Marry Me Ink’s tattooed bride Erica and groom Adam met in a record store – How cool? (Erica says Adam loves telling everyone that!) Today I get to share with you their wedding that took place in their back yard and was photographed by the wonderful V+T Photography. Erica decided buy a dress that was going to show off her tattoos, despite conflicting opinions. I think she made a great choice.
My Mom is pretty traditional, and hates tattoos. She was trying to get me to have them removed before the wedding and told me “they’ll ruin all your photos! You don’t want that!” It was obviously really horribly and upsetting and not a great way to start planning your wedding, but I didn’t listen, because that would be stupid and she was wrong, and started looking for a dress. The only thing that really mattered was that the dress didn’t lay in such a way that they look really weird. So things like lace tops where out. I’d rather them be all there or not at all. The dress I designed and made was so open and airy, we only made one adjustment to the placement of an ornamental strip of ribbon on the back so it would frame one tattoo rather than cut across it and that was the full extent of my dress V. my tattoos.
I worked really hard to put the both of us into everything. The blue color we chose was based off of his favorite guitar color, I call him my bunny and we have a special “super bunny kiss” so we used bunnies in everything as well. Our invitations and the branding I used across everything was based off little parts of each of us, like our astrological signs, habits, symbols we strongly identify with, etc. I also design a lot of posters and t-shirts for bands, while he is in a band and is also a record collector so we had a merch station set up. The favor we gave out was a 7” he wrote and recorded and I designed the cover to be like his favorite Ramone’s record cover, we also took “band photos” to reflect some the Ramones had done. Really it was everywhere. We wanted to have it really be about us and be really intimate. Like “Hey! We’re super big nerds and look at how ridiculous we got into this?” was pretty much in every inch.
Everything was DIY. Literally everything, except maybe the desserts because I did order those from a small local shop I loved. But man, everything was DIY. Everything printed I designed and oversaw the production of, I bought yards of fabric in the colors and material I wanted and made all the ribbons, my friends who are also illustrators helped me with the signage (and did a better job that I could have actually) and we did the fake band shirts together. The morning of we all went out and started decorating. All the table settings were custom painted to reflect the colors we were using. It was so much work it really because less than fun due to the sheer amount of it and I was doing it mostly on my own. But I think watching my friends do the signs and then designing the cover of the invitations were my favorite parts. Those felt the most relaxing and fun.
The day was so chaotic to begin with being as it was all DIY and I was doing the majority of everything planning and decor wise, so I think when we finally got back from the pre-ceremony photoshoot and I was waiting to walk down the isle and got that second to breathe for the first time I was really excited and like “now I get to enjoy this.” Thirty seconds later I’m walking up to Adam and I can’t stop giggling because it was finally real and I was doing this weird getting married thing with him. He just looked so handsome and happy and all the stress had fallen away right then. For the rest of the ceremony I didn’t really notice what was happening or think about anything else, I was just really happy and so excited. Although having my maid of honor crying after the ceremony because we included our cats and an overlord of darkness into our vows was pretty great as well.
Don’t listen to the crap that anyone might give you about your tattoos – They are stupid and narrow-minded and you can’t let them get you down about it on a day that is supposed to be special (or ever for that matter). So ignore them and do it the way you want, and the way that has meaning to you.
Also, if you do a bunch of DIY totally try to spread it out over a long period of time and get things finished slowly rather than waiting till close to the wedding. Oh, and brides, I totally stand behind my decision to go to a salon for hair and makeup instead of doing it myself. It was a nice break to setting things up before the wedding and it honestly saved me from stress crying. Plus my hair looked WAY better than I could have done it myself. So salons are totally worth it.
How amazing is Erica and Adam’s back yard wedding? My favourite thing is their wedding day band t-shirts – They’re so cool! Thank you to them both and to V+T Photography for sharing their wedding with Marry Me Ink today!
Photographer: V+ T Photography
Ceremony & Reception: Our backyard
Dress designer: Myself, made by Another Emily
Suit/attire: A mixture
Bridesmaids dresses: They found their dresses on their own.
Groomsmen: They dressed themselves
Flowers: Bachmann’s
Hair & Make up: Mezzanine Salon
Cake: Truffles and Tortes
China Hire: Vintage Soiree
