Matthew Atkinson and Brytnee Ratledge are husband and wife!
The Bold and the Beautiful actor, 34, spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about his “fairytale” fall wedding with his actress wife, after the pair said “I do” in an intimate ceremony in Lake Tahoe last month.
Atkinson described the 50- guest ceremony, which took place on Nov. 8 at Tahoe Blue Estate as, “a dream come true, spiritual, intimate, magical, and altogether lovely.”
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“We’ve been to Tahoe before while camping up and down Highway 395. It was the first venue we visited after a short search,” he tells PEOPLE. “It seemed like God told both of us it was the right place.”
“We didn’t want to see each other until she walked down the aisle,” Atkinson says of the wedding nuptials. “We did a first touch that included a prayer for the ceremony, and then during the ceremony we stepped away for our first prayer united, with all our friends and family praying over us.”
The actor and Ratledge recited handwritten vows during the nuptials and “lucked out with a great sunset” on the day of the ceremony, after a “beautiful” snowfall during their wedding rehearsal, which Atkinson posted a clip of on Instagram last month.
The fall-themed “I do’s” included a buffet-style barbecue and a s’mores cake. Wedding guests joined the couple in a “three-day party” as they celebrated their love. “It was important to Brytnee and me for it to be a small, intimate gathering to celebrate our beloved union with all our closest friends and family,” Atkinson says.
“We had our dinner at a pub where we could play corn hole and other games,” he adds. “Fortunately we were able to stay with some of our closest friends and the whole week was like a friends’ vacation trip.”
Atkinson says that his first dance with Ratledge as a married couple, to the song “Fall on Me” by Needtobreathe, is one of his favorite memories from the wedding along with “seeing each other while she walked down the aisle and both prayers we had together.”
Atkinson got engaged to Ratledge on June 5. The pair initially met in a local gym, Atkinson tells PEOPLE. “Then years later when we were both single I slid into her DM’s,” he added.
And the rest…as they say…is history!