The Wedding Story of... Jessie & Bryce Matteson

My husband Bryce & I met about a year and a half ago. I had moved to Colorado in September of 2009 and did not feel at peace at all about my decision to move there, so I ended up moving back a short time after and began working as an intern at a church in Mishawaka, IN. Little did I know, my future Mother-In-Law was the secretary at the church I was working at. Conveniently that allowed me the opportunity to get to know her and find out that she had a very good looking, single son. After a few coincidences and a few intentional set-ups by friends, Bryce and I met and hit it off pretty much instantly. We officially began dating that December and then after 6 months of dating, Bryce proposed at a park in downtown Boston in June 2010, before we headed off to Fenway Park for Bryce to see his Red Sox play (he is a die-hard fan!). The proposal was perfect!

 

 

 

 

Leading up to the wedding, my mother and I spent hours and hours creating unique centerpieces that went with what I like to call a Shabby-Chic meets Soda Shop style. We scoured through magazines for hours searching for inspiration and would take bits and pieces of what we saw to create something that would fit my style and what I wanted the end result to look like. We thrifted all the china plates that were used for the guests as well as the majority of the glassware and stemware that was used. Let me tell you, we spent HOURS driving around from thrift store to thrift store over this past year trying to accumulate enough for our guests! My mom was amazing, we made unique topiary-like centerpieces for some of the tables and my mom hand-sewed over 400 fabric flowers to create the look we wanted for them. We also made all of our bouquets (our first time doing anything with flowers!). After that we stuck to fabric. We made adorable fabric-flower boutonnieres and instead of the traditional corsages for the moms and grandmothers we used pearl bracelets and then tied fabric and ribbon to make them special. 

 

 

 

 

 

I wore my mother’s wedding dress. My mom and dad have been married for over 25 years and it was an amazing thing to be able to wear her dress as it symbolizes so much to me about their marriage and what can become of ours. We had a fabulous seamstress remake the dress and I was able to be creative with exactly what I wanted to be done.

 

 

 

 

We got married and had the reception at The Blue Dress Barn in Millburg, Michigan. The place is AMAZING! When I first when up to see it I instantly knew that is where I wanted to get married. We loved the casual, yet classy feel of the place and I knew that it would go perfect with the style of wedding that I wanted to have. We were married outside. I was dropped off in a ‘66 Mustang and was then escorted down the aisle by my father. That was a VERY last minute detail, but I was super excited that it worked out! The reception was then held inside the barn. We had a great band, Mr. Z, who did a fabulous job emceeing as well as playing amazing music! 

 

 

 

 

The photographers were Justin and Kelly Wiard, from By Kelly and Justin located in Elkhart, Indiana. They were amazing, and captured the wedding day perfectly!