Ashley and Jordan wanted a fun theme for their wedding. The couple, who met through mutual friends, love cosplay (dressing up as fictional characters) and going to conventions. “We thought of having our own season of American Horror Story,” says the bride, noting that she and her groom are fans of the hit TV series.
Ashley and Jordan had been together about seven and a half years before getting engaged during Fourth of July fireworks at Lake Tahoe. They married two-and-a-half years later at Grand Island Mansion.
More than 100 guests attended the wedding. They were told to dress in black. When the couple explained their theme, guests got excited. “We had people we didn’t even know tell us they wanted to come because they thought that theme was cool,” says Ashley, who thinks the biggest challenge of the theme was getting the whole wedding party, who lived in several different states, to get or make their costumes in time.
Each member of the wedding party got to pick their own character and put their costume together. “I wanted them to be as comfortable as possible, because going to conventions I know how being in a costume all day can be uncomfortable and tiring,” says Ashley, who was surprised by how well the wedding party got along since most did not know each other until the rehearsal.
Ashley and a bridesmaid designed the gothic wedding-themed invitations, which looked like the show’s promo.
The ceremony was held outside in front of the mansion. The wedding party, wearing their costumes, sat around a huge fountain, causing guests to question what was going on. It was all a part of the theme.
The American Horror Story theme song played to start the wedding. The officiant, dressed as Twisty the Clown, led the way with Jordan. The wedding party followed.
Next The Undertaker theme song from WWE played and the father of the bride, dressed like The Undertaker, walked Ashley down the aisle.
“I describe my dress as a Morticia Addams meets bridal,” says Ashley of her ivory, beaded lace fit-andflare gown. She accessorized with her mother’s pearl earrings, a crow skull hair clip, a family ruby ring passed down generations from the 1800s, and a new Irish Claddagh ring that Jordan gave her as a wedding present.
When Jordan saw his bride, “I was stunned beyond words,” he says. “The moment that she walked out the door my heart skipped a beat, and I lost my breath for a few moments.”
Ashley was wowed as well upon seeing her groom. “I couldn’t stop smiling,” she says. “He looked so handsome. I fell in love with him all over again.”
The officiant started the ceremony announcing, “Dearly departed…” The ceremony ended 15 minutes later with the newlyweds walking out to “Highway to Hell.”
Following dinner, guests enjoyed cupcakes that had “blood spatter”—frosting made of corn syrup with some sugar glass shards. The cutting cake, which was used as a centerpiece, had blood red frosting on it. “We cut the cake with a meat cleaver, and when we cut into it, it bled,” says Ashley.
“The whole day will be forever engraved into my memory,” the groom says.
—Kristen Castillo
