Neighbors Throw Beautiful Block Party Wedding for High School Sweethearts

Many brides ultimately decide to have their wedding in their hometown, whether it be for convenience or sentimental reasons. But for Susie Osei of Mount Prospect, Illinois, her home is everything. So much so in fact that she decided to marry the man of her dreams (who she started dating in high school!) on the exact street she grew up on, and where her parents still live to this day, according to Good Morning America.

“We just wanted to get married, be around people we love and have a big party,” the bride told the news site.

Sadly, Osei’s mother struggles with Alzheimer’s, so the bride and groom wanted to get married as soon as possible in order for her mother to be able to truly enjoy the wedding.

“Me and Miles have been dating since high school and we pretty much always knew that we were going to get married so we didn’t really put a lot of pressure on it,” the bride explained. “My mom has Alzheimer’s. She was diagnosed four or five years ago when she was 52. In the past couple years I think it became more apparent to Miles that more than anything else, it being extravagant or waiting for a time when we’re less busy, it was important to us that she be there for the wedding.”

With the bride and groom both being in grad school, having enough free time to plan a wedding was hard to come by. And that’s where Osei’s neighbors came in to save the day.

“My block is crazy. We all grew up together and are very, very close-knit,” Osei said about her hometown neighborhood. “We always have block parties on the 4th of July. It’s been something like 80 years we’ve been doing this block party. For Christmas we all put mini Christmas trees out in the front yard. We all do cookie exchanges and decorate them together and take a little bit of each other’s cookies.”

And now, after all of those holiday celebrations, it was Osei’s turn to be celebrated. With some from her dad, her neighbors corralled together to throw the sweetest hometown block party wedding we’ve seen yet.

See More: 29 Backyard Wedding Ideas

“My dad sent them all an email not really asking them because in his mind we had already decided that’s what we were going to do,” Osei said. “We have a couple of new neighbors that I didn’t grow up with, so he sent a general email letting them know about me and Miles and that I grew up on the block and to make sure everybody was OK with it.”

More than just being “OK with it,” Osei’s neighbors were more than happy to help out.

“Everybody just responded with total love. There was no issues, everyone just wanted to help. Everyone was saying we could use their lawn and use their trees and offered to help.”

The result? Absolute block party perfection that was full of family, friends, AND neighbors. See all of the gorgeous photos below.