Brennan and Reid never cared much for tradition, so when it came to their wedding, they did it their way. Standing up in front of a crowd wasn’t their idea of a good time, so they kept their ceremony small and private, just a few family members on a Thursday afternoon.

The real celebration came two days later. On Saturday, they threw a vintage prom-themed party at a local hall. Guests showed up in retro prom looks that spanned everything from the 60s to the 2000s, ready to dance under glittering streamers and balloon arches. “We leaned into an 80s sparkling gymnasium aesthetic – think tacky, glittery, and full of new wave music,” Brennan said. “Since it was the weekend before Halloween, people went all out.”

Instead of a sit-down dinner, there was a jelly in a retro mold, a cheese board, and the centrepiece of the night: a towering shrimp cocktail sculpture built from thrifted coupe glasses, chewy ice, and mountains of shrimp! “My pride and joy,” Brennan laughed. “My florist friend even made a floral shrimp cocktail to match! Speaking of florals, they were incredible – bright, bold, and full of feathers, baby’s breath, and carnations. My friend Kierceton reinterpreted ‘prom flowers’ with a modern, funky twist. Very little greenery was used in arrangements and we event dried out palmetto leaves from my parent’s yard and spraypainted them silver.”

Brennan wore three different vintage prom dresses through the night and Reid was in a vintage suit from the 70s. Their friends handled the DJing. Speeches, first dances, and formal cake cutting were all skipped. “We prioritised dancing and having a blast with our loved ones,” Brennan explained. Later in the night, Brennan, cava-fueled and cheered on by her 10-year-old nephew, did eventually hack into the jelly ‘cake’ with a knife!

They kept costs down where they could. Friends pitched in with flowers, music, and decor. Wine came at wholesale prices. Helium for hundreds of balloons turned out to be a surprising expense, but worth it to see the room come alive with colour.

There were lessons, too. Brennan wishes they’d hired a day-of planner to wrangle the venue’s poor communication and rethought some of the old traditions they kept by default. “Why does the father of the groom get a dance? It should have been my mum,” she said. Even so, Brennan wouldn’t change much. “Everything worked out beautifully in the end.”

When asked what she wished more people understood about planning a non-traditional wedding, her answer was simple: “There are no rules. You can literally do anything you want. People will either love it or not, but chances are, they’ll love it and talk about it for years to come.”