Bonnie and Roy they were inspired by their love of all things vintage and Coney Island for their wedding. The theme was a 1920s carnival. They wanted their wedding to be unique and magical and decided to hold it at a camp with their guests staying in cabins for the weekend.
“Our ceremony started out with a red velvet curtain a-top a bluff over looking the Long Island Sound”, said Bonnie. “While guests wondered what was about to happen, a jazzy, circus mix led the wedding party down the aisle. Once everyone was lined up on either side of the curtain, our best friend and officiant, Gerard, stepped out from behind the curtain with a large top hat and velvet jacket. He announced us like a duo performance, as we climbed down fire escape and then walked up the aisle together. After some funny words from Gerard and our own written vows to each other, we walked down the aisle as guests threw carnival tickets over us instead of rice.”
“We had planned a really unique fabricated circus tent to cover the reception area and we even did a dry run of it before the wedding. However when we went to erect it the day before, it didn’t work out so well. So at the last minute we decided to ditch the tent and create a more outdoor feel with hanging string lights to form the shape of a tent. In the end it was even better than having the tent anyway as it seemed more like an authentic vintage carnival.”
“Everything was DIY!”, she continued. “We painted, built and crafted most things with the help of some of our very patient friends. This included the bar, the stage, the photo-op cut out, the red velvet curtain, dessert cart, the cocktail tables and ceremony benches.”
“We spent three years planning and DIY-ing so all the preparation was probably our biggest expense, in the fact that it took up a lot of our time. We saved money everywhere we could. But our biggest saving was on our venue, which cost a fraction of what wedding venues and catering halls cost.”
“Aside from us marrying each other, our favourite part of the wedding was watching the various reactions of our guests while Adam Realman was swallowing swords. Some were hiding behind there hands, while others cheered him on.”
“The best thing about planning our wedding was just having fun with it. We could literally do anything we wanted; if we imagined it, we tried to make it a reality. However, we wish we knew how much work a DIY wedding would actual entail on the day. Roy ended up only having 10 minutes to get ready before the ceremony started! In retrospect, we would have done the same theme but on a smaller scale!”
“Our advice for future brides and grooms is if you have ideas, no matter how ‘crazy’, go with it! Let your imagination run wild to make the day truly unique to you. Remember to delegate, delegate, delegate! Make sure to utilise your friends and families where you can and don’t try to do all the work yourselves!”
