An Extravagant, Fairytale Affair at Union Station

By Laura Kostelny

It was not exactly love at first sight for Jody Martin and Kyle Stein. The first time they met, Jody was chairing the Matzo Ball. Liquor distributor Glazer’s donated—both financially and in spirits—and Kyle was charged with the task. “My co-chair introduced us,” Jody says. “I couldn’t have been more of a—well, I was very standoffish.”

A bar was the setting of meeting number two, and things didn’t go much better. Jody saw Kyle and attempted conversation. He was less than into it. “He wouldn’t even talk to me or buy me a drink. I thought, ‘Oh my God. This guy’s a jerk!’” she says.

But fate intervened yet again—in the form of a blind date—and the third time was indeed the charm in this love story. Someone set them up, and Kyle took Jody to dinner at Saint Ann. Maybe it was the addition of food to the mix that made them click, but whatever the case, they began dating for real in October of 2012.

By the following year, things were going well. The couple had looked at rings, but they were focused on plans to move to San Francisco for a year. Jody was going to work as an assistant buyer at the Men’s Wearhouse, and Kyle was doing a rotation with the Gallo Winery for work.

But one night in May, Jody flew into DFW Airport from a work trip, and she was not in the best mood. “I had been traveling all day. I had mustard on my dress. I had had a near-death experience on the plane,” she says. But all that melted when she saw Kyle standing at the bottom of the escalator with her dog. “I thought, ‘He looks so cute. That’s the guy I want to marry.’”

As tired as she was, Jody could not help but notice that Kyle was acting super weird. And then her mother called, and she was acting super weird. But even then Jody didn’t suspect that Kyle had spent the day getting the balcony at their home ready for a proposal.

“I had no suspicion! I thought it would happen in a year,” she says. “But there were candles, roses, petals, and a bottle of Dom. He got on one knee, and he told me, ‘The first time I ever had you on a balcony, I wanted to kiss you, but I was too nervous. But I want to spend the rest of my life kissing you.’”

Shortly thereafter, the happy couple took off for San Francisco, and Jody flew home every month to meet with party planner extraordinaire Todd Fiscus. “I had a total vision. I’m pretty Type-A,” she says. She worked with Todd closely, and the day of the wedding, his team transformed Union Station into an enchanted forest for 450 guests. “I was blown away by what he did,” she says. “I honestly had the best time. I thought I would be stressed out, but we danced. We enjoyed ourselves.”

Her favorite part? That’s easy. “Seeing Kyle’s face for the first look,” she says. “But I also love the note that he wrote me. He gave me a beautiful necklace from Ylang 23, and a note that was the love note to end all love notes.”

—Laura Kostelny