Wedding Feature: Casey + Matthew

On September 12th, 2020, Casey & Matthew said “I do!” We were so honored to play at their gorgeous outdoor wedding reception at Chikaming Country Club, located in Lakeside, Michigan. It featured the club’s pristine, tree-lined fairways, spacious seating, and an overall feeling of airiness and ease. Like so many engaged couples during this pandemic, Casey & Matthew did not have the wedding they originally planned. However, as plan after plan changed, love always remained.

We are excited to share their journey as a couple: how they met, how they adjusted their wedding during COVID, and how they managed to create an incredible final result filled with joy and love.

Tell us the story of how you two met.
I was on a one-year assignment for work in Minneapolis during my first year out of college. One day, one of the senior team members at the office announced that his son was coming in for lunch and he wanted to introduce him to everyone. I shrugged it off and didn’t think much of it, until he proceeded to follow up with me two more times before his son arrived to confirm exactly when I would be in my office so he could make sure he didn’t miss the opportunity to introduce us. I met Matt in the office that day and was immediately stopped dead in my tracks. But I was convinced I’d never see him again. And plus, I was leaving in just a few months – wrong time to get wrapped up in a relationship! A few days later I ended up bumping into Matt at a bar during the final four games – we had such a blast that night and never looked back, even after I moved away to Chicago 3 months later!

What made you decide that this was the right person to be with for the rest of your life?
Casey: There are so many things about Matt that are pure goodness; he has the highest integrity of anyone I know and such a loving heart. I also love that while our value systems are so aligned, we approach things so differently, push each other to grow and see things from a different perspective, and balance each other out. We’re partners and equals. But for me, I really knew that Matt was the right forever person for me when I lost my dad in the year prior to our wedding and my foundation was completely shaken. Matt was my source of strength and stability, my soft spot to land, and so incredibly patient and loving. That trying time showed his true heart and made me love him so much more; I knew that I needed to keep loving this man forever.
Matt: At a high level; our beliefs and values are aligned, and I think our vision for what we want out of life is the same. On a personal level, I love how caring and compassionate Casey is. At the same time I admire how driven she is, and I love that she pushes me and our relationship to be the best it can be and not settle for average.

What do you enjoy most about each other’s company?
Our conversations the most. We’re both inquisitive and want to listen to multiple sides of an argument, always open to changing our minds with a compelling argument. We enjoy discussing current events, books, movies, podcasts, our careers, our futures, our families, life overall through that lens – and while fundamentally our belief systems are very aligned, we each introduce a different perspective and get each other to think differently. I love that we’re each others’ first people to share with on all fronts of life – the joyful, the sad, the challenging. We really feel like true partners.

How was your experience with Bluewater Kings Band?
Absolutely wonderful! Our wedding planning experience was filled with stress (as all are) that was only compounded by COVID, but working with Bluewater Kings was the one piece that was so easy from start to finish! We decided to make a playlist for the bands’ intermission periods and they used that list as a jumping off point to build the perfect night music we could have asked for! They even offered to go through our playlist and delete the songs they could play so we didn’t have any repeats – so perfect! They brought so much energy the entire night, went with the flow on one-off requests (musically and logistically) and quite literally made the night! All of our guests were on the dance floor the entire night and it was an absolute blast of a celebration with zero stress on Matt or I to keep the party going. Even the wedding/bar staff couldn’t stop talking about how awesome our band was, what a great time they had and dancing in and out of the kitchen throughout the night! It was so memorable!!

What was your favorite song you danced to at your wedding?
Our favorite that the band played was “Baby Love” to get the dance floor started with Matt and I’s mom’s, per my mom’s request. Immediately the dance floor filled and no one slowed down for the rest of the night, it was absolutely perfect!!

Share one special memory from your wedding with us.
Most special memories we’ll treasure forever was seeing our closest people from both sides come together and have such a good time dancing and partying together. There’s no comparison to the love you feel when all the people that you love and that love you are in the same room, not only celebrating you, but genuinely having a great time themselves and enjoying the company of the other people you love. It’s a special memory that we will never forget!!

What changes did you have to make to your plans due to the pandemic? Do you have any advice or great solutions you found that you would like to share for other couples?
We had to cut our guest list in half, down to 100 people and move our reception outdoors. The best piece of advice I can give is to narrow in on which 3-5 factors are most important to you on your wedding day, let go of your “perfect vision” for all other things (MUCH easier said than done, can’t say this was done without tears), and make decisions accordingly. For us, #1 was getting married on our original wedding day (and we were willing to cut down to 0 guests if needed to make that happen). Second, if we were able to have guests, we wanted to make sure we were still able to have an epic party, which required an awesome band and lively dance floor. We were so lucky to be able to make our top 2 factors a reality and Bluewater Kings Band was a critical component of that!