Melissa Brantner and Desmond Gillespie

Names:
Melissa Brantner and Desmond Gillespie

Year:
2009

Location:
Reno, Nevada, USA

Fashion Details:
The dress that I wore was made by my father. As it was a second wedding for both of us, Des and I wanted something that we would/could wear again, and decided against the traditional white wedding dress. I wanted to wear my favorite pair of red satin strappy heels, so picked the dress pattern and fabrics to match the shoes. I decided on a champagne-colored satin with some sparkle as the main body of the dress, and a red satin ribbon around the waist in the same color as my shoes, along with a red shawl to cover my shoulders. When we woke up the morning of the wedding, it was snowing. As I was wearing heeled sandals with a sleeveless dress, we did a quick scramble to find something to go over it. I found a gold trench-style coat that matched very well, and that was my overcoat. Des wore all black...shirt, slacks, and suit jacket, with a red tie to match my shoes and belt.

The wedding story:
As a treat for myself when I turned 30, I planned a holiday to Australia in early 2008. The plan was that I would come over and stay until the money in my savings ran out, and then head back home to the US. I had been here for less than a month when I met Des at a barbecue at a mutual friend's house. It took me all of about 5 minutes to decide that he was "the one." Happily, the feeling was mutual.

In June of 2008, we got engaged. We decided that we would get married in the US, as it was less expensive for us to fly to the US than for my family and close friends to fly here for the wedding. As all of the family on my father's side lives in Reno, Nevada, and the state of Nevada requires no waiting period for a marriage license, we picked that as the spot to get married. We found a little chapel and had my family and 2 closest girlfriends there for the ceremony. Afterwords, we had a reception with the rest of my family in Reno, and another one up in Washington state with my mother's family.

Photographer:
Arch of Reno wedding chapel photographer.