Ay karumba! It’s not every day that you see a Simpsons themed wedding, but when Helen and Peege realised that Bart Simpson had been a part of their bedtime routine for the last decade, it seemed the obvious choice! “Peege can’t fall asleep without something unchallenging on TV,” Helen explained, “and The Simpsons is the only thing we agree on! The theme speaks for itself, really – we wanted a day that was fun, unpretentious and included zero faff!”
Helen wore a Pixie Pocket dress with kitsch AF Shoe Bakery wedges and Simpsons earrings from Doodad and Fandango. They incorporated more Simpsons moments in their day with the bride DIYing all the stationery and signage with as many puns as she could muster. “If anyone killed the DIY though, it was my bridesmaid Lollie – she made her own outfit, my veil and both flower girl dresses! I loved coming up with kooky references to suit our theme, but the best thing was the freedom to fantasise through a really difficult point in human history. When we were stuck in lockdown it gave us something to focus on.”
Their ceremony was held at Loyal Hope of the Valley in Brisbane, and they moved onto Golden Palace Chinese Restaurant for their reception after. “We’d spent six months co-ordinating with the events manager at a local bar, Holy Moly, to go and get photos taken on their Simpsons couch, but by the time we’d coralled all the relatives on both sides to get photos at the ceremony we were an hour late and he’d left! We had to negotiate with the bouncer to let us in as none of us had ID, but we had a great time copping looks from confused well-wishes playing crazy golf.”
Led by a friend of the groom, the ceremony was a riot from beginning to end. “It was arguably the point of the wedding that I had thought least about,” Helen continued,” since I was focused on the leasing, the planning and the practical logistics I barely got time to write my vows, which was even more obvious when Peege got up with pages of heartfelt anecdotes that made us all cry. He also conspired with the best man to pull off a totally left-field Simpsons gag that left us all howling. Our dads both made memorable speeches – mine, a poem he had written himself; Peege’s – a testicles joke (tell me about it) Our friend the ring bearer clowned about with the rings and the flower girls instead of throwing petals, tossed the whole basket. My uncle said he had never laughed so hard at a wedding, which we loved!”
With a guest list of 100, the couples’ biggest expense was their catering, but they were blessed with generosity of the gifts of services from talented family and friends which helped keep costs down. “I went really budget on my dress as I couldn’t bring myself to spend thousands on a one-time ensemble when those resources could go to something else special that everyone could share.”
“Hire – and I cannot stress this enough – an on the day co-ordinator,” Helen advises future couples. “Daniele at Til Death Events made global pandemic wedding planning look easy, and even with all the tumult, she still had the behind the scenes sewn up. The whole event ran flawlessly and I didn’t have to do anything but sit back and enjoy my own genius for hiring her. Also, make sure you relinquish enough of the control of some details to allow yourself some surprises on the day. In the end, the things about our wedding that I had nothing to do with – the hen night, the cake, the flowers etc – ended up being my favourite parts. Trust your crew and don’t sweat the small stuff!”
