The Sweet Way Melissa Rivers Honored Her Late Mother Joan Rivers at Her Wyoming Wedding to Steve Mitchel

When Melissa Rivers married attorney Steve Mitchel at the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on March 15, she made sure to honor her late mother Joan Rivers, who died in 2014 at age 81, in a variety of ways:

“My mother’s pin was bobby-pinned into my hair,” Rivers, 55, tells PEOPLE. Rivers and Mitchel recently lost their home in the Palisades Fire on Jan 7, and she says she was so relieved to find that the pin was still intact.

“I thought it had been lost in the fire, but while reviewing the inventory list for the vault at our jewelry company in New York, I realized it was actually there,” she says.

Of the long, diamond floral brooch, she adds, “I hadn’t realized they hadn’t returned it to me yet, and I was devastated when I thought it was gone. We had it shipped out, and it arrived just in time for my wedding. I also wore my mother’s ring that I was able to grab before we evacuated.”

Guests were also invited to honor Joan by wearing a small, golden bee pin that was attached to the napkin at each place setting. The bee held a special meaning in Joan’s heart, because they weren’t built to fly. “Their bodies are too heavy, their wings are too small. Yet they do fly!” read the accompanying note.

“Joan believed we all possess the ability to achieve the impossible, every day.”

Rivers and Mitchel tied the knot in front of 150 friends and family members at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, adding “We love Wyoming,” says Rivers.

“We were originally going to do it at the Hf Bar Ranch, which my family has been going to for 16 years, but it was just too complicated. And because we love skiing, we thought if we’re going to do a destination, let’s do something that the majority of people that we’re with could enjoy and plan their weeks around, so people came early and stayed late to ski.”

She adds, “The theory was if it was a destination, we could keep it to a circle of close friends! And it just worked out.”

While the wedding went off without a hitch, Rivers previously told PEOPLE in 2024 that she’d wished her mom were around to help with planning.

“Oh, she would’ve taken it over, which I miss. I mean, with my first one, I was just like, ‘When do I show up?” Rivers said, nodding to her first marriage in New York in 1998 to John Endicott, with whom she split in 2003, and shares son Cooper, 24.

“She would be like, do you want this or this? And she’d make sure that she was very clear about which one was the right choice, but that she could live with it if I chose the other.”

“But I think she would be slightly horrified because we were taking a much more casual route,” Rivers said of her recent wedding to Mitchel. “No heavy card stock with high calligraphy, like ‘Mrs. Edgar Rosenberg invites you to the wedding of her daughter. ‘ No, it is definitely a more, ‘Hi, we’re having a party and a ceremony is going to break out at one point.'”

She continued, “But my mom threw the best parties. She loved a tablescape. She loved China. She loved the little special touches. Everything had a little something extra at her events. If people were getting little cookies to take home, the ribbon would have a little something special to it. You know what I mean? Everything was precise and perfect, and she loved doing that.”

However, she has no regrets about keeping this event more lowkey.

“You know what? We nailed it,” she says. “People were meeting, laughing, and by the end of the night, strangers were acting like old friends. Who knew almost all of them could be on such good behavior all at the same!”

As for what Rivers misses most about her mom, she told PEOPLE last year, “I just miss laughing with her. I miss the inside jokes. I miss the common history. I miss being able to pick up the phone or her pick up the phone and go, ‘can you believe so-and-so did this,’ and having her know exactly what I was talking about.”