberty,
MO, a Kansas City suburb, right after
they graduated from Simpson in
2017. Alex went into real estate and
Tony began operating machines for
a homegrown Kansas City business.
They got engaged outside Arrowhead
Stadium in November of 2021 while
tailgating before a home game. Alex
said tailgating played an important
role in their relationship with each
other and with a close circle of friends.
“Obviously, it’s been great when
they’re winning. But the whole process
of prepping for a tailgate, tailgating
all day together, has really been
just one-on-one quality time with
those that we love.
The two have traveled across the
country together to watch away
games, hopping on planes to Nashville,
Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“That’s definitely been our time
together — watching the game together,”
Alex said.
‘Chiefs wedding’
The couple’s April 2023 wedding
received press for being a “Chiefs
wedding,” and their nuptials were featured
by news outlets in Kansas City
and Sioux City.
However, Alex is quick to point out
that their wedding wasn’t just about
the Chiefs. Nods to the NFL team
were incorporated boldly but the
couple’s main wish was to show their
guests a good time in the city they
love.
8 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

“The wedding’s main theme was
light shades of dusty blue — like,
and elegance, but we wanted it to be
unapologetically us,” Alex said. “Our
cocktails were our dogs, and we wrote
our own vows. And so everything I
added had a meaning to us.”
The cocktails had drink stirrers that
featured tiny photos of the couple’s
Shih Tzu, Coco Chanel, and their
black Schnauzer mix, Bella.
“I literally made everything — if it
was on wedding TikTok, I did it,” Alex
said.
As Alex and Tony continued planning
the wedding, they continued to
incorporate more nods to their favorite
football team.
“The whole engagement, everyone’s
asking, ‘Are you going to have a Chiefs
wedding? Is it going to be at Arrowhead?’”
Alex said. “I’m like, ‘No, it’s
not.’ But then when I was planning,
I thought, ‘It’d be kind of funny if I
added a little bit of Chiefs here.’ So,
it just kind of slowly evolved and became
what it was.”
Tony’s cuff links were Chiefs’ arrowheads,
and Alex had a small red
arrowhead stitched into her veil. All
the groomsmen wore socks bearing
the logos of their favorite football
teams. Half their wedding cookies
were Chiefs cookies, and Alex devised
an outfit change for the reception.
“Then we decided, ‘Hey, let’s both
do an outfit change,’” Alex said.
Alex spent hours bedazzling a
Chiefs logo on the back of a red jacket
for Tony.
“Then I’m finalizing the cookie order,
and I was like, ‘You know what?
Make half of those Chiefs,’” Alex said.
As the Chiefs continued to win
games leading up to the Super Bowl
in 2023, Alex and Tony kept incorporating
more Chiefs details into their
wedding.
“How the Chiefs kept getting added
in is they won the Super Bowl, and I
was like, ‘You know what? They were
Super Bowl champs. I don’t care,’” Alex
said.
They added Chiefs beer koozies.
“They said, ‘Celebrate and tailgate,’
which is so us,” Alex said.
The wedding ceremony took place
in a small glass chapel at Kansas City’s
botanical gardens, Powell Gardens,
and only close family and friends
were present. Alex carried white tulips
down the aisle, a nod to her hometown,
and along with vows they wrote
themselves, Alex and Tony devised a
wedding day draft.
“I always had an idea, like, ‘It’d be
kind of cool to like, draft Tony into
my life — like, onto my team,’” Alex
said. “And I struggled with, ‘How is
that going to happen? How is that not
going to land flat?’”
She bought a draft hat to give Tony
during the ceremony.
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 9

“I was kind of scared to use it — I
almost scrapped it,” Alex said. “I’m
so glad I stuck with it.”
After the intimate ceremony, the
wedding party headed to Arrowhead
Stadium
“We all jumped in the party bus
and went to Arrowhead Stadium,”
Alex said. “We all shotgunned a beer
in front of Arrowhead in our wedding
dresses.”
Then the wedding party joined
the rest of the guests — around 280
in total — for cocktail hour at their
venue near downtown.
“We both wanted to give the
Kansas City experience to everyone,
so we wanted a downtown venue
where people enjoyed what Kansas
City has to offer,” Alex said.
Oliver Building is a three-story
structure in Kansas City’s historical
industrial district near downtown.
“The Oliver Building checked all
of our boxes,” Alex said. “It was
beautiful.”
The building was constructed in
1889 and originally housed the Oliver
Plow Co., and over the decades it
was the site of production for plows,
cultivators, forklifts and aircraft jet
engines. The wedding party entered
the reception to the song “Enter
Sandman,” by Metallica, the song
that plays when the Chiefs enter the
field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“My mom’s a chef, so she actually
flew in her chef friends from across
the country, and they manned stations,”
Alex said. “We had everything
— every detail meant something.”
Alex’s mother, Kayleen Van Voorst,
is now based in Kansas City, but
she trained with chefs from across
the country in 2010 at an 18-month
program offered by the Culinary Institute
of America in New York City.
“We did a Kansas City barbecue
station,” Alex said. “We did a pasta
station — my cousin unfortunately
passed away, so we named it after
him. Pasta was his favorite food.”
Alex also placed a tucked a tiny
photo of Tony’s late father next to
the hem of his tie.
“So, his dad was with him all day,”
Alex said.
The wedding’s final ode to the
couple’s favorite team — and the
most popular among guests — was a
surprise visit by KC Wolf, the Chiefs’
beloved dancing
mascot.
“The only
people that
knew that I
hired KC Wolf
was me, my
photographer,
my dad and my
planner,” Alex
said. “I was
like, ‘Everyone,
end up on the
dance floor.’ So,
then we went
to the dance
floor, and no
one knew why,
and then all
of the sudden,
KC Wolf comes
out, which was the coolest thing.”
Alex said if she were to go back
and plan her and Tony’s idiosyncratic
wedding again, she wouldn’t
change anything.
“Each detail we added, I was like,
‘What if people don’t like it?’ And I
would say my biggest advice is, ‘Do
it. It’s your day,’” Alex said. “People
will see the details you add and appreciate
it. They’ll especially appreciate
it if it’s unapologetically you.” •
10 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

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SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 11

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12 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

STORY BY RENEE WIELENGA |
PHOTOS BY HALEY HOLVERSON OF HALEY JO PHOTOGRAPHY IN SIOUX CENTER
DARREN & DANA
Blessed with a ‘Yes’
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 13

Darren Brummel of Hull noticed her right
away.
The freshman girl with the red hair
in the hallways at Trinity Christian High
School in Hull. She also had the spunky
personality to go with it.
Finding out Dana De Boer of Hull was on the basketball
team with one of his sisters, Darren had an
idea.
“That’s how I got her number, and I shot her a text,”
said Darren, now 20, of how he introduced himself
to Dana his sophomore year in high school. “Trinity
is kind of a smaller school. We didn’t have a lot of
classes together, but we saw each other in the halls
and that’s where I found my attraction to her.”
But Darren was kept at bay.
“I wasn’t allowed to date until my junior year, so
I didn’t show any interest until his senior year, my
junior year,” said Dana, now 20. “The summer before
my junior year, I found out he played baseball and
started talking to him more. He had lost his braces
and baby face and had really matured overall as a
person.”
Darren took another shot, asking what Dana might
like to do if they went on a date. She chose golf.
14 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

“I didn’t golf actually, but I knew he liked it,” she
said. “I wanted to give it a try.”
Fast-forward almost three years later, through
Darren’s graduation in 2021, Dana’s graduation in
2022 and many more golf outings, Darren chose
a golf course on the Fourth of July last summer to
propose.
“We both knew marriage was on our future, but I
tried making the proposal a surprise so she wouldn’t
know the exact time,” Darren said.
“When we talked about our future, he made it
sound like he didn’t want to get engaged until he got
out of college, so he surprised me with the timing,”
Dana said.
Darren and a brother drilled a hole in a golf ball,
just the right size for an engagement ring.
“I went out and put the ball on the tee for her, but
then before she could hit it away, I grabbed it and
knelt down asking her to look inside,” Darren said.
“I definitely didn’t want her to hit that ball.”
“He knelt down very quickly. I knew something
was up. It was exciting,” Dana said.
The couple married just four months later, Friday,
Nov. 24, 2023, the day after Thanksgiving, at Calvary
Protestant Reformed Church in Hull, where they
are members. The reception also was held there.
“Our college schedules, especially Darren’s, limited
what days we could pick, and I didn’t want to
have wedding plans looming over my head after
Christmas, so Thanksgiving break was the perfect
fit,” Dana said.
Her internship she began at American State Bank
in Sioux Center last May became a part-time job
in August all while taking online courses through
Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon for
an accounting degree and working toward graduating
this May.
Darren works part-time at Hull Co-op Association
and is a full-time student at Dordt University
in Sioux Center. He is in his junior year working
toward a degree in secondary education with an
emphasis in math.
“With his school schedule we had to plan things
during school breaks, so we took a honeymoon the
last full week of Christmas break to Dorchester,” Dana
said referring to the unincorporated community
in northeast Iowa. “We rented a tiny home through
Airbnb and had fun just chilling out and visiting
some of the local restaurants for a week.”
The brisk 28-degree weather on their wedding day
was actually one of the colder days of the unseasonably
warm month, but they still were able to take
outdoor wedding pictures and include a Brummel
brothers’ tradition — giving the groom a gun for his
wedding gift.
“One of my family traditions is that once a brother
gets married, all the other brothers chip in and
buy him a gun because it’ll be the last gun you’ll buy
as they say,” Darren said. “I got to take a picture with
each of my brothers holding the guns we bought for
them.”
Darren is one of 10 children — six boys and four
girls. Dana is the oldest of three children; she has a
younger brother and sister. That meant organizing a
wedding was new for Dana and her family, but she
had plenty of sister-in-law support as Darren’s five
brothers are all married.
“It’s really exciting to bring such great families
together for our wedding and now we get to start
one of our own,” Dana said. “We really feel blessed
to have the support we have.”
Darren followed in the footsteps of four of his
brothers, too, by having their dad, the Rev. Allen
Brummel of Calvary, officiate the wedding ceremony.
“I definitely enjoyed that, too — makes it more
memorable,” Darren said.
The couple reside in Sioux Center. While hunting
remains one of Darren’s past times, Dana has purchased
her own set of golf clubs so they can continue
golfing together. They also enjoy fishing and
in-line skating.
Darren is excited to spend the rest of his life with
the redhead he first noticed in the halls.
“She’s beautiful inside and out, she’s fun to be
with,” he said. “I’m blessed she said, ‘Yes.” •
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 15

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16 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

STORY BY SANDRA JENSON | PHOTOS BY APRIL BE PHOTOGRAPHY IN SIBLEY
LARRY & ROBERTA
‘This is your day’
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 17

Good things come to those who wait,
and for Roberta Wills of Sibley and
Larry Post of Ocheyedan, the wait
resulted in what they described as the
“best day ever.”
Despite each of them spending over five decades
in Osceola County, the pair crossed paths but never
met directly.
“I knew very distantly Larry was part of northwest
Iowa from working at Sibley Super Foods
for 30 years, but personally I didn’t know him,”
Roberta said.
They do recall seeing each other at Sibley Specialty
Care while visiting their mothers at the longterm
care facility.
Roberta received insight of what was to come
on two different occasions from two friends in her
women’s Bible study group in Sioux Falls, SD.
“In their prayer they had for me they voluntarily
just said, ‘Roberta, I just wanted to let you know
something, that your life is going to change.’”
Her thoughts soon went to her work situation at
Super Foods as she found out a week later that the
business was sold.
The day of the ownership transfer, her cousin
came into the store. She was dating a friend of Larry’s
and said, “Hey, we know somebody you could
date.”
Larry called a few weeks later, but they did not
meet for about six weeks because he broke his leg
and wanted to wait until he could drive.
“He kept pursuing me and then by the first
weekend of January 2023, we went out for breakfast
at the Breakfast Barn in Spirit Lake. We were
together ever since then,” Roberta said.
The proposal came while on a sightseeing trip
to Duluth, MN, and up the North Shore of Lake
Superior to Split Rock Lighthouse.
“He brought something in a bag, and I thought
Larry Post of Ocheyedan and Roberta Wills of Sibley
share a quick kiss after exchanging their wedding vows
during a ceremony on a cold winter’s Saturday, Jan. 20,
2024, at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sibley.
he was just going to give me a picture like he normally
did,” Roberta said. “But when we got up on
the lighthouse observatory, I turned around and he
had made a sign saying, ‘Roberta, will you marry
me?’”
As planning began, the couple asked church
members, friends and others with experience with
weddings for ideas and vendor suggestions.
“And we went to a couple bridal shows in Sheldon
and Sioux Falls,” Larry said.
Decorations centered around the colors moss
green, charcoal gray, winter white and silver.
“The best advice I got when I did plan was, ‘This
is your day. You do it the way you want to,’” Roberta
said.
Larry said the most important to them was a
family and friend-orientated event.
Roberta found her dress in Orange City, following
the suggestion of one of her aunts.
“I also looked in Spirit Lake and Spencer,” she
said. “I’d eyed a couple, but I thought well, I just
better go with the advice before I make a final decision.”
With a wedding date of Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024,
Roberta’s primary requirement for her attire was
long sleeves.
Roberta selected the moss green color for the
bridesmaids’ dresses and the attendants picked out
the style they preferred.
A recommendation from the bridal shop for
the florist across the street in Orange City ticked
another box on their to-do list.
Larry found the vocalist, who was a friend at
work, gave his input on ideas and helped complete
the last-minute details.
The couple sought additional ways to make their
day their own and honor the memory of their
parents, Robert and Gerry Wills and John and Dorothy
Post.
Roberta designed her ring, influenced by the
style of a friend’s wedding ring, called a past, present
and future diamond ring. The diamonds came
from New York and the jeweler who created the
ring to fit their description was in California.
Her necklace worn for the wedding incorporated
a ring from her dad, passed on from her grandfather.
“Our song was ‘My Only Love’ by Jimmy Fortune,”
Roberta said. “It was a favorite love song of
18 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

my mom’s back in The Statler Brothers
days.”
They prepared for their dance through
lessons with a couple from Spirit Lake.
Larry even participated in the pre-wedding
pampering by completing a couple’s
facial with Roberta on the same day
she received a manicure and pedicure.
The day of the ceremony, the couple
opted to implement the tradition of not
seeing each other before the wedding
instead of the more recent trend of a first
look together before the service.
One special part of the day was when
Roberta entered the sanctuary of Trinity
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sibley
and Larry came toward her. Once they
met, they finished walking up the aisle
together.
“I really didn’t want anybody to step
in to give me away,” Roberta said. “I
wanted him to come down the aisle to
get me. We met in the middle.”
January weather became their main
concern as the date approached. An
extremely brisk, but clear and dry day
allowed most guests to attend the event,
even if for a shorter time than planned.
“I think people were on edge because
it was so cold, and they wanted to get
home,” Roberta said.
Otherwise, the couple said the day
went as planned.
“I just really appreciated that I had two
personal attendants that were a tremendous
help the day of the wedding,” Roberta
said. “I underestimated how much
that their role was. They really made the
whole show go.”
The Posts traveled to Kalahari Resort at
Wisconsin Dells for their honeymoon,
enjoying the indoor/outdoor hot tub,
amusement park and on-site restaurants.
The couple is temporarily living in
Sibley but will move to Larry’s acreage
by Ocheyedan after completing major
renovations at the home.
Roberta will continue her main employment
at Sibley Super Foods. Larry
works for Safco in Milford.
Larry’s main impression of the wedding
was how quickly the day flew by.
“Because it goes so fast, videotaping
a wedding is a must,” Roberta said. “As
a couple, we feel like you hardly attend
your own wedding.” •
“ I wanted him to come down the aisle
to get me. We met in the middle.” — ROBERTA POST
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 19

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SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 21

22 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

STORY BY MIKAELA MACKEY |
PHOTOS BY KACYN POST OF KP PHOTOGRAPHY IN ROCK VALLEY
TEYGAN & MAKYA
‘Just simple and rustic’
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 23

In an old barn, two high school sweethearts
started a new adult life borrowing
four cornhole boards while dressed with
blue stock flowers.
The timeless wedding rhyme of
“Something old, something new, something
borrowed and something blue,” complemented
20-year-old Teygan Hiemstra and 19-year-old
Makya Harding on their special day, Saturday,
Oct. 7, 2023, south of Alton. Although the
couple originally planned the wedding for the
spring of 2024, a push for simplicity brought
wedding vows sooner.
“Just simple and rustic,” Makya said. “I don’t
know, just more fun. We didn’t have a dance or
anything, but we did have yard games outside.”
Teygan and Makya met as students at MOC-
Floyd Valley High School in Orange City. It was
not until their senior year in 2022 that they grew
close through overlapping friend circles.
“My first impression was he was very quiet,
but confident,” Makya said. “He knew what he
wanted.”
Makya knew what she wanted too. She made
the first move and texted Teygan if he would
accompany her to senior prom. He said, ‘Yes.’
Little did they know over a year later, Teygan
would pop the big question.
However, a smaller question came first.
One week before the end of their senior year,
Teygan asked Makya if she would go on a date
with him hitting the green.
The young couple golfed in Sioux Center on
May 14, 2022, what Teygan recalls as a really
breezy day. Still, something more than the wind
swept up his attention early in the relationship.
“I thought she was very beautiful, and she’s
very respectful,” Teygan said. “She just seemed
like the right one.”
As the summer progressed, Teygan and Makya
spent more time together, knowing their relationship
would soon be challenged by distance.
Makya left Orange City to attend the College
of the Ozarks in the fall in Point Lookout, MO,
while Teygan made plans to attend Northwest
Iowa Community College in Sheldon. Quickly,
each discovered their respective colleges didn’t
fit as nicely as they’d hoped.
Teygan began working for Hiemstra Lawn
Care in Orange City while Makya was in her
first semester of college. Come Christmas, she
did not return to Missouri for the remainder of
the academic year. Instead, Makya took up a job
at Woudstra Meat Market in Orange City, where
she still enjoys working.
Life settled into a comfortable routine. Teygan
and Makya continued deepening their relationship
and talked about a future marriage and
family of their own.
Then came the annual Hiemstra family vacation
to the Black Hills.
A vacation with the Hiemstras is no small venture.
On July 23, 2023, almost 30 aunts, uncles,
grandparents and grandkids filled a rental home
in Powder House Pass.
“We like to ride four-wheelers and ATVs out
there and then sometimes go to Mount Rushmore
and some other little things,” Teygan said.
Makya had been on this vacation before, but
knew something felt different, even as Teygan’s
mom, Becky, was king photos as she usually
does.
“So, she was taking pictures of both of us, because
we did that the year before,” Makya said.
“I knew he was going to propose.”
Teygan’s mother, his father, Eric and his little
sister, Ameyah, watched as Teygan got down on
one knee in the long summer grass of Lead, SD,
on July 26.
This time, it was Makya’s turn to say, “Yes.”
“We went back to the house, showed all
24 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024

the family,” Makya said. “Then we just sat
around the campfire on the deck.”
The couple wanted a simple wedding
from the beginning. Teygan and Makya
began planning for spring 2024 to say their
vows, but something about a fall wedding
enchanted the bride-to-be.
“I always thought it would be nice to get
married before winter. So, then I was trying
on dresses with my mom and a couple other
ladies, and we were talking about how we
could get married in October. And my mom
was like, ‘Yeah, we can do that if you want,’”
Makya said. “And then yeah, it just kind of
happened.”
More than 200 family members and
friends from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska
and Mississippi attended the ceremony at
High View Farm south of Alton. Guests sat
outside in white folding chairs accented
with Mason jars of baby’s breath as Teygan
made his way to the altar. Teygan saw Makya
for the first time in her wedding gown when
she walked down the aisle.
“I was calm until we got there, and we
were sitting there waiting, then I was a little
more nervous,” Teygan said. “But it wasn’t
too bad.”
The nerves preceding their “I do’s” dwindled
when it came time for photos. Makya
remembers posing with her new husband as
one of the best parts of the wedding.
“We finally got to be alone after being
married,” she said. “Just kind of relish the
fact that we were married, and we got to
celebrate it by taking pictures.”
To end the day came a memorable meal.
Specifically, a memorable meal served by
friends.
Makya’s workplace home, Woudstra Meat
Market, catered a loaded baked potato bar
for the new Hiemstras.
“We started doing that last summer.
Teygan and I both really liked it,” Makya
said. “Once I mentioned it as an option, he
was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do that.’”
For dessert, guests helped themselves to
cupcakes and cups of ice cream.
Approaching a half year of being Hiemstras,
Teygan and Makya look back thankfully
on the extra time they have gained since
getting married earlier than this spring.
With a lifetime to go and young romance
to remember, the couple looks forward to
living in the present in their Orange City
home.
“I like knowing that I can come home to
someone that loves me and is amazing,”
Teygan said. •
SPRING 2024 | BRIDES & BOUQUETS 25

C A T E R I N G T H A T
Captivates & Charms
At Cedar Rock Grill we work hard to serve up perfection at every occasion, big or small.
Call us to book your 2024 wedding event or special occasion today because here at Cedar Rock,
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1523 14th Street, Rock Valley, IA
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Photo Credits: Picture This Photography

28 BRIDES & BOUQUETS | SPRING 2024