Darcy's Superhero Wedding: April 2012

The How and Why?

So how and why did I come up with doing a Superhero theme wedding you say? Well first off I'm a big superhero/comic buff. Started reading X-men as a kid then just within the last few years got back into reading comics. Man they have changed so much. And I think for the better. There was that and watching all 10 years of Smallville faithfully every week. (Supes is my fav). I also remember watching and being inspired by the couple attempts at weddings on Smallville, one with Chloe/Jimmy and one with Lois Lane/Clark during the finale, and thinking "how cool is that?" to have superheroes at your wedding. I googled superhero weddings and saw that a few had been done, but not the way I had it pictured.

So it began. I kept it to myself at first. Thinking Bob would surely think I was crazy. Sure I made him dress up like Nite Owl for Halloween but a wedding like this to most folks is kinda different. I started a wedding journal. First coming up with the characters that my fiancée and I would be. For me it would be easy we've been dressing up like superheroes for years. I just had to narrow it down to who we should be this time. I also wanted the characters we were to portray to have romantic backgrounds themselves. While dreaming up my ideal wedding scenario Green Lantern the movie was just coming out, and I had just finished reading the Green Lantern Blackest night comic series. So already having GL on my brain I thought Bob would make a good Green Lantern Hal Jordan and I could be Star Sapphire, who represented "Love". Awwww perfect! They had a romantic history albeit a tumultuous one. And hey, Bob and I have certainly had our ups and downs during our 15 year engagement. Yes, 15 year engagement but that's another story. So now I had the main characters. I mentioned it casually to Bob one night and to my surprise he was all for it! Whew! That was easy. Next I had to come up with the rest of my wedding plans, maybe not so easy.

The Planning Stage

I definitely wanted other superheroes at the wedding, but it wouldn't be fair if some guests dressed up and some didn't so Bob said make them all dress up or they can't come. Really! Sounds a bit harsh. But I could make this work. How about if we didn't force them but said it would be our gift for them to come to our wedding dressed as a superhero or villain. Yeah, OK! Now what if there are duplicates at the wedding? Like 10 Batmans. Oh...I see. And what if our guests didn't know who to be. Well then, I'll pick! I will pick either a superhero or villain that would suit either their look or personality or both. Yeah! this could be fun, for me anyways, he he.

The date also being very important had to be decided on. Summer would be nice. But as my girlfriend soon pointed out, spandex gets pretty hot and uncomfortable in the summer. Especially with a mask if you had to wear one. Why not the fall? I looked on the calendar close to Halloween, that was my favourite time of year for obvious reasons. How about the Saturday before Halloween. Everyone will be dressed up and going to parties! Costumes will be readily available at that time of year! It was cooler that time of year. So Oct. 27th it is!
Now down to the guest list. Coming up with some of the characters was surprisingly pretty easy for me thanks to Superhero Database. I came up with everything from well known supes like Batman to relative unknowns like Ma Hunkel. But then the fighting began. Some of our invitees wanted to pick for themselves and then others were envious of the characters given to others. As the old saying goes you can't make everyone happy. But it was our wedding and our gift, our happiness. So I told everyone that I had put alot of thought into the roles I chose for them and not everybody could be Batman. Things settled down.

Your probably wondering how I kept in touch with all our guests during this time. Well, I used Facebook. It's great. I created an events page called "Bob & Darcy's Superhero Wedding" and sent out invites that way. First of all invites that let them know if they weren't perfectly comfortable with dressing up that we would understand. Then hard copy invites would go out to those 100 % committed to the wedding.

Invitations

The invites I had in mind had to have a comic book look to them. I found a very talented artist on www.etsy.com who designs wedding invites with your face on a superhero body all with the look of a comic book cover. Like this. Very cool!

To our happy surprise everyone was stoked! And the "Yes"s to attend were rapidly mounting up. Around 80 so far.

Venue

Did we decide where we were going to do this? Not exactly. I had put "The Fortress of Friends" as the venue but didn't know where that was going to be at this point. I had some ideas. perhaps the huge church next door, or there was some nice halls around, and then there was our huge 2 storey barn. Well the church would have been awesome and they even made concessions for us, normally not renting it out for wedding banquets. But just as we were to sign a contract we found out it was booked...for a quilting bee. I mean this GIANT church and banquet room was booked for some little old ladies to sew blankets. Ugh, that was disappointing. So off to the halls we went looking. One was brand new with an awesome kitchen but not really any space and was super expensive. The other was beautiful had an awesome place to dance, lots of room but no kitchen to speak of. We would think about it. That night Bob and I thought how nice it would be to have the wedding in the barn. We could take as long as we wanted to set it up and decorate. My kitchen would be nearby in the main house. We wouldn't have to get out by midnight. But it would need ALOT of work. It would have to be insulated and needed interior panelling, and the bats as much as I liked them being around would have to go. It would cost way more than renting a hall but something we were going to do anyhow. I measured and estimated about 80+ people could fit. Ooooh, that was gonna be tight. We would make it work! Good thing the dance floor could be downstairs and that would make more room.

Decorations

Next was compiling info on what superhero related wedding items were available out there. Ok I had already been around the wedding block once a loooong time ago, and I basically knew what was needed. I also had the internet!

Colours first. Easy. Star Sapphire fuchsia and Green Lantern green. Flowers. Well Oct is not a flowery kinda month. Silk was the way to go. Cost me about $300 from www.afloral.com for flowers for all the tables and bouquets. And aside from the bungled shipping which they did reimburse me for they are awesome and I'd highly recommend them IF you are in the U.S. Don't order in Canada duties and HST suck. I had picked alot of Orchids, Geberas, Spider dahlias, Lilies, Shasta daisies, Hydrangeas, Roses, Carnations and some glittery green branches. The picture below was my inspiration.

Then my girlfriend and I found these weird little coloured beads to put in the vases at the dollar store. When you add water they grow 200 times their original size. Although my flowers aren't real and don't need water you can add these cool submersible LED lights called floralytes to add ambience. I thought they look kinda Star Trek-ish myself and would add to the interplanetary atmosphere.

Pretty cool eh? So I now have all the tableware, tablecloths, paper lanterns, streamers, balloons and even LED mini lights for the dance floor in fuchsia and in green. 300 feet of lights for $70 including shipping from China. They are awesome for stuff like that.
I also found a very cool cityscape backdrop for the wall behind the head table 30' long 6' high. should look pretty sharp!

Food

I am hoping to do all the food with some hired help. But I have arranged to have the cake and cupcakes done by Geek Sweets who are currently in Ontario but are moving to B.C. just in time! These are the kind of cupcakes they make! And sooo many others. Star wars, super mario, Pokemon and I just saw the Princess bride cupcakes! You have to check them out at http://www.geeksweets.net/cupcake-menu/

Costumes

Costumes are in process. I custom ordered Bob's GL "First Flight" suit from a company called Portray Designs in Texas specializing in superhero costumes made to order. Cost just under $300 including shipping with boots. It isn't quite finished they tell me, but looks like this

My outfit is a bit more complicated as Star Sapphire is not really well known, yet. I am basing most of my costume off the Green Lanterns "New Guardians" comic book series character called Fatality. She is a Star Sapphire and a warrior plus I like her costume. I ordered a zentai vinyl coated spandex suit from china for under $40 in metallic fuchsia like the one a couple pictures below but with full legs and a zippered front. Most Chinese costume companies also do custom details for you.

The character I am basing my costume on "Fatality"

Ordered this with full legs and zippered front. It will need some more tweaking, most importantly the Star Sapphire symbol on the waist.

I have commissioned a leather headpiece to be made for me by Jennifer Davis from Pilgrimage Design which includes a crystal with an LED light and am having a fellow at Stronghold Leather make my gauntlets. The belt I had made by my design not exactly to the comics detail but pretty decent by Fabrication Unlimited on Etsy. They are awesome, they also made me Star Sapphire earrings out of mirrored glass. Boots are go go boots I ordered from My Diva's Closet.

Gauntlets in Process

The gauntlets will be awesome. They will be hot pink leather with the Star Sapphire symbol hand carved into them. I'll post pictures of course when they are done.

Gauntlets will be made to match the colour of these boots

Guests

My 10 year old son will be Link from Legend of Zelda. Not really from my comics universe but hey whatever. My 5 year old daughter will be Supergirl, the pink costume also not traditional but really cute darn it! My eldest son being kinda lanky and all will make the perfect Spiderman and his girlfriend is the Black Cat.
Here is the list of superheroes and villains real names excluded to maintain hidden identities ;)
Green Lantern
Star Sapphire
Link
Supergirl
Spiderman
Black Cat
Star Fire
Black Canary
Wolverine
Green Arrow
Punisher
Roulette
Batman
Catwoman
Nightwing
Hawkgirl
Hawkeye
Black Widow
Thor
Scarlet Witch
Iron Man
Sif
Snake Eyes
GI Joe "Duke"
Ghost Rider
Talia al Ghuul
Lex Luthor
Ma Hunkel
Jubilee
Ariel
Alan Quartermain
Booster Gold
Power Girl
Wonder Woman
Dr. Strange
Zatanna
the Riddler
Captain America
Poison Ivy
Deadpool
Psylocke
Shadow Cat
Emma frost
the Hulk
Jean Grey (Phoenix)
superman
Invisible girl
Fire
Ice
Jonah Hex
Dove
Kingpin
Elektra
Harley Quinn
Deadshot
Rogue
Gambit
Spidergirl
the Penguin
Valkyrie
Dr. Doom
Black Adam
Ms. Marvel
Batgirl
Faith
She-Ra
Sinestro
Firestar
Nick Fury
Venom
Human Torch
Snowbird
the Spectre
the Tick
Wonder Girl
Aquaman
Isis
the Flash

Wow, I'm gonna have to make my own Hall of Justice to fit all these guys!

Oh and there will be a truce called for the day and evening so that supes and villains alike can partake in our wedding. Tables will be assigned strategically to just play it on the safe side. I mean you wouldn't want to put Superman next to Lex would you? there will be several Avengers, X-men, DC heroes, Justice League and Super villain tables for everyone's comfort...and security.

Every invitation contained detailed info including bio, pictures,characteristics and history of each character.
We hope to do some impromptu trivia and knowing the character could prove handy. Resources on how to either buy or make their costumes were also provided. We will even be having a costume/dress rehearsal about a month before so I can help others with their costumes if needed. Those from out of town can do it virtually.

And did I mention that none other than Lex Luthor is going to marry us? Yep!

Stay tuned...

Saturday 28 April 2012

Thursday 26 April 2012