Rock n Roll Las Vegas Elopement with a Discount Universe Dress & a Ring Bear-er!

Ashley Marie Myers

May 2, 2019

A lot of weddings follow the same format… Even non-traditional weddings can end up looking quite similar. But I think we can safely say that Pati and Francesco (aka Salsa and Disco Jesus – yes, really!) completely tore up the rule book for their Vegas elopement! Apart from the ceremony, where they were married by Elvis (arguably one of the biggest Vegas traditions there is!), everything else was one-of-a-kind and completely and utterly them.

Starting with their outfits. The bride’s dress came from Discount Universe and she wore it with United Nude shoes. They both had custom panted jackets by Bobby Coyote. “Our outfits were definitely unique because they were custom made!” said Pati. “We brainstormed them ourselves based on our lifestyle and weird interests. We have this whole thing about aliens… He proposed on the Burning Man Playa in 2018 with a beautiful UFO-shaped ring (it even spins!) so we really wanted our jackets to be about us and our story. We brainstormed the designs in this moodboard that we put together and sent to super talented LA artist Bobby Coyote. She really worked her magic and painted them for us! In typical Disco Jesus fashion, Francesco wasn’t even wearing a shirt underneath!”

The Romanian bride and Italian groom were inspired by one of the most iconic Vegas weddings that Rock n Roll Bride has ever published. “It’s crazy to think about it now (knowing that we’re being featured in Rock n Roll Bride too), but it was actually a Rock n Roll Bride blog post that inspired us”, said the bride. “I saw this elopement on the blog even before I had met Francesco. I remember thinking, ‘Man, these guys are so fucking cool!’ We never thought we’d end up getting married in Vegas, because it’s not really our type of place, generally speaking… But the way we did it was perfect! Our bigger wedding celebration (with our families and all our friends) is going to take place in Europe in 2020.”

Although they had a quite typical Vegas ceremony, they still wanted to make it weird and wonderful – just like them! “The thing that made our ceremony unique was definitely our ring BEAR-er!” she laughed. “This wasn’t even our idea. The day before our friend Brendon asked us what he should wear. He said. ‘I brought several things but I was thinking I could wear this bear onesie I have and be the ring BEAR-er!.. get it?!’ Of course we loved the idea straight away and told him to wear that!”

“This was our legal ceremony and we’re so happy we decided to do it this way. We wanted to elope to Vegas, just the two of us, and to really make it about being careless and doing whatever we wanted, being free and having fun. We also didn’t want to stress out any of our friends or family with our wedding (we’re both from different countries and now live in California so we knew there would be a lot of travelling for people). However, that didn’t quite work out because our six best friends from San Diego decided to crash our wedding and showed up in Vegas the night before dressed up as space cowboys! We can’t even explain how happy we are that they did! It was one of the most fun weekends of our lives and we wouldn’t have it any other way!”

“The ceremony took place at Graceland Chapel, where Disco was taken down the aisle by Elvis, while my friends Brigette and Phil carried me in a human throne they made out of their arms. This was all improvised in the moment – we had not planned anything before! After the ceremony, we opened a bottle of champagne and celebrated with our friends, then moved on to a couple of different areas of Vegas to take pictures with our photographer. Once we were done with pictures, we got back to our hotel room at The Venetian, where our friends were waiting for us with infinite amounts of booze!”

So, do this cooler than cool couple have any wisdom to impart on other brides and grooms-to-be? You betya! “Be yourselves! Do something that’s unapologetically YOU, whether it’s big or small… Then do another thing that’s for your families and for your guests. From our experience, it’s impossible to please everyone at the same time, but it’s important to remember this is a celebration of YOUR love, so remember to honour your love and your uniqueness!”

Suppliers