Join us for our Wedding!
Hello!
We are incredibly excited to invite you to our Summer Camp Wedding! The weekend will be filled with so many of our favorite things, sunsets over the lake, campfires under the stars and days spent doing silly activities with friends and family we love. We can't wait for everyone to get a taste of the summer camp magic that started it all. Having you there will truly mean the world to us!
There will be more information to come but check out the FAQs page for the basics in the meantime!
Dates:
The weekend will start at Camp Canadensis at 3:00 PM on Saturday August 28th and end on Monday August 30th by 11:00 AM
Camp holds such a special place in our hearts. We met as camp counselors in 2016. Matt, a tennis specialist, and Ryley, a counselor for the CIT girls.
We instantly hit it off and after a few weeks, Matt made the first move asking Ryley for a morning walk (a HUGE deal at Camp Tioga).
Our Story
Ryley of course, said no.
But undeterred, Matt asked her again for the next morning. Ryley said yes and proceeded to nervously talk at Matt for an hour straight with no eye contact while we walked to the waterfall.
Matt knew she was a keeper.
He then found himself frequenting the camp infirmary, trying to win over the camp nurses (Ryley’s mom, aunt, sister, and Trish!) His hard work paid off and somehow he earned a spot at the Conway house post-camp.
Little did we know that our summer fling would turn into something much bigger (Matt knew, and weirdly so did Ryley’s mum/mom Kim.)
Daily FaceTimes throughout university kept us connected, talking for hours every night. After three summers of camp together, and traveling back and forth we decided we needed to find a way to be together for longer.
Where else but Vietnam? We spent the year teaching English, motorbiking around
Hanoi, eating far too much fried rice and having our first taste of life together. After Vietnam, we returned for one final summer at camp.
This time, we were both counselors for the CIT Travel Program, led by Ryley’s mom, Kim.
We spent three weeks traveling between Hawaii and Alaska before finishing the summer back at camp. After a full year together, high on life and happier than ever, we had to say goodbye.
This time, it felt harder than ever before.
Wait
Aren’t you guys already married?!
Well… YES.
(We’ve forgot who we have and haven’t told, so if you didn’t know, SURPRISE!)
Our long-distance struggle became even more difficult when the pandemic hit. Matt wasn’t allowed to come to the US, and Ryley couldn’t enter England. The FaceTime calls became heart-wrenching, and eventually, we decided we couldn’t spend another day apart.
After a lot of research, we realized that the answer was marriage. It was the only way we could truly be together and start the life we both wanted.
Fun Fact: This was the moment we decided to get married. ^
Unfortunately, we were both broke, living with our parents, and COVID restrictions had severely limited our options. So, naturally, the solution was a quick elopement.
Due to immigration laws and COVID travel restrictions, we needed to find somewhere we could both legally travel to, where English was the official language for marriage documentation, and where the marriage process was relatively simple and streamlined.
Barbados fit the criteria.
And, if you stayed four nights at the Sandals Resort, they included a “free” wedding… paperwork and all.
PERFECT.
Well… it was far from perfect, but it was exactly what we needed.
It was just the two of us. No elaborate planning. No friends. No family.
On October 10, 2021, we got married on the beach at the Sandals Resort. Our witness was a resort staff member who came included with our wedding package. They also threw in a two tier cake!
It wasn’t the wedding either of us had imagined, the officiant even pronounced us the wrong name at the end of the ceremony, but we were so grateful to be together and to finally begin the life we had been fighting so hard to build.
At the end of our wedding, we had to board separate flights home, it sucked.
It took a full year for the immigration process to be completed, but eventually, Matt secured his green card and moved to New York to live with Ryley, Max and her parents.
He had to take his driver’s test (he failed on the first attempt), open a bank account, and figure out a whole new life in a new country. Eventually he landed a job as a video producer at B&H.
Ryley became a licensed social worker and secured a job in the city shortly after.
In May 2023, we moved into our apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and have been building our life together ever since.
The past three years have been a dream.
We kept our original marriage from 2021 on the downlow because we always knew we wanted to have a wedding on our terms (not one rushed by immigration restrictions and tight financial constraints). Our situation then was unique and we did what we needed to do to be together.
Since then, we have come such a long way. We built an amazing group of friends, created a home together and our life is exactly what we always wanted (and more).
We love our love so much and are beyond ready to have the wedding of our dreams! We want all our friends and family to finally be together in the same place at the same time to celebrate. We know that because we are from two different countries, this will likely be the only time this ever happens and it would mean the world to us to be surrounded by our loved ones for this very special weekend!!
So, Why Now?
Hotels in NYC
Here are a few hotels that we know are good! Feel free to go wherever you like, these are just some recommendations for before or after the wedding!
Info for the wedding weekend accommodations can be found on the FAQ page.
The Henry Norman, Greenpoint
Elaine and Dave Matkin’s favorite NYC Hotel! Maybe because of its beautiful rooms and charming vibe, or it might be the fact it's a 5 minute walk from our apartment…
The Penny, Williamsburg
Ryley’s GO TO for showing our visiting friends a good time in the hotel's amazing rooftop bar, El Nico with incredible views of the city. We actually met Nico the first time we went in there, turns out he's a chubby little corgi.
Motto By Hilton, Chelsea
A great central location in Manhattan close to the subway to take you wherever you need to go in the city. Fun restaurants and bars within walking distance and most importantly, its not in Times Square!