Sophie and Rob had already tied the knot in Minnesota when they brought the celebrations to Arizona a month later. Their second event was held at a vintage store where guest arrived in costume, they had drag performers, tacos, and a surprise dance routine. The entire party came in at under $3,000.

“Our Arizona wedding reception was nothing short of magical, and uniquely us”, Sophie said. “The event was hosted at a vintage store which is a venue I’ve never seen before from a wedding. We got to take stellar formal shots outside in front of a giant Prince mural, with our treasured pup, Zelda. We wanted everyone to have fun and let loose so we also made it a costume party. The groom is a huge Marvel nerd, so our outfit change after formal photos were taken was into a ‘Cloak & Dagger’ bridal spin off cosplay.”

Sophie wore her mum’s wedding gloves from the 1980s, and her engagement ring had originally belonged to her mum too. Both of Sophie’s dresses cost less than $375 in total, leaving room in the budget for the parts of the party that mattered most to them – the entertainment and the food.

“Food was the biggest part of the budget by an absolute landslide”, she explained. “Even if you go for a cheap option like a food truck or home caterer (which is what we did), we had a decent size guest list so it’ll add up no matter what. However we would say, don’t worry too much about having enough because more than likely some people will be a no show. We had a huge amount of people cancel last minute at both of our wedding celebrations.”

The entertainment kicked off with performances from two drag queens. One sang live, while the other delivered a lip-sync performance and brought the flower girls onto the stage. Sophie also dances at the largest gay bar in Arizona, and her team, the Charlie’s Show Dancers, performed a group routine as a surprise for Rob.

In hindsight, Sophie would happily get rid of the expectation that weddings have to be so formal. “There are NO rules!” she concluded. “You can do WHATEVER you want, seriously! It’s your big day! Do the nerdy stuff! Have fun!”