Love, lacrosse and Louboutins: KC coaches to say ‘I do’ on Valentine’s Day
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- Rockhurst lacrosse teammates Madeline Gilstrap and Audrey Pope marry on Valentine’s Day.
- Dating since 2019, they exchanged engagement rings at a catered, candlelit dinner.
- Ceremony has pink programs, hearts, Louboutins for one bride, “Cupid Shuffle.”
A bowl of conversation heart candies will sit on the dessert table. The wedding ceremony programs are pink. Guests will dance to “Cupid Shuffle.”
One of the brides will wear Christian Louboutin shoes with those iconic red soles.
But even though Madeline Gilstrap and Audrey Ford who met as lacrosse teammates at Rockhurst University, are getting married on the most romantic day of the year, they will tell you that Valentine’s Day was not the first choice for their wedding.
In a harmonic convergence this year, the holiday falls on a Saturday, the busiest and most popular day of the week for weddings.
They actually worried that getting married on Valentine’s Day would be, well, weird.
Yet the love story of two teammates who fell in love has rom-com written all over it. How they’ve been inseparable since their first date visiting breweries around town in 2019. How they wound up surprising each other with engagement rings over a catered, candlelit dinner in their Kansas City backyard.
They consider themselves perfectly matched.
Gilstrap is the “steady Eddy” of the couple, a scientist who works in the pharmaceutical industry. Ford, who works remotely for a New York ad agency, is the creative one who designed nearly everything about their wedding.
Lacrosse still rules in their home. They both coach girls lacrosse at Pembroke Hill School, where Gilstrap is head coach.
An October wedding was their first choice, but that’s a busy month for weddings.
“October’s hard because everyone wants to get married in October,” said Gilstrap, who is from St. Louis. “And my cousin, who proposed before us, was getting married the beginning of November. So it was just a lot for my whole family to do back-to-back.”
December? Christmas season was a hard no.
“Then we started looking at January and February ... looking at the weekends in February and it was like Super Bowl weekend? Definitely not,” said Gilstrap.
“Then we saw Valentine’s Day and we were like, uh, I don’t know. Is that weird? Could be cheesy. But then the date kinda worked out for everyone. It just started to look good as an option.”
“We sat with it more, and thought about what it could mean, then we started to feel a lot more comfortable with Valentine’s Day,” said Ford, who grew up outside Baltimore and moved to Kansas City to play lacrosse.
“We talked to our friends about it ... is this weird or bad to take (the holiday) away from you guys,” said Gilstrap. “And they started to be really excited about it. So we just got really comfortable and excited about the day.”
Surprisingly they didn’t have trouble finding a venue, though it helped that they started looking more than a year-and-a-half ago.
They’re getting married Saturday evening at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Only one guest can’t make it.
“I think a lot of people are actually like, ‘ooh, Valentine’s Day, that’s fun,’” said Ford.
Surprise! Marry me
They had talked about getting married for months before Ford planned that surprise proposal dinner. She hired a private chef to prepare a four-course meal. The pea and pastry appetizers were especially yummy.
The night, though, didn’t go as planned. Ford didn’t know Gilstrap had a ring ready to go, too.
“Madaeline’s family in St Louis are actually jewelers. So we knew when we wanted to get rings we would go through them eventually,” said Ford. “Then when we made the decision to actually start the process and get rings, supposedly we both called on the same day, not knowing that the other person was doing it.
“I guess we both kinda felt it and called her cousin on the same day to say let’s get this process going.”
On a Labor Day trip to St. Louis, Gilstrap’s mom covertly handed over the finished gold bands. Gilstrap’s has an emerald-shaped diamond; Ford’s diamond is round.
The night of their engagement in October 2024 Ford sent Gilstrap to happy hour with friends to keep her away while dinner was set up. She surprised Gilstrap with the proposal before dinner, then close friends and Ford’s sister joined them for dessert.
“As we were sitting at dinner eating Madeline left to go to the bathroom — I say with air quotes — and came back with my ring,” Ford said. “She had had it in a closet and was waiting to propose on that Sunday over brunch, I guess.
“But she knew at the point our friends were coming over and celebrating, so she was like, ‘I should just do this. We both have rings and we can both be celebrated together.’”
“I was like (darn), I was supposed to be first,” laughed Gilstrap.
The cake is white, not red
Of course they made a Pinterest board.
They avoided going over-the-top with Valentine’s Day red — the cake is simple, modern and white — so their colors are pinks and purples.
“I can’t say I would have chosen pinks and purples had it not been Valentine’s Day, but we just kinda leaned into the day and that’s what came with it,” said Ford. “We also tried not to go overboard with the colors because the venue has so much going on itself.”
They dropped little hints at the holiday with kiddie Valentines used as the table assignment cards and table numbers shaped like hearts.
They’re getting special manicures, too.
“Something Madeline and I do together on a regular basis is we get our nails done. And we tend to go with pretty fun designs,” said Ford. “I think Madeline will have red hearts on her nails, I’m going to have some pink hearts on mine with some design.
“My shoes are red, which I probably wouldn’t have picked if it wasn’t Valentine’s Day.”
Ford said she had to buy Jimmy Choo heels “once she bought Louboutins.”
“Audrey has gotten me into being extra,” Gilstrap laughed.
On Monday they fly to Japan for their honeymoon.
The wedding planning made Ford sentimental about how her father treated the holiday for her and her sister when they were growing up.
“I love Valentine’s Day and I always have, even in a not romantic way,” said Ford. “My dad used to make it really special for my sister and I. We would come downstairs in the morning to (find) a little Valentine’s basket with candy and flowers.
“So for me, it’s always been a really nice day and I’ve always tried to honor that in our relationship, too. I think for me what’s special about Valentine’s Day, not only is it about Madeline and I and our love story, but we get to be with everyone we love and they also get to bring ... the people they love.
“So it’s less about Valentine’s Day being about us and more about just everyone being able to come together and celebrate with us, which sounds cheesy to say out loud.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 6:30 AM.
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