Chanel and Dan’s Cincinnati wedding was held at The Redmoor, an Art Deco landmark that has been entertaining guests with its rich setting and unmistakable ambience since the 1920s! It’s history as an avant-garde theatre really appealed to the couple and suited the Rock n Roll theme that they had planned.
“Our wedding theme was Rock n Roll meets Woodstock”, said the bride. “We wanted the wedding to be different. We didn’t want it to be the same as every wedding we had gone to in the past couple years. We wanted it to be a huge celebration with no sit down dinner and no waiting on the bridal party, just down right fun!”
“I think we did a couple things that made our wedding stand out. We had our ceremony in an old fashion movie theatre and our flower girl went down the isle in a motorised Volkswagon van! Our ring bearer had a band t shirt on and fake tattoo sleeves and myself and my bridesmaids all wore leather jackets.”
They wanted to skip as many traditions as they could and to only have things that suited their music-lead theme. “The groomsmen put on band t-shirts for the reception and our guest book was a guitar case”, she explained. “Our invitations were made to look like tickets to a rock show and our guests had a ticket stub to mail back for their RSVP. Our centrepieces (made by my mum) were made out of cassette tapes. She also bought Rock n Roll Hall of Fame post cards as thank you cards to mail out after the wedding. Finally, the sign outside the venue said ’til death do us party’.”
The highlight of the day for Chanel was the ceremony. “Our parents walked in to Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, my bridal party walked in to In My Life, also by The Beatles, and then the music stopped for our flower girl to ride in on her motorised Volkswagon van. It gave her some trouble and she ended up crashing into one of the handrails but safely made it to the end of the aisle! Then I walked down with my grandfather and godfather to I Want to Hold Your Hand. Walking down the aisle was the first time I had taken a second to breathe the whole day and it was the time I felt most calm because it was finally happening. Dan said seeing me was one of the best moments of his life and he will always remember and cherish it.”
Having nearly 200 guests and an open bar meant they spent the most of their $20,000 budget on food and drink, but they saved on all the DIY projects. “My mum did the centrepieces, my uncle did the flowers, a close friend sis the invitations and we had donuts instead of a large cake.”
“We were told over and over again to take it all in, that the day just flies by”, she concluded, “We didn’t really believe anyone until the day came and now OUR advice is to try and take in the whole day! Also, get some rest, because by the time your guests arrive they are ready to party even though you’ve been running since 6am!”
