Heather and Angus met in the comment section of Reddit and ended up eloping in Las Vegas. They have a long-distance relationship between New Orleans and Scotland, and although they’re still working through the visa process to Angus to move to the US, they didn’t want to wait a moment longer to be married.

So, it was off to Vegas, but not for the usual quickie wedding. They wanted to do it their way. As soon as they discovered Sure Thing Chapel and their Hellvis officiant, nowhere else had a look in!

Heather wore a black and gold Betsey Johnson dress she found secondhand on eBay. Both wore Dr. Martens, naturally. Angus wore his kilt, and together they looked like they’d stepped out of a rock show and straight into their vows. “We knew right away that a traditional wedding wasn’t for us, so we created something bold, playful, and unapologetically us”, Heather explained.

The guest list was small, but the energy was big. Their best friend Juan was running late, and in true Vegas fashion, chaos turned into comedy. “We got caught up taking photos and talking to Hellvis and completely forgot that he wasn’t there, so we started without him. About halfway through the ceremony, Hellvis asked if we knew the man at the door. We all turned around, looked, and burst into laughter. Juan was banging on the door. It was such a funny moment!”

Heather has been reading Rock n Roll Bride for years and says the magazine helped her throw out the rulebook. She loved that she saw herself represented in our pages and wanted that same unapologetic and proud feeling to run throughout their wedding “As a plus size couple, we believe it is so important for readers to see real representation of different body types in wedding media”, she explained. “We want other couples to feel confident that their love and their style deserve to shine just as much as anyone else’s.”

Their day was filled with laughter and love, but also some quiet moments of remembrance. Heather lost her mother earlier in the year, and so she found small, meaningful ways to carry her into the celebration. “Even though she couldn’t be there in person, we found ways to carry her presence with us,” she said. “That made our elopement not only joyful and fun, but also incredibly emotional and personal.”

The couple invested in what mattered most to them – their photos and video. “We spent three hours with our photographers and had a wedding video made, which was absolutely worth every penny. The only thing we’d change about our wedding is we wish we’d hired them for longer to document the entire day instead of just during the ceremony and right after.”

“Weddings are meant to be fun and are meant to celebrate the love between two people”, Heather advises. “Remember, you don’t have to spend massive amounts of money on a wedding and party to have a good time. You don’t have to spend the cost of a house on a get married!”