Welcome back to “A Very Dapper Wedding,” a regular series that features the stylish nuptials of members of the dapperQ community. This week, we’re showcasing the wedding styles of Matty and Ryli, along with a few words from Matty about Ryli and Matty’s journey. *Photos taken pre-pandemic by @michellerollerphoto
The Love Story…
Ryli and I met at an adult film festival after-party through a mutual friend. She was shockingly beautiful. She said to me “You’re cute. I’m gonna follow you around…” and the rest is history! We were inseparable from the beginning, and fell into deep and exceptional love. I asked her to marry me on the one year anniversary of the day we met.
After she said yes we went back to our hotel room and cried and ate a lemon creme pie with our hands. We waited 2 1/2 years to get married, and just celebrated our one year wedding anniversary.
The Theme…
The theme was based around glam, David Bowie and the spirit of The Madonna Inn. I walked down the aisle to “As The World Falls Down” from Labyrinth, and Ryli walked down to “Heroes.”
We wanted everyone who came to show up fully feeling themselves, wearing whatever it was that made them feel glamorous. The Madonna Inn is a place that you have to embrace the outrageous colors, patterns, and rooms, so we wanted to base around that decoratively. We wanted lots of gold, pinks, greens, flowers and floral prints. The outfits people wore were unbelievable – and so many amazing costume changes!
The Outfits…
Originally, I only planned on having one outfit for the wedding, but after seeing my wife have multiple dresses, I got jealous and knew I needed a party outfit. I had a hell of a time finding that first suit! I knew I wanted floral print from the get go, but I didn’t know what color, and had no idea how to buy a suit.
The idea of shopping for a “men’s” suit sounded scary and made me have dysphoric feelings about my body. I panicked often about not finding the right one, and was afraid I’d hate what I bought. I did endless digging on the internet and finally found an incredible brand called Twisted Tailor. The suit was perfect, and all I had to do was have the jacket tailored. It took me a few try-ons to really see how well it fit and how killer it looked, but I came around! I fell in love with it. I paired it with a handmade collar chain and black harness ankle boots.
I wanted my wedding party to be in florals as well. Everyone chose their own print, so there were a few different colors and patterns in my party. A couple of them wore floral print dresses and some wore a floral print shirt with black pants and a black jacket. I didn’t want everyone to look totally uniform, because I wanted everyone’s personality to show. That’s why they’re my people, after all [smiles].
My second outfit was a little more thrown together as I went along, but it was a badass look. I just had a simple viscose shirt from H&M, the same collar chain, and black sequin pants from ASOS with the same boots I’d worn to the ceremony. I have never felt more glamorous than I did that day.
The weekend of our wedding was absolute bliss for everyone that attended. Everyone wore whatever they wanted, and did whatever they wanted. That was our goal with this wedding – we wanted everyone to come be themselves, loudly. Almost every time we visit with friends we hear about how special it was for everyone that came. The photo of everyone together says it all. It was paradise.
For more, visit @mattyxboi on Instagram.
