A VINTAGE CHOPPER WEDDING

Thats right. A vintage motorcycle wedding.

But not a tuxedo shirt, leather chaps type of moto wedding. A vintage inspired, glamtastic, old school choppers meets atomic era Las Vegas, pin-up type of wedding.

What the shit? Okay, I’ll post some photos with really lame captions and links to all the stuff I D.I.Y.’d so you can do it yourself too.

The Neon Museum

My love for everything vintage and glam made this the obvious choice for our ceremony. The Neon Boneyard Park was cute with lots of desert plants nicely manicured. Don’t be confused as my husband was. The park has no signs in it. Its just a pavilion, a “stage” area and some plants. The minister (the museums preferred officiant) was a motorcycle enthusiast himself so it made  for lots of humorous motorcycle talk and comparisons. It was lighthearted and exactly what we wanted.

Blah blah blah

The ceremony only took about 20 minutes *perfect!* and then it was picture time. My favorite, obviously.

The wedding party walked over to the Neon Boneyard to take photos and boy, the website does no justice. These signs are incredible. Its is really dusty, which they disclose on the website, but is not bad if you can handle your clothing and shoes properly. I would suggest bringing a terrycloth towel to wipe shoes clean before and during photos.

There is a fee to shoot in the boneyard that is not including the photographer and is not included in the ceremony price. It is an add-on. But a must have add-on.

We spent about 30-40 minutes in the boneyard before the host let us know our time was up. He gave a tiny congratulation speech and handed us a gift bag. Inside the gift bag was a bottle of champagne, two glasses, two shirts, and two specialty cookies. The cookies were amazing btw.

Next stop: Booze and food

Cozy’s Tavern

We made a pit stop between the ceremony and the reception to rendezvous with the rest of the group. The bar was kind enough to give us drink specials for our wedding day. $1 PBR bottles (my favorite beer AND vegan friendly!), $4 Jameson’s and a $50 bar tab for myself and the groom. RADICAL.

The parentals brought finger sandwiches so no one would die of hunger on the way to Arizona. Beer and sammies. That’s a perfect after wedding snack if I’ve ever seen one.

The ride photographer and assistant started shooting some candids which turned out great. Some of the best photos we got were from this part of the day.

After a couple of beers and a shot or two, we all loaded up to head to Bullhead City, AZ.

The ride

Aside from the actual marrying to my partner, this was my favorite part of the day. Some friends headed out in cars, the rest of us on motorcycles.

I’ll be honest here. My plan all along was to ride two separate bikes so I could ride on my own. The powers that be had different plans.

The sportster was the only bike that wanted to run on the wedding day. OK. Well thats fine, I’ll ride b*tch.

I was bummed. Like really bummed. After the ride I realized that perhaps I was supposed to ride with hubby this time. It was beautiful.

We left Las Vegas in a group of about a dozen, perhaps a bit more. I wasn’t deathly hot yet thankfully. The groomsmen were all wearing long sleeve button-ups. But man did they look good on those bikes!! Aside from the engagement party we had at Frankies Tiki Room, it was the first time I saw any of them dressed up.

The ladies looked great as well but only one bridesmaid rode a motorcycle and of course she needed to change before the ride. Floor length gowns aren’t exactly riding gear. Unless you’re me that is, haha. Don’t do that though.

We stopped part way to Arizona to do group photos in a dry lake bed. The ride photos came out great and the photographer was really awesome.

Coming into Laughlin, we hit the first stop light. Every one of the riders was laughing and having a great time. That last part of the road into Laughlin is windy and curvy and pretty much a ton of fun.  I was so happy to see that everyone enjoyed the ride a much as I did.

Jesters Bar

Yep, one bar to another bar. It’s who we are as people I guess.

Jesters was kind enough to give us the patio area and block off the door. We had tacos catered and they cooked it all right there on the patio. Tacos, beans and rice, and Mexican cookies. I didn’t eat any of the tacos but everyone said they were amazing.

Drinks, drinks and more drinks.

Everyone met up at Bikinis in Laughlin after for more partying but I snuck away with my husband to a tiny little casino to have a few drinks and catch up after a very long day. We happily stayed up together until the sun came up, ignoring our phones and sharing different stories about the day.

Mr. and Mrs. Escobar

It really was a very stress free exciting wedding. Im so glad that we opted to forego the formal dinner reception in the casino.

I think the laid back nature helped everyone else stay relaxed and just have a great time. No worrying about if things were done “right” or on-time or if I was going to lose my shit, which I didn’t.

Truth be told though, I’m glad its over. There was a lot of stress leading up to the wedding. Now to stress about other life things like opening a business.