The Wedding Story of Jessica and Matt Scanlon

Jessica and Matt are a couple whose relationship has always been filled with fun! Thanks to Jessica’s friend and maid-of-honor, Erika, the two were introduced. When Jessica meticulously planned a surprise party for Matt, little did she know he had a surprise of his own waiting for her. He ended up proposing to his future bride in front of all the friends and family Jessica had invited to the impromptu birthday bash!

Matt is a teacher and Jessica is a wedding planner, which means Jessica had the hook-up for venues, and they had to get married on one of Matt’s breaks during the school year. As for their venue of choice, Jessica says, “I really loved the barn trend so we started looking into barns in the area. I enjoyed the rustic look combined with a natural setting.” It turned out that the venue that would fulfill this natural setting need was the Indianapolis Zoo. The Riverhouse at the Zoo reminded the couple of a barn, and it was the perfect place for them to tie the knot!

Jessica and Matt made very careful decisions when picking out their vendors. Jessica says, “We only went on two meetings per vendor and made our decision based on how well we thought we could get along with these people that would be such an important part of our day. When Matt bonded with our photographer over Star Wars and our DJ loved the idea of playing movie scores over dinner, rather than jazz, we knew they’d both be good fits. In fact, with our photographer, Brittany Erwin, our personalities immediately clicked. Once she said to us 'whoever you pick, make sure it’s someone you can see yourself spending the entire day with,' we knew she was the one for the job."

Jessica and Matt found a great way to add in their personalities with the wedding theme. They are really into pop culture and they wanted parts of their wedding to be framed around this passion. Jessica says, “Playing movie scores during dinner was one of these subtle touches. It was so great to see people at the dinner reception wracking their brains for why they knew the song that was playing! Another maybe not as subtle touch was the Beauty and the Beast and Batman cake toppers.”
 

There was one dilemma during the wedding planning. Jessica had a "bridesman" and Matt had a "groomswoman." Jessica says, “When we were planning, people asked if Elena would wear a suit or if Chris would be on the groom’s side. We didn’t like either of those options because they didn’t seem true to us. I loved the symmetry of each side being a ‘color’ so I came up with the idea of Chris wearing a suit that was the same color as my other two bridesmaids. Navy was a natural fit because it’s a common suit color. Elena was able to wear gray to match the other groomsmen.” This was a creative way to make sure that the couple stayed true to themselves and an ingenious way to solve a problem that some couples may face today.

The decor of the wedding was more than fitting to the couple as well. Jessica even printed her own invitations out and covered them with navy lace to dress them up a bit. She then took that lace and garnished the mason jars used for their centerpieces with it. The florals also enhanced the decor. Gillespie Florists made a clutch-style bouquet for Jessica and offered her the D.I.Y. version of a centerpiece. “I loved that our florist offered the D.I.Y. version. My maid of honor and I were able to go into their workshop to create the baby’s breath centerpieces ourselves,” Jessica says.
 

What we love

Jessica and Matt were able to include a lot of personal style into their wedding. They chose a venue that was a little offbeat which ended up making the wedding day more fun and more memorable.
 

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