A Complete Match

The love between Makenzi Drake and Giuseppe Musso has been sweet from the very start when they met outside the Sunshine Store in Royal.

“He pulled up on his tractor and asked if I wanted a ride,” Makenzi said. “But I was on my way to work.”

The two had always known each other, she said, but didn’t really connect until they both signed up to play softball at Kimery Park, both as outfielders.

“He heard about me and one day he asked if I would play on his team,” she said. “I agreed and the next Saturday we met at 7 a.m. for a tournament.

“We spent the whole day just talking about our lives and our future. I never knew anyone could have so much in common with me. We knew that there was something special from the start and he made me feel incredible. It was like God put us together because everything I loved he had the same passion for.”

After just a few weeks of dating, the couple began planning their future together. When they found out they were expecting their first child, Drake Rylan Musso, everything began falling into place.

On March 8, 2013, while at home watching movies, “Seppe” proposed to Makenzi over a delicious strawberry shortcake.

“He described the love for our child and me, and said how he couldn’t imagine himself with anyone else, he told me he wanted to be my husband and complete our family,” Makenzi said. “Of course I said yes!”

Makenzi, who’s passion is baking, is a local baker and cake decorator who received her degree from Pulaski Tech Culinary School. Seppe earned an associates degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton. The couple enjoys fishing and hunting in their down time.

The Big Day: March 15, 2014

Best Man and Maid of Honor: We had a lot of amazing people in the wedding who we both love and are so grateful for. We chose to have Tad Williams as our best man because he had been Seppe’s role model growing up. We think of him as our own family! My maid of honor was Emily Bennet, who has been my best friend since I was 10 years old, and we have traveled the world together. I consider her my sister! We also had five more of our very close friends, our niece and our son pulled down the aisle in a wagon by two of our nephews. It was so very special for us to have everyone in it because family is everything in our lives.

The location: We had our ceremony at our home church Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, and we had our reception at Lake Couchdale reception hall. We wanted it to be simple and beautiful and it exceeded our expectations for our big day!

The reception: During the wedding planning we got a job offer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and packed up and moved. While down there, we fell in love with the food and decided we had to have the Bayou Bistro cater our wedding. It’s family-owned by Seppe’s family. They served delicious pepper jelly fried shrimp, catfish, Italian meatballs and 150 pounds of jambalaya, which is our favorite! We also had a family friend, Stephanie Hamilton, make our wedding cake and cupcakes while I secretly worked hard and made Seppes groom cake myself! It took me four days to make and it was inspired by our six month old white duck hunting Labrador retriever. Hunting is very big in our life and I couldn’t think of anything better to make for my husband on his big day!

The look: While planning our wedding I gave Seppe the chance to choose all of our wedding colors and being the sweet country guy he is he chose camouflage. I was shocked, but supportive because I wanted him to feel that he had every part of the decision. To compliment the camo vests of the groomsmen, I chose bridesmaid dresses in a chiffon chocolate strapless gown and had baby’s breath and burlap bouquets. We also had baby’s breath centerpieces with romantic candles along with baby’s breath vases along the aisle in the church.

The dress: For my dress I wanted something special and when I saw this amazing la Sposa wedding gown with feather detail and mermaid fit I knew it was the one! I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait until Seppe saw me walking down the aisle in it.

Most unforgettable moment: My most memorable moment would be watching my son ride down the aisle in front of me as we were all joined as a family! We both couldn’t control our emotions and cried and wiped away each others tears during the ceremony. It was the most amazing unforgettable moment of the whole night!

The honeymoon: We wanted to have a special honeymoon and we knew that being on Lake Ouachita hunting and fishing is one of our most favorite activities so we chose to rent the Shirley Ann houseboat from Wakezone for a week. We traveled island to island by ourselves and spent every moment together! From shooting cans out of trees with a shotgun, watching our dog retrieve his ducks in the water, baiting catfish, sitting out by the fire making s’mores and playing baggo with our friends we couldn’t imagine a better time to spend as newlyweds! We enjoyed every minute of our honeymoon and couldn’t have imagined it any different!