Jessie and Steve Marsh Wedding Story

Wedding Theme

DIY, Modern, Natural, Rustic, Vintage

The Day We Said Yes

Saturday, September 28th, 2019

Our Love Story

It was supposed to be a gorgeous fall day in the Black Hills but the day before the wedding, it began to rain and didn't stop until the day after the wedding. A list minute tent was tented from Timeless Rental, which saved the reception! On the morning of the wedding, the father of the bride was out early, digging trenches in and outside of the reception tent to help keep the chairs and tables from washing away. It was a hectic start to the day! 

The ceremony was to be held outside overlooking the Mystic bridge on the George S. Mickelson Trail. Two hours before the ceremony, they changed the location to the McCahan Memorial Chapel to keep the guest from getting soaked in the rain. It created a warm magical setting for the ceremony that was entirely unexpected! The couple was married by the groom's cousins. Having dual officiants was so fun and untraditional. It created a funny and heartwarming ceremony. 

After the ceremony, the guest made a short drive into the Mystic canyon for the reception at the bride's family cabin. The rain finally let up and made way for a lively evening of tacos made by the groom, natural wine selected by the bride, and hitting golf balls off into the distance.

How We Met

Jessie and Steve met in Austin, Texas through an online dating app. They had a few mutual friends from Wyoming so they knew they had to meet! While living down in Texas they bonded over their love of the midwest, the mountains, good food, and music. Both of them are currently Product Designers in Austin. Jessie is originally from Rapid City, SD and Steve is from Chicago, IL.

Planning Our Day

Jessie and Steve's wedding began with the idea of having a very small intimate day with close family and friends in a location that means so much to them. The bride's family has a special cabin nestled in the Black Hills in Mystic, SD. They couldn't have picked a more memorable location for the wedding. The couple kept the wedding very small and only invited 50 guests. In keeping the wedding small the bride and groom were able to bring their own unique touches to certain parts of the day that meant the most to them. 

The food meant the most to the groom. He played around with the idea of hiring a catering company but decided to have the groom make all of the food! Sounds crazy but it worked out great. Living in Austin, TX they wanted to bring a little Texas into the wedding. So the groom created a full taco bar from scratch over a few days with the help of his family and some friends. 

As for the Bride, the decor and flowers were her passion. She had always wanted to do her own flowers and has a passion for interior design. She took a unique spin and did all dried flower arrangements for the ceremony and reception. This gave her the ability to create the arrangement in advance and to experiment with the table layouts. The best part of the dried decor was that guests were able to take the flowers home and they should last for over a year! 

They couldn't have pulled off this DIY intimate wedding without the help of a lot of family and friends. Shout outs below:

Rehearsal Dinner + Party: Moonshine Gulch Saloon
Transportation: Black Hills Tour Company, thank you for getting our guest home safely in the rain
Music: Haggerty's Music, thank for you allowing us to rent the perfect sound system
Food: Beadroot Natural Co-Op
Wine + Spirits: Southold Farm + Cellars, Canyon Lake Liquors
Hair + Makeup: Mairin Goetzinger, a friend of the bride
Photography: John Farris Photography
Brides Outfit: Dress-Reformation, Jacket-Pendelton, Shoes-Bryr Clogs, Jewelry-Madewell
Grooms Outfit: J Crew

Wedding Hint

If you are a bride planning a wedding from afar, do all that you can to order things in advance! Jessie was able to order small batches of flowers and play around with arrangements in her Austin home before ordering everything for the wedding and sending it to South Dakota. The groom, too, held many dinner parties to test his recipes before the wedding and to practice scaling the portions for a larger groom. Jessie and Steve are not DIY people by nature but were able to put their special touch on their day by each taking on a task that meant a lot to them.