Real NJ Wedding: Ellen & Daniel Adshead at The Art Factory

Our goal was to have a party with a little wedding mixed in. We loved that we were able to celebrate with all our favorite people, especially after the past year.

In 2018, Dan lost both his mother and aunt, so it was important to honor their memories and incorporate them into the big day. They loved traveling to Hawaii, so Dan ordered live leis to be draped on the seats they would have sat in, and had memory signs made with their photos. Dan also had a pin custom made with their photos that he wore on his jacket lapel. His mom and aunt were HUGE Elvis fans, so as a surprise for the groom, I hired an Elvis impersonator to perform during the reception. It wouldn’t have been a rock and roll wedding without The King!

Without knowing that I had my own surprise in store, Dan worked with our friend, singer/songwriter Rayen Belchere, to write and record an
original song for me- “You Kissed Me First”. The song was the story of our relationship, including our favorite music artists, the names of our cats, and getting engaged in front of “The Bean” in Chicago

My sister-in-law became ordained to officiate the ceremony and we wrote our own vows.

The dinner buffet with stations based on states/cities important to us-New Jersey station had grilled cheese sandwiches (which was what we ate on our first date), the Chicago station featured deep dish pizza (location of where we got engaged).

I designed signage for the dinner stations, the dessert table (which featured song lyrics-DMB and James Taylor), memory table (another song lyric was featured here-Modest Mouse), etc.. The dessert station also featured candy apples from a local baker.

We used sustainable sola wood flowers that were painted to match the wedding colors. The bridesmaids carried hoops in lieu of traditional bouquets.

We had a custom neon sign to be displayed behind the swing in the reception space.

My “something blue” was my veil and my paternal grandmother’s restored engagement ring from the 1930’s was my something old

We hired a caricature artist for guests to get pictures drawn during cocktail hour/reception-inspired by a caricature we had done while attending a Baltimore Orioles game.

We hired a graphic artist to create save the date inspired by the many concert posters hanging in our home, which featured “hidden” images
reflecting some of shared loves

The “table numbers” were miniature versions of posters that we have attended over the years and were placed on old 45s;

We served two cookies cakes with cake toppers that were custom made Funko Pops modeled to look like us.

One of my bridesmaids painted a canvas with lyrics from Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (the song I walked down the aisle to. It was also by the groom’s late mother and aunt’s favorite musical artist). Another bridesmaid made a cross-stitch featuring a lyric from Notorious B.I.G’s “Juicy,” (the wedding invitation featured a photo of us in front of graffiti art of “It was all a Dream” in Philadelphia). The wedding invitation itself was designed to look like
a record album.

Our entrance into the reception was to “The Game” by Motorhead, and featured smoke and fireworks, with Dan wearing a homemade “battle
vest”. I wore a denim jacket embroidered with pearls.

We curated a cocktail hour playlist composed of cover versions of some of our favorite songs.

We hired our hometown coffee shop to serve coffee, hot chocolate, and cider during the reception.

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