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A Bride Honors Her Father at This Winterthur Wedding

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Photos by Tyler Boye

This local couple puts family first with a gorgeous wedding and father’s blessing at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.

winterthur wedding

In April 2017, Jon Schauer was driving on I-76 outside of Conshohocken. As he passed the borough, it was just enough time for the dating app Bumble to register his presence. Jon’s profile showed up among Bryn O’Neill’s potential matches. Bryn saw he was close and messaged him. “Are we neighbors?” she asked.

It turned out they weren’t. Jon had recently bought a home in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, though he did work in King of Prussia. But it soon became clear that Bumble knew something they didn’t. They had a number of mutual friends and interests. Over the course of several weeks, they got to know each other online before finally meeting in person at a local brewery. “It was very obvious and apparent to both of us that it was instantly clicking,” recalls Bryn.

Within a few weeks, Jon met Bryn’s family at her birthday dinner. “I’m going to marry him,” Bryn told her mom after Jon left.

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honoring father

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wedding party

Just five weeks after they met, the two moved in together. Bryn’s lease had ended, so they figured they’d give it a shot. “I’m not a risk-taker,” she says.

After about a year, conversations about marriage began to crop up. But Bryn’s father was battling cancer, and their energy was focused on him. Wanting her father’s blessing, the couple sat down with her parents, who wholeheartedly embraced him. Her dad passed away six weeks later. “It was important to me that Jon asked him,” Bryn says.

winterthur wedding

On Labor Day weekend in 2019, the couple headed to Big Sky, Mont., where Jon’s mother lives. In an elegant picnic setting beside a stream, he popped the question. They’d originally planned a celebration at Overbrook Country Club, but then the pandemic hit. “One way or another, the wedding was going to happen,” says Jon.

With cases lower and restrictions easing in Delaware, they discovered Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. “We were just blown away by how beautiful it is,” says Bryn.

wedding flowers

Thanks to the vast outdoor space, about 160 of their 250 invited guests were able to attend the October wedding. Making a weekend of it, the couple and many guests stayed at the Hotel du Pont, where they hosted a rehearsal dinner, an after-party and a post-wedding brunch. “Just to be in a gathering with people and celebrating something good, it was an escape—and that was really nice,” says Bryn.

winterthur wedding

As the sun set on the Winterthur grounds, Bryn and Jon exchanged their vows. To honor her father’s memory, Bryn carried a bouquet with a photo of the two of them. She also had a piece from one of his shirts sewn into the lining of her gown, and the flower girl and ringbearers carried his beloved University of Notre Dame hat down the aisle. “It was just really special to have the hat that he wore all the time holding our rings before we exchanged vows,” says Bryn.

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