The Floweress Wedding Edit Featuring Jessica Mellen Berkenkamp of Moments by Mellen

Wedding TipsFloweress Wedding Edit
Written By Wild Floweress Design Co.
 


 

Sometimes the best vendor relationships turn into real friendships.

We recently had the honor of designing Jessica and Glenn’s wedding at Rock Island Lake Club, and not only did we get to create their florals, but we were also lucky enough to be guests there too. Watching Jessica experience her own wedding day after spending so much time helping other couples document theirs made this feature feel especially meaningful.

So it feels only right that she’s part of our Floweress Wedding Edit series.

Jessica is the creative heart behind Moments by Mellen, serving couples throughout New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and she has a beautiful way of noticing the moments that matter most. The quiet hand squeezes. The laughter that bubbles up unexpectedly. The deep breath before “I do.”

Her work is rooted in connection and emotion, capturing not just how your day looked, but how it felt.

A Storytelling Foundation

Jessica’s path into weddings didn’t begin overnight.

She graduated from Caldwell University with a degree in Communication and Media Studies and spent the early part of her career working in social media, marketing, photography, and videography within the hospitality world. Long before content creation became what it is today, she was already telling stories through video.

By 2023 she felt pulled to lean fully into photography. What started as heartfelt sessions quickly turned into referrals, milestones, and couples trusting her with some of the most important seasons of their lives.

In October 2024, Moments by Mellen officially became a full time business.

A Romantic and Authentic Approach

Jessica describes her work as romantic and timeless, but always rooted in authenticity.

She never wants couples to feel like they are performing for the camera. Instead, she creates space for real connection. The whisper that makes you laugh. The way you lean into each other without thinking. The moments that happen when you forget the camera is even there.

She often tells couples that sessions should feel less like a photoshoot and more like a really good date. She just happens to be there documenting it.

That philosophy aligns beautifully with how we approach floral design. The goal is never to create something that feels staged. It’s to create something immersive and personal. When everyone on your vendor team values that same intention, the entire experience feels effortless.

More Than Photography

One of the things we especially love about Jessica’s work is that she offers both photography and content creation.

From engagement parties and bridal showers to rehearsal dinners and weddings, she captures the entire bridal era in a thoughtful way that helps couples relive the experience long after the day is over.

On the wedding day itself, she also creates a content recap so couples leave with timeless images and a ready to post wedding reel captured alongside the professional gallery. She even uses your first dance song as the audio, which makes the final result feel incredibly personal.

It’s such a meaningful blend of legacy photography and modern storytelling.

What Couples Often Don’t Realize

Many couples are surprised by how much intention goes into what looks effortless on a wedding day.

Jessica is not just taking photographs. She’s thinking about how those moments will live beyond the day. How they will be shared. How they will feel when you look back at them years later.

Her advice is simple and important.

Make sure you feel comfortable with the person behind the camera.

Because you’re inviting them into some of the most emotional parts of your day.

That trust makes all the difference.

When to Book

Most couples book Jessica about six to fourteen months before their wedding, usually after securing their venue.

If photography and content creation are important to you, booking early allows time to build that relationship and begin telling your story long before the wedding day arrives.

One Piece of Advice We Loved

When asked what couples need to hear most, her answer was refreshingly simple.

Enjoy it.

Do not stress about the small things. Be present. Soak in each other.

The best images happen when you are fully living the moment instead of trying to control it.

We could not agree more.

Connect with Moments by Mellen

Website
https://momentsbymellen.com/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/momentsbymellen/

Serving New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania

If you are looking for someone who values connection, emotion, and documenting your wedding season from start to finish, Jessica is someone we absolutely love having alongside us on a wedding day.

And if you’re building your vendor team right now, we’d love to hear what you’re dreaming up.

Tell us about your vision.














 
The Story Behind Our New Jersey Bride Feature · Wild Floweress

A countryside fairytale at Ryland Inn

The story behind our New Jersey Bride feature.

Venue · The Coach House at Ryland Inn Photography · Michelle Behre Featured · New Jersey Bride, Fall/Winter 2026

Some shoots are about showing off flowers. This one was about a feeling, the sense of walking into an old stone house in the fall and finding it already alive.

When the creative team came together for this editorial at The Coach House at Ryland Inn, the goal was never a list of pretty arrangements. It was a countryside fairytale, warm and golden and a little untamed, the kind of room you don't want to leave. Months later it landed in New Jersey Bride for Fall and Winter 2026, and getting to see the work in print alongside this team is the part that still feels good.

Here is the thinking behind it, and what it was like to build it with people who care this much.

An idea built around a room

This one began with an email. Michelle Behre was curating a bridal editorial at The Coach House to open New York Luxury Bridal Market week, and she came to it with a clear feeling in mind: florals and candlelight climbing the fireplace, a single tablescape that felt like the heart of the room, and light that made a statement of its own. She had just come home from Florence, still holding the chiaroscuro of the old masters, and she wanted that same play of candlelight and shadow to carry the whole day. The brief was an atmosphere, not a checklist, which is exactly how we like to begin.

The Coach House gave us everything to work with. Stone, beamed ceilings, chandeliers, and an enormous fireplace that practically asks to be dressed. So instead of filling the space evenly, we built around its bones. The fireplace became the anchor, and everything else followed from there.

The palette was autumn made soft: peach, butter yellow, burgundy, and rust, with dried seedheads and trailing greenery woven through so it read like fall instead of just looking like it. On the table we tucked fig, grape, and pear among candles set at deliberately uneven heights, so the whole thing felt gathered rather than arranged. Garden-grown, with movement, never tightly packed.

The bride before the dressed stone fireplace
The fireplace, dressed and left a little untamed

Letting the flowers climb

The fireplace installation is the piece I keep coming back to. Rather than setting an arrangement politely on the mantel, we let the flowers climb the stone and trail toward the candlelight, asymmetrical on purpose, so it looked like it had grown there on its own.

Nothing matched on purpose. That is usually the difference between a setup and something that feels alive. The bouquet carried the same idea in miniature: loose garden roses and dahlias with a soft ribbon, built to move with the bride rather than sit still in her hands.

The bride beside the dressed stone fireplace The bride's loose garden bouquet with trailing ribbon
"Flowers should look like they belong in the room, not like they were delivered to it."

Working with Michelle Behre

Michelle hosted this shoot and photographed it, and working with her is a large part of why it turned out the way it did. Her eye is editorial and intentional. She photographs for permanence, for albums and wall pieces rather than for a quick scroll, and that mindset changes how a floral designer gets to work.

She thinks about how light falls on an installation, how candlelight reads on camera, how a room frames the people in it. When a photographer understands those things, florals get to be seen the way they were designed. She also curates rather than floods. What you get back is a tight, considered gallery that feels like a published feature, which is exactly what happened here.

The inspiration

Her reference points were not florals at all. Think the chiaroscuro of Titian and Caravaggio, the grandeur of Florentine fashion houses, the natural light of the Uffizi, translated into an abundance of candles, deep shadow, and a stone fireplace dressed like a still life. We built the florals to live inside that light, not in front of it.

The groom before the Coach House stone arches The bride in the floral gown in the garden
Photographed for permanence · Michelle Behre Photography

The whole team

A shoot like this only works when everyone is pulling toward the same feeling. Every gown, every place setting, every linen had to agree with the room. When a team is this aligned, the design stops feeling assembled and starts feeling like a place.

Candlelight carried all the way to the table

Why it made the magazine

I think it earned the feature because it committed to one idea and followed it all the way through, from the fireplace down to the smallest detail on the table. It was not the most flowers we have ever used. It was the most intentional.

That is the thinking behind every Wild Floweress wedding: never a recycled recipe, always a room and a couple-specific answer. This time the room happened to be a stone fairytale in the New Jersey countryside.

The Vendor Team
Host · Photo · Video · Content
@michellebehrephotography
Gentleman's Fashion
@tuxedobysarno
Hair · Makeup · Grooming
@stellafatale · @mjbridalartistry
The candlelit head table at The Coach House
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Wild Floweress Design Co. is a boutique floral and event design studio based in Sparta, NJ, serving couples across New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Wild Floweress Design Co. http://www.wildfloweress.com
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