I’m not really sure if any other words could bring as much joy to me as ‘gold’, ‘neon’ and ‘unicorn’, which is why I pretty much leapt off my chair when I saw them decorating my inbox. Wedding photographer Kris Holland sure does know how to push my buttons! Leilani and Jeremy were married in July. Their ceremony was held outside, in Galena Creek, Reno to be exact, and their DIY reception was in Jeremy’s grandparent’s back garden.
“Having the reception at Grandma and Grandpas and getting married in a park that only costed $65/hour then throwing a killer disco after party at our friend’s bar in downtown Reno saved us a lot of money,” Leilani explained. “Our total venue bill for the entire day was $260…can’t beat that!”
“Our wedding theme was Magical Artsy-fartsy Disco Unicorns!” she continued. “At one point, we were tying ribbons to a pole and one of my little sisters said ‘It looks like a unicorn barfed on it’ and I said ‘Perfect!'”
“The biggest difference was how we split the day. Our ceremony was in the morning, and we had a brunch reception to follow, then everyone went home to rest and chill out before our big dance/ cocktail party that night! This enabled us to keep the ceremony part intimate and mellow for the older folks, and then we could invite as many friends and family as we wanted to get down on the dance floor that night!”
“As for the inspiration, it was important to us that nothing was too ‘stuffy’ or ‘elegant’ because that’s not who we are”, she said. “The processional was London Elektricity’s drum and bass track Just One Second and our recessional was Depeche Mode’s Just Cant Get Enough. Our love is loud, fun, friendly and colorful and we wanted that to reflect in our wedding.”
“When it came to choosing colors, we made sure to choose lots of them, and as close to neon as we could get! And of course, Jeremy is a big fan of unicorns, and claims that I am his unicorn…so those showed up in places as well like the men’s ties and in statues and other décor. We also love to laugh, and enjoy it even more when people join in, so our close friend Derek officiated, with lots of ridiculous comments to get the crowd rolling, and our theatrically talented girlfriend Liz performed an amazing monologue in place of a usual reading. I also planted labels on our water bottles that read ‘Show us your H2O face!'”
“One of my favourite parts of the wedding was that my sister, who is in the army and was sent to Afghanistan three months before the wedding, was able to be there… by the power of technology! It broke my heart that she could not be there in person, but thanks to video chat and smart phones, she was able to watch the whole thing live! That explains why you see an iPad floating around in a lot of photos..,it’s my sister! SHOUT OUT TO THE TROOPS! WE LOVE YOU TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE BRIANA!”
