It was a June day, and a typical time for a wedding; however, there was nothing typical about this wedding.

The bride and groom were married at a beautiful mansion and the groom and groomsmen arrived on John Deere tractors. It was a traditional wedding with a nontraditional JD flair!

Philip Steidley has been a JD fan since he was a boy. At the age of 15, Phil started up his own plow day and has been involved with JD tractors ever since. He even works for JD – he attended Lake Land Community College in the John Deere technician curriculum, and he now works at Sloans, the JD dealership in Carlinville, Ill.

When Phil started dating Laura their junior year, he knew she was the girl for him. In fact, he even introduced her to the antique tractor hobby. “I took her to her first tractor pull outside of Greene County,” he said.

The proposal came with JD flair, too. It was in February 2006 at the National Farm Machinery show that he popped the question, while sitting at the top of the stands in the midst of the roar of the engines, the tractor exhaust and the excitement of the pull. Phil turned to her and asked, “Does it get any better than this?”

When Laura replied, “No,” Phil calmly told her yes, it could – and he pulled a ring out of his pocket. By the end of the tractor pull, the couple were formally engaged. WGN caught the story and farm broadcaster Max Armstrong put the young couple on the air.
Laura recently graduated from college and this summer, tied the knot with Phil. The couple decided they didn’t want a traditional wedding – but a John Deere one suited them just fine.

“It is who we are and what we do,” Phil explained.

Laura wore a beautiful Cinderella wedding dress and arrived in a white carriage pulled by horses. She was greeted by a line of tractors – JD, of course – that held the groom and groomsmen.
“We had six tractors, me and five groomsmen,” Phil shared. “We sat the tractors three on each side.” Phil sat on his John Deere H that “we repainted last winter just for the wedding.”

The wedding took place at the home of friends Brenda and Fred Nolan. The Nolans’ homestead boasts a Victorian mansion where, each year, a huge Labor Day festival is held. The mansion was built by CSA Colonel William H. Fulkerson in 1866, and lent the romantic air that the Steidleys wanted for their special day.

At the reception in the Carrollton KC hall, the JD tradition continued. Each table was decorated with a 1/16th-scale toy tractor.

“We purchased most of the tractors,” Phil said. “We had 32 1/16th-scale tractors in the hall.

“We got one of every different kind and afterwards, dispersed them throughout the family.”

The three-tiered wedding cake was constructed around a John Deere H in the middle. As Phil said when they became engaged: “Does it get any better than this?”

If you are a true JD fan and either Phil or Laura Steidley – the answer is no.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.