Meg Dieter: Inspiring the Modern Bride

Many women spend hours dreaming of their wedding day, collecting clippings of dresses, sketches of cakes or scribbling notes, holding them in a bursting notebook or in an electronic format, until they start the actual process. But one Kansas City woman not only spent years planning for her big day, she also fantasizes about weddings on a daily basis. In fact, she’s in love with the idea of getting married.

Frankly, it’s Meg Dieter’s job to think about weddings–constantly–as she informs women around the world about the latest ideas in tying the knot and all of the other things that go along with it. The Olathe, Kansas, wife and now mother-to-be bases her wedding blog, Meg’s Modern Weddings, on sharing the latest bridal trends with a traditional flair to inspire a woman for the biggest day of her life. She covers a range of topics from engagement etiquette to reception ideas, helpful tips, exceptional vendors and save-the-date products. She’s also focused on her social media work with Essense of Australia, an international wedding gown designer.

Always the Deets
“I fell in love with the planning details of having a wedding, so I went all out with the wedding thing. I wanted to show brides they could be trendy without going overboard and that was the purpose of my blog,” she commented. “When I was working more on the clothing side of things, I missed the wedding industry because I found it was a creative outlet for me. I enjoyed having that opportunity, and helping friends, family and readers find things for their big day was very rewarding.”

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Meg graduated from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Eventually, she landed in the Kansas City community and launched full force into the opportunity to share wedding planning details with others.

“In Kansas City, I settled into a job in the wedding industry as social media coordinator for Essense of Australia, an international designer with several different labels. It’s such a close tie to fashion; it’s my dream job,” she shared. “I develop the creative side and market to our millennials in the social media arena. The job is special because we have a couple of international offices. I work with a team to organize photoshoots and create digital marketing content that we use on social media all over the world. As for me, the dress shopping experience was the favorite part of my wedding. Gehrig, my husband, has his dream job and I have mine. I couldn’t be happier to work here.”

Meg and Gehrig met in college at Bowling Green. She majored in journalism and her dream in life was to go to New York City and work for Vogue magazine. In her junior year, as she was finishing up an internship, she met Gehrig, who had the dream of going to the National Football League. He played extensively at Bowling Green, yet he managed to keep a year of eligibility that allowed him to finish at the University of Alabama, a school rich in football history. Because it has such an effective program, the university boasts a successful record of sending players to the NFL for pro careers. While Gehrig wasn’t drafted in the spring of 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs were the first to call, among several other teams. He now plays for the Chiefs as a third-year wide receiver.

Making KC Home
“Now, we had heard from other teams in warmer places, and I thought, Kansas. What would we do in Kansas? I moved to Cleveland and landed a job there just in case his role with the Chiefs didn’t work out,” recalled Meg. “We were doing long distance, and I was in Kansas City over Memorial Day weekend. We went to the Plaza, and I knew this was home. What city puts mosaic tiles on a parking garage? I knew this was going to be a good place.”

The couple was engaged in April 2017, giving Meg a stretch of two years to put the details into place for her dream day. She says it became her whole purpose at that point to plan the wedding. However, the couple had to deal with the uncertainty of the NFL and didn’t know if, or how long, they would remain in Kansas City. But Meg used the waiting period to her advantage; the time allowed her to put much more thought into every detail. It gave her time to rethink her already impressive stash of good ideas and then to find even more. The couple tied the knot on May 11, 2019, in Cleveland with a theme of football and Frenchies.

“Even with a gap of several years, I didn’t feel like I was second-guessing myself. Yes, there are so many changes in weddings, and things come into vogue and go out. But I tried to stay on the side of being custom and personal,” she said. “Gehrig and I decided to have our French bulldogs in the wedding, so all three walked down the aisle. Goose wore a GoPro camera, giving a Frenchie-eye view of the wedding, seeing people in the wedding and his dad at the end of the aisle. Our wedding was the best day of our lives, and I credit that to all of our friends and family in Cleveland and Kansas City and this whole adventure with football.”

And now the couple is expecting their first child in April—Chloe Noel Dieter. “Gehrig comes from a family of three boys, and he was positive we were going to have a boy,” Meg stated. “When we did the gender reveal, I told him he was going to have to pay for another wedding. He was totally shocked, and now we’re so excited.”

Definitely Something New
As for her ability to gather trends and fashions for weddings, Meg says that today’s couples are taking their own likes and dislikes into consideration, not holding on to old ways of doing things. Today’s millennials are ditching many traditions such as tossing the garter and bouquets and adding their own touches. She sees this quite a bit in the bride’s style for the wedding gown.

“The changing emphasis on the dress has been going on for a long time. Brides are taking their own style approach and going for dresses that are unique to them and finding one that no one else has. They’ll add various accessories to ensure the look is unique to them,” she remarked. “You really see an emphasis on jewelry such as bracelets, even western wear. They’re using hats and capes and leather jackets. They’re finding things in everyday fashion and adding them to their wedding for a unique look.”

Pushing aside past trends doesn’t seem to faze millennials; they demand more freedom to do something different. Many are ditching the formality of sit-down dinners and opting for things that are closer to a bride’s heart, such as asking their favorite pizza place or KC barbeque joint to cater their event. Some are forgoing the entire wedding day and whisking a select group of friends to their favorite beach to get married. Meg refers to it as more personalized as opposed to traditional, the couple serving up a sense of their own style. She sees grooms very much involved in the planning process, which makes the day more fun for them. Couples want this to be the best day of their lives, and messing with traditional fussy details is not in their plans.

As for key guidance for others from the woman who knows her weddings, Meg offers that calling upon the assistance of others is an absolute must. “I went back and forth wondering if I would need a planner, but hiring one was the best decision. We do have so many tools such as finding excellent vendors with great reviews, but still consider having a planner to take on those little details,” she stated. “The day goes by so quick. You planned so long and you blink and the day is gone. You don’t want to be worrying about extra chairs at the reception; that’s what a planner can do.”

While she continues to hone her eye on the latest and greatest wedding ideas, Meg is also keenly focused on her new family and helping her husband achieve success on the football field. “Gehrig has football and I have my weddings,” remarked Meg. “Even after my own wedding, I looked forward to getting back to the job.” ■