The Wedding Story of... Julie & Tom Vanderheyden

Life for Tom and Julie VanderHeyden is hectic. Between his job as a gastroenterologist (a “stomach doctor”) and hers as an occupational therapist, they don’t get to spend a lot of time together. Both work long hours—including weekends, evenings and even some holidays, but they have a way of knowing what really matters in life and making every second count.  

“My wife has taught me how to slow down at times and not to go too quickly through life. I would never trade that for the world,” Tom explained.

Perhaps that fast-paced lifestyle began when both were undergraduate students at Indiana University in Bloomington. The campus biology building where Tom often studied happened to be directly across the street from Julie’s sorority house. He remembers walking through the yard of that sorority house when he found out he had been accepted to medical school. Tom and Julie also both parked in the same parking garage at IU but in the four years they were there, they never met.

Several years later, in a different state, everything clicked.

“We met right when I started working at Loyola University Hospital in Chicago. We kind of started talking and realized we were both from Indiana, we both went to IU,” Julie recalled. “I was having a really big Christmas party at my apartment and invited Tom and a bunch of his friends and that was kind of all she wrote.”

Their first date was a week later and they said their vows a year and a half after that.

Both recall the wedding planning process being a bit stressful, since they were working full time in Chicago and trying to find days off to make it back to South Bend. Julie credits her mom as the key component who helped her pull everything together. “I think I was fine as long as my wife was fine, but when she started getting stressed out, I started getting stressed out,” Tom laughed.

The couple’s traditional wedding took place on a gorgeous June day. Tom’s favorite moment of the day was watching his bride walk down the aisle and Julie’s was being with her husband, friends and family in the same place for such a special occasion.

There’s just something about Tom and Julie that makes them an adorable couple.

“He’s probably the most understanding and giving person that I know, and his Christian foundation just makes him easy to live with and easy to get along with,” she explained.

“I would say we communicate extremely well and I think that our foundation and strong family values also allow us to understand where each other is coming from and what’s important to us in life,” added Tom.

So what is important to Tom and Julie?

Well... eight months after one of the most special and memorable days of their lives, they still hadn’t ordered a single wedding photo from their photographer.

“I’m gonna do it soon,” Julie promised. “I just haven’t had time!”

“No comment,” said Tom, laughing.

But even that might have to wait a little longer. In May, a little under a year after saying their vows, the couple will welcome baby VanderHeyden into their crazy, busy, happy world.

“I couldn’t imagine having a happier life,” Tom said. “That’s something we say to each other pretty much every day.”