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Matthew and Matisse met in 2014, and officially tied the knot at 14TENN in Nashville, Tennessee on October 13th, 2022.
In honor of Pride month, 14TENN is thrilled to feature Matthew and Matisse’s incredible wedding day. 14TENN and our parent company, 828 Venue Management Company, celebrates diversity, the power of choice, and the belief that love is love.
We believe that we can and should have a positive impact in all of our local communities by supporting causes that align to our core values and purpose.
For this feature, we asked to hear directly from Matthew and Matisse about their wedding day experience at 14TENN, why they chose to host their event with us, and how they view we embrace our values and celebrate love, diversity and equality.
Q: How did you meet? Can you tell us a little bit about your love story?
A: Matthew and Matisse met for the first time in 2014. At the time they were both competitive cheerleaders and shared mutual friends. Since Matthew lived in Washington and Matisse lived in Tennessee, it just seemed like a wild possibility that they would get a chance to connect.
As the year went on, Matt and Matisse both seemed to gather the courage to let each other know that they noticed one another, whether it was liking each others Instagram posts, or sending screenshots of music they both seemed to mutually like on Snapchat.
Going into the next year, September 24th, 2015 to be exact, Matisse finally found the courage to give Matthew his number because Matisse “thought he would like it just in case he needed it”. It was from that point on where the connection blossomed and not a day went by without talking about each others day and just really finding a true friendship.
Matthew finally decided to come visit Matisse in Tennessee. They had a great weekend together, but came to a decision at the time it wasn’t the right timing for them to move on from what their lives were at the moment.
After a few years of being long distance and becoming each others best friend and spending all that time really getting to know each other with endless texts and Facetime calls, Matisse moved to Washington to be with Matthew.
Matthew finally said he wanted to be with Matisse for the rest of his life during a surprise rooftop sunset proposal. They decided to move to Nashville in 2020, and started wedding planning.
Q: Why did you choose to host your wedding at 14TENN?
A: 14TENN’s venue is basically an open canvas that made every moment of the wedding very special. We loved the white interior, and it was the perfect size to host everyone without it feeling crowded. It was an easy process of setup knowing that most decorations and all chairs and tables came with the venue and we had very little stress of making our vision come to life with the help of TENN staff!
Q: How did you feel that 14TENN embraces our company values of love, diversity and equality?
A: Right now in the world we live in, the idea of same sex marriage is still overlooked and under appreciated to this day, and considered “not right”. It would be a lie if we said we didn’t fear the idea of not being able to find a venue that would truly accept our day of unity and it be everything we would want it to be. We truly believe 14TENN made it a goal to make our day just as special as anyone else’s. Being a biracial couple, our family is extremely diverse, and our wedding day at 14TENN definitely was nothing short of a moment for our worlds to collide as one.
Q: Where did the inspiration for your wedding design come from?
A: The inspiration from our wedding truly came from us and our personalities combined. We felt we wanted our day to be very simple, yet classy. From the greenery to our choice of wedding colors weren’t very over the top but still complemented us in a way we liked!
Q: What was your favorite part of your wedding day?
A: [Our] favorite part of the wedding day was watching our two worlds come together. Both of our families and friends are scattered around [the U.S.] and it was a special moment seeing everyone that could be there in one space celebrating Matt and I.
Q: How did 14TENN’s planning involvement in your wedding help you?
A: 14TENN’s planning team went above and beyond for our day. The fact that we simply just had to worry about getting ready and arriving to the venue with everything already set up was so nice. At the beginning of the day we dropped off our decorations and literally told them to do whatever they think will look good and once we came back it was exactly that. We were able to put our full trust into the planning team with everything and never had to worry about a thing!
Q: Were there any wedding traditions that you chose to forego, or trends you chose to incorporate?
A: Matt and I are very shy when it comes to being in front of crowds (even if it’s our own family) and knowing all eyes are on us we knew we wouldn’t enjoy saying our vows during the ceremony, so we filmed ourselves reading them ahead of time so we can always look back at the moment. Matt also insisted that we stay away from any “line dance” songs during our reception, for example The ChaCha Slide, The Wobble, Electric Slide. We spent a lot of time creating our wedding playlist and wedding guests to this day say we had one of the best wedding playlists they’ve ever heard and from what I remember everyone danced the night away!
Interested in hosting your own wedding or event at 14TENN? Email [email protected] to schedule a tour!
