When Katie Krok-Stepnoski walked down the aisle of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in McKinley Park on July 27 to meet her soon-to-be husband, Dr. Nicholas Stepnoski, she was following in the footsteps of generations of her family.

The three previous generations on both her mother’s and father’s sides of her family were married at the church, which is now part of Blessed Sacrament Parish, and raised their families in the parish community. Katie Krok-Stepnoski and her husband are now the fourth generation.

As Katie began preparations for her wedding Mass in the church, her mother, Alicia Krok, began thinking back to the family history on both sides, and discovered marriages at the church go back three generations.

That news did not surprise Krok-Stepnoski.

“I’ve grown up with Sts. Peter and Paul Church having such a prominent place within both sides of my family that, to me, it seemed almost natural that, of course, this would be the case,” she said.

Her husband’s reaction was different.

“I was surprised, though, as not coming from something like that or having something like that so familiar,” said Stepnoski. “And a lot of my family was too.”

When he was getting to know Katie and her family, he saw how strongly they were rooted in their parish community.

“In modern-day times, to have everyone so localized and getting married in one church, it’s so rare to hear and it’s pretty incredible,” Stepnoski said.

He and his wife also have made their home in the neighborhood and are parishioners at the church.

“I couldn’t help but think about my mother on Katie’s wedding day,” Alicia Krok said, her voice filled with emotion.

Her mother and all of Katie’s relatives on both sides who have died would be looking down on her and her husband smiling, Alicia Krok said.

“I think they’d be amazed that we’re still here after so many years,” said Jim Krok, Katie Krok-Stepnoski’s father. “Every time I go to Sts. Peter and Paul, I think I might be sitting where my grandfather sat. So I just think I’m walking where they walked.”

For Krok-Stepnoski and her husband, getting married in the church, specifically at Sts. Peter and Paul, was something the couple never questioned, Krok-Stepnoski said.

“It was the only place. It was the only way. There was no question,” she said.

“And all of the details and all of the steps you have to do to get married in the Catholic Church, we looked forward to them,” Stepnoski said. “We made them a thing for us to accomplish together. I think it made it easier and better for us both.”

The PreCana process really helped their marriage preparation, Krok-Stepnoski said, and friends who were not married in the church were impressed that they had something like that to prepare them.

“For Katie and Nick, this was a sacrament to them. and that really meant a lot to all of us,” Alicia Krok said.

“I can’t imagine making such an important decision — to spend my life with Nick, to start a marriage, to start a family — and to do it without God’s hand in it would seem crazy,” Krok-Stepnoski said. “We’re going to need our faith in God for everything that is ahead of us.”

While weddings are happy occasions, the parish church has also been important in times when things were not so happy, Krok-Stepnoski said.

“It’s an anchor for everything in our family,” she said “Not just for weddings, but for every kind of occasion. It has drawn our personal family and extended family over the years.”

That was evident in a special moment Krok-Stepnoski added into the wedding Mass. Katie’s sister Kari died in 1993, and every Sunday since then, Alicia Krok has prayed at the Mary altar. There is a plaque there in remembrance of her.

So Katie Krok-Stepnoski asked her mother to join her in praying at the Mary altar during the Mass to remember her sister.

All this is part of how the parish community serves in a special way in lives of young, married couples, she said.

“As we were dating, you go and you take this person, they meet your family, they meet your friends, but there was this third component when Nick met the community that we have at church,” Krok-Stepnoski said. “He met all of the neighbors there, and all of the people who we’re with every day.”

The relationships formed through the parish are important in different ways than relationships outside the church and can be a great support for couples setting out in marriage, she said.

“They aren’t your friends or they aren’t your family, in a sense, but they are if you go every Sunday as my family did. They know what is happening in your life in real time in some of the most important ways,” she said. “It’s a very special gift that you have with those people and the church.”