If you had attended Stephanie and Jerred’s late summer wedding, chances are good you would have gotten to know Mario, Luigi, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Princess Zelda pretty well.
That’s because the couple fully incorporated their love of video games into their wedding, from the invitations to the cake and everything in between.
“We really wanted something that would represent us, and one of the things that is a great love of both of ours is video games,” Steph recalls. “I always really think video games was why we got together—he was really into video games and our first date was playing Guitar Hero at his house.” Their love of video games continued throughout their relationship, and she says that it’s still something that they do every day together.
The video game theme began with the invitations, as the couple did not want invitations that looked like everyone elses. Steph says that they came up with the idea of using old Sega Genesis video games for their invitations. They purchased old game cartridges from Dimple Records—a friend of the couple designed artwork to go on the game’s box, while Steph designed artwork to go on the game cartridge. “The actual invitation portion looks like a video game manual with all of the information on it,” she explains. And they magnetized the game cartridge so that invitees could place the “save the date” on their refrigerator.
Steph says that reaction to the invitations went so well that it fueled their efforts to continue the video game theme throughout the wedding. For instance, each table at the reception was a different video game theme, such as Super Mario, Sonic and Game of Hearts. Wedding favors included video game characters that Steph made by using perler beads (small beads you use an iron to stick together). The bride also used the perler beads to make “fire flowers” from the Mario games for the groom’s and the best man’s boutonniéres.
And, the cake was even video game themed—the top tier of the three-tier cake was decorated as the “companion cube” from the video game Portal. “So many people were impressed by that cake,” Steph says.
The bride says that their wedding was a lot of fun to put together since they were both involved in the planning. “It was definitely 50/50 with putting everything together (except for the dress, of course), and a lot of it had to do with the fact that we’re just both so passionate about video games,” she explains.
Looking back, Steph says that there’s nothing she really would have changed about the day because although you may worry about the little things leading up to it, on the actual “day” it doesn’t matter as much. “All of those little things that you think are going to break the day, they really don’t,” she adds.
And as for those planning their own weddings right now, Steph highly recommends putting a personal spin on your wedding like they did.
“ It’s really your day and you want to make it unique. It’s always important to try to put some really personal touches—try to find something that really fits in your heart or really means something to you as a couple and try to incorporate it somewhere in your wedding.”
The bride continues, “I think that’s the best thing that you can do because it’s your day—why not make it who you are.”
