Liz and Bryan were married at the famous Madonna Inn in California. The day was a beautiful mish-mash of a vintage candy store and a retro tattoo shop. “We really wanted to keep our wedding upbeat and light-hearted”, wrote the bride. “I think the temporary tattoos, candy, giant wood cut outs and photo booth helped create a really fun environment. Halfway through the night the photo booth props became a part of the wedding and we had groomsmen in capes and dresses as the Hulk and Spiderman on the dance floor. It made the pictures hilarious.”
“The inspiration for our wedding came from two places.”, she continued. “First we began visiting a tattoo shop in SLO everytime we drove up the coast to do wedding planning. Bryan got work done on his two sleeves bit by bit and we ended up taking part of our engagement pics in the shop. I got our wedding date tattooed on my wrist during the shoot too. Secondly I’m a painter and love bright candy colors and all things cute and Bryan is a hot rod guy always outside working on his 54 Ford Customline. So our wedding ended up looking like a vintage candy shop that you could get tattooed in! We had ‘candy girls’ instead of flower girls that passed out candy as they walked down the aisle. Our super hero nephew was the ring bearer and wore a black and white striped vest and a black cape. We did not do any traditional dances but we did have my 85 year old Grandma lead all the ladies in the Chicken dance.”
“We splashed out my hiring the Madonna Inn (we went there for our 10 year anniversary and as soon as we walked in I knew we had to get married there!) but really saved money on flowers and decor. I handmade my paper flower ‘bouquet’ using Martha Stewart’s crepe paper flower tutorial. Bryan cut the giant LOVE letters out of plywood and I painted them along with our giant tattoo heart.”
“I’m a creative director so I also designed all the stationery, labels, signs etc. We bought all our vases and glassware at the 99cents store and ordered loads of candy from candywarehouse.com. Doing things yourself saves a TON of money! Also I booked my photographer and DJ at a bridal fair and got a 25% discount for booking that day.”
“My favorite part of the wedding was seeing everyone embrace our style for the day”, Liz concluded. “Even my anti-tattoo grandma had one of the Liz and Bryan tattoos on her chest! Guests all went out of their way to dress in bright colors and have a little fun with their attire. I also loved our ‘guestbook’ which was a HUGE tattoo heart we made out of wood that hung behind us as we said our vows. After the ceremony it was taken down and everyone signed the heart. It now hangs in our house.”
