I’ve already gushed about Automne and Graham, and since her pictures say it all, the only thing I asked her was why music is important to them and how did they incorporate it into their magical wedding. And now, I am stoked to present you their wonderful day…and introduce you to a fabulous couple.

It’s hard to even imagine our life without a good soundtrack. Music is such a part of our personalities that we often take it for granted. It’s kind of ridiculous that we have more records than kitchen utensils and more musical instruments than furniture. We don’t question it, though. It’s just who we are.

As for the wedding, we didn’t go out of our way to have a music-orientated wedding or anything. It just ended up that way because of our personalities, our friends, and our histories together. We didn’t care about centerpieces, decorations, what the color scheme was or any of that other stuff – not because we we’re being rebellious – but because it seemed wasteful and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  Instead, we focused on making a beautiful wedding about our love for each other.

We wrote our own vows and worked with a good friend on creating the perfect ceremony that was 100% us. Instead of crappy wedding favors, we wanted to make something meaningful for each guest and decided to do a zine that celebrated us, our communities, and our families. The front cover was inspired by the movie, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. I used my Photoshop mastery to put the heads of all the people involved in our wedding party over the characters’ faces. The inside of the zine contained  information about the members of our bridal party, our marriage manifesto, and the lyrics to “The Birds In Your Garden” so members of the audience could sing along. (More on that later.) It also contained the RSVP self portraits, images of all the guests, and a mix cd that Graham and I made full of our favorite love songs. The last song on the cd is actually a song I wrote about falling for Graham. We fell in love during a spin-the-bottle game. Awwww.

Because we spent so much time on the zine/cd, we didn’t really do anything else. We couldn’t afford fancy flowers so I sewed a bunch on my wedding dress. People can call it a tacky monstrosity all they want (and they have). Whatever. Not all brides want to look elegant and I loved walking around like a crazy French garden. If you can’t wear an elaborate dress made out of flowers on your wedding day, then when can you wear it?

We also couldn’t afford a big ol’ cake so we bought a bunch of vegan cupcakes. To dress them up a bit, I decided to print out 120 tiny little album covers that have been meaningful to Graham and I, glue them on popsicle sticks, and put them in each cupcake. We didn’t want to spend $40 (are you friggen kidding me, bakery supply place???!!!) on a cardboard cupcake stand so Graham made one out of records. I’m pretty sure they were the same records we posed on for our engagement photos. We wanted to put the whole thing on an old fashioned turntable but it kept tipping over. It’s too bad. It would have looked really cool.

Our officiant was a dear friend that we used to be in a Ramones cover band with and most of the bridal party (as well as the guests) were musicians. Instead of having a dated and incredibly sexist bachelor/bachelorette party, my old band played a show the night before. Everybody thought I was crazy to do it (I was) but it was so touching to have all of our guests and family there to see us play. The only downside was I looked like I hadn’t slept for six months in all of our wedding pictures. Rock ‘n’ roll can really age a girl. So can weddings.

As for our actual wedding day, it was totally a cheesy musical. My good friend brought her guitar to our suite and we sung old Cure songs to calm our nerves. While we were in our own little Cure-sing-along-fancy-land, the friend that introduced Graham and I played the cello for the guests as they arrived. When she was finished, my father, brother, and our wedding procession performed and sung “The Birds In Your Garden” by PULP. It’s kind of a sexy song and I was little worried about the parental reaction. I had this funny moment with my Dad where he was like, “I don’t mind playing the guitar but I’m pretty uncomfortable with singing “touch her inside.” I assured him that he didn’t have to sing anything. Anyway, I had no idea how it was going to sound because the rehearsal for it was a hot mess. It came together beautifully in the end. When Graham and I were waiting to walk down the aisle – watching everyone sing our song – I can’t even articulate how moved we were. The groomsmen even handed out little bird whistles for the guests to play. It was probably one of the most touching moments of my life. Jarvis Cocker totally would have cried.

Another touching moment was when my brother and father serenaded us with The Beatles “In My Life.” The two of them are musicians and their harmonies were perfection.

The rest of the ceremony had a lot of music references (even an impromptu Patti Smith Bruce Springsteen sing-a-long.) You guys totally know the words to that song.

The reception was no different. Both Graham and I are DJ’s but we didn’t want to DJ our own wedding. Instead, we asked another DJ friend if he would do it. He agreed and the soundtrack was perfect. You can view his playlist here. It was a dance party the entire night. I even made people dance for the bouquet. The best part, though, was watching our parents bust-a-move to Joy Division and The Clash. Priceless, man.

Finally, there was the shopping cart ride to rock ‘n’ roll cupcake land. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with music. One of the most romantic nights Graham and I ever had took place at a Buzzcocks show in San Francisco. We were a couple of drunk punks at the time and my shoes hurt. Graham (always the gentlemen) tamed a stray shopping cart and pushed me home. We were full of Jagermeister and I kept falling into the street. Anyway, both of us mentioned this in our vows and my dear friends took note. They found a shopping cart outside and brought it to Graham. The rest is rock ‘n’ roll cupcake land history.

Stunning Imagery by:
Jason Fritz
Desiree Pfeiffer
Anthony Georgis
Brooke Farrington
Aimee Shapiro