Getting married should be easy: two rings, vows, and some champagne. Simple, right?
Sadly, for most couples, the opposite is usually true. A wedding can be the greatest night in a young couple’s life, but it can also be a stressful nightmare if not managed properly.
Enter Bretta Thompson: a mother of five, grandmother of seven , and wife of 25 years. She is the owner of Just the Two of Us Wedding Services, an Indianapolis-based wedding planning, coordination, and officiant company. It’s fair to say that over the years she has learned to roll with the punches and find the silver lining in any situation.
If you talk to her today, it may seem like she has been doing weddings her whole career, but Thompson’s journey did not begin in the wedding industry. She started out as a materials manager for an industrial parts company. There, she learned purchasing, managing and customer service skills.
In 2009 Thompson became a school bus driver for Center Grove schools. After a few years she decided to take on something new. She began working as a limo driver for a wedding venue. This was her first taste of the wedding industry, and it left a lasting effect that still motivates her to this day.
“I absolutely love watching a couple’s day be built from the ground up,” she says. “I love watching it come together.”
In 2012 Thompson took a leap of faith and started Just the Two of Us Wedding Services. It was initially intended to be a part-time job while she continued to drive buses. In the beginning she was on her own, and handled everything from sales to client management and even social media marketing.
“When I went into this, I had no one to turn to,” she says. “I didn’t know anybody in the wedding industry, aside from the venue for whom I drove a limo. Everything that I learned was really self-taught.”
Since 2012, Just the Two of Us has been a rising star in the Indianapolis wedding market. What began as a one-woman operation has expanded to include 10-plus fully licensed officiants, two additional wedding planners/coordinators, and a network of trusted vendors all across the city.
With everything from wedding planning, coordination, officiating and even elopement services, the company handles whatever a couple needs to make their big day a success. The goal is always the same – to make each wedding as stress-free, beautiful and fun as possible.
To date, Thompson and her team have helped over 8,000 happy couples realize their wedding dreams.
Reflecting on the company’s remarkable success, Thompson says “it has gone above and beyond my wildest expectations.”
The team accepts nuptial requests of all kinds, and will do its best to help every couple have a smooth and enjoyable marital process.
While the business continues to grow and evolve, Thompson maintains her commitment to never losing the quality she began with. Even as her role becomes more managerial, she is still hands-on with every client, taking pride in the personal connection she has with the couple.
“I got into this because I absolutely loved watching all of this come together,” she says. “I love watching that couple have their best day ever and it’s awesome to be a part of that.”
Never one to sit still, Thompson is always looking towards the future. Beginning in January 2025, Thompson will acquire a local business that provides transportation to and from events. This acquisition will allow Just the Two of Us to expand its offerings further and make its customers’ experiences even more seamless.
As the wedding industry continues to get more complicated and stressful, one thing is certain; Bretta Thompson and the team at Just the Two of Us will provide each couple an unforgettable experience and memories to last a lifetime.
