Rock Whiplash – The Greatest Rock & Roll Wedding Ever!
There’s no doubt in my mind that most of you guys out there have no interest whatsoever in reading about a wedding. However, I ask that you keep reading this post because you may just be interested in reading about mine. See, I didn’t have an ordinary, traditional wedding. Oh no, that’s just not my style. Instead, I had an all out, full blown rock & roll wedding from start to finish. It rocked so hard we blew fuses. Beat that!
First of all, my husband proposed to me on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man cruise in January 2008. Seriously…does it get any more rock & roll than that? From that point on, I was in total wedding mode and the gears in my mind were spinning on how I could make my wedding kick ass. Since he and I are both music fiends and he is the guitarist in the greatest band you’ve never listened to, the only option for our wedding theme was rock & roll all the way.
Usually, it’s the bride who gets crazy and goes overboard trying to find the perfect dress. Not this bride! Instead, it was
the groom who went all out on his outfit. My husband got a one of a kind, custom made jacket made by the legendary Manuel from Nashville, TN. Manuel has made outfits for Gram Parsons, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash and Kid Rock…just to name a few. Needless to say, his jacket was a show stopper and completely stunning. Not as stunning as me, of course!
Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars on fancy shmancy wedding invitations, we decided to get…what else but concert tickets! Yeah, these were real, bonafide concert tickets with the bar code and the shiny seal on the back. To continue with the concert theme, our RSVP’s asked, “Are you on the guest list?” Our guests could then choose, “YES! I’m ready to rock & roll all nite!” or “No, I’m staying Home Sweet Home.” And there was a +1 after their name for their guest. And of course the font used for the RSVP was an AC/DC font. Other rock & roll touches included VIP laminates for our wedding party, custom made guitar picks for wedding favors, and vinyl records incorporated in the centerpieces.
Guests were greeted at the venue and given a “set list” instead of program. Inside the set list, each member of the bridal party was given a special title from lead guitar to sound engineer. As guests were being seated, our good friend, Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, serenaded everyone and played acoustic guitar.
Our musical selection for the entire wedding was crucial and was the only thing my husband and I argued over. We
both had our own ideas and our own suggestions, so it took a lot of compromising before we settled on the perfect play list. The Moms walked down to Love Me Tender by Elvis (my man is a HUGE Elvis freak). The bridal party walked down to Loving Cup by the Rolling Stones. And I walked down the aisle as my big brother played the intro to Tesla’s Love Song on his acoustic guitar. For the recessional, we all walked to Thank You by Led Zeppelin.
The musical overload doesn’t stop there. My husband and I were announced into the reception by our family friend, Rick Catuela – the Rock & Roll Reverend and owner of the Alrosa Villa, as Motley Crue’s Kickstart My Heart blasted. Our first dance was to Johnny Cash’s Rose of My Heart. For the Mother/Son dance, Blackberry Smoke played Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man. And for our cake cutting, we played Cups and Cakes by Spinal Tap. Our cake topper…a miniature replica of Waylon Jennings’ guitar.
We couldn’t have a wedding without having a band play. And since the guys in Blackberry Smoke were there for our proposal, we asked them to play at our wedding. Yes! Blackberry Smoke played at our wedding! They treated our guests to some kick ass southern rock and everyone loved it! There were even people on the band’s message board trying to find the location of our wedding so they could crash it and see them play! We also had Rosie, a well known local band from the 80’s, get up and play a quick set.
We tried to incorporate rock & roll into every aspect of our wedding, including our wedding party. One of the groomsmen, Mark Chatfield, is the guitarst for Bob Seger and was also the guitarist for a band called The Godz. Mark and another groomsman, Ed Means, were also members of Rosie. Our officiant, Mike Nugen, used to play for McGuffy Lane and is currently on tour with Jonalee White playing guitar.
The whole day pretty much kicked ass. It couldn’t have been more perfect and everyone had a blast. Our wedding was totally unique, which made it even more special for everyone, including us. So if you’re planning on getting hitched anytime soon, make sure you go the rock & roll route with your wedding. It’s A LOT more fun.
Make sure you check out my blog for my Cruefest 2 review! Even though Rob Rockitt has way better pictures from Cruefest than I do, you should still read my review…just for entertainment purposes only. 😉
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How come we weren’t all invited to this shindig?
That sounds kick ass!