Niki + Leo are a creative, artistic duo who wanted their wedding to have a Victorian-Steampunk theme, with an emphasis on time + travel. They spent much of their engagement collecting furniture and trinkets from thrift shops + vintage boutiques, as well as DIYing decorative props + paper goods to give their day a personal touch. They requested that their friends + family jump onboard with their theme, by dressing up in Victorian-period attire + accessories. And they were totally blown away when 100% of their guests arrived at the venue, completely decked out from head to toe! According to Niki, When I caught a glimpse of our guests arriving to the venue, I could not believe it! They embraced the theme and had so much fun with it. My dad looked incredible. When the doors to the chapel opened, there was this adorable gasp and “awww” heard from our guests, I suppose because my dad dressed up like that walking me down the aisle was quite the sight to see!
Thanks so much to Leslie Hollingsworth for sharing Niki + Leo’s awesome day with us + big congrats to the happy couple!
How cute are the bridesmaids in their one-of-a-kind victorian hats?!
Our Steampunk wedding would not have been complete without the flying car. This was handmade by a local artist for a Steampunk Ball at the Castle Nightclub in Ybor City, where we live. Since we are friends with the manager of this nightclub (and her son was the ring bearer), she was happy to lend us the car to serve as a focal point in our décor. We had to rent a trailer from U-Haul and depend on the assistance from our extremely supportive friends to get it there, and it wasn’t so easy to transport – but it was definitely worth it! The pictures with our family and friends in that car are amazing!
My most memorable moment of the wedding is hearing Leo read his vows (we wrote our own). I am still struck by the love and creativity behind them. I have to share them because they are that good – “Here we set in amber this moment. There is no why. You are the oxygen to my hydrogen that creates the water of life. The gears in my heart turn only for you. May the engine of our marriage never run out of steam. I take you to be my partner for life. I promise to be a true and loyal friend to you, a best friend… with benefits. May we have many adventures and grow old together. I love you”. To add to our memorable moment, a friend’s cell phone went off as we were saying our vows, but the ringtone was of a train. Everyone (including us) thought it was real and an amazing coincidence!
Their steampunk-inspired wedding cake is a major fave! It was beautifully designed by Alessi Bakery + is so detailed and unique! Looking for more creative cake inspiration? Check out our wedding cake + sweets board on pinterest!
Enjoy the time between your engagement and your wedding. If you think it’s only about the big day you are bound to be disappointed because it passes so fast! We planned several parties around our wedding, such as our engagement dinner right after the proposal and our meet and mingle the night before the wedding. Another party that we threw the summer before the wedding was our “signature drink tasting”, where we made 10 signature drink candidates, served them to our friends one by one, and took votes in several areas (sight, smell, taste, finish, etc.). This was actually really helpful because we were only allowed two choices at our venue and we were able to choose the two drinks that were most palatable to our guests (these ended up being an amaretto sour and a ginger pear martini). Not to mention, our friends had a LOT of fun tasting 10 different cocktails!
Another bit of advice is to get your friends and family involved to make your wedding more personal. A good friend of mine made our save-the-date and another good friend did my hair on the wedding day. One of Leo’s closest friends served as our officiant. Another close friend was our notary for the marriage license. A bridesmaid made mad libs for the meet-and-mingle party (these turned out hilarious). My mother and aunt threw an amazing bridal shower and my sister hosted a very steampunk bridal tea at a local tea house.
photography: Leslie Hollingsworth // venue name: Cross Creek Ranch, Dover, Florida // florals: Alta Fleura -- [email protected] // wedding dress: Minerva's Bridal // hairpiece: Boca Raton Bridal // bride's shoes: Nordstrom // bridesmaid dresses: ASOS // hair stylist: Deborah Steele with assistant Chelsea // makeup artist: Denise of Collective Creations // groom attire: Steampunk Emporium // catering: Hungry Harrys // cake: Alessi Bakery // desserts: Alessi Bakery // bride's jewelry: Mylittlebride // bridesmaid's jewelry: Design Toscano // invitations: Hydraulic Graphix // tarot cards for table numbers: Novelatelier
Wow! This theme is so different, I have never seen a wedding like this before! Awesome, thanks for sharing!!
Brooke
You’re welcome! Thank you for the kind words :)
That cocktail tasting party idea – genius! and those beautiful vows gave me the chills…thank you so much for sharing such an intimate moment. best of luck!
I definitely recommend the cocktail party – we got the idea from going to wine tastings! Thank you for the well wishes :)
The tones of red used throughout the wedding are beautiful!
Thank you :)
These are beautiful pictures! I had a great time working with Niki and Leo to help design their wedding. They are a unique and sweet couple. I had fun taking this unique them and running with it. Love, love, love it!
Thanks Emiliee! We really enjoyed our time working with you too! You did an outstanding job capturing our concept – and we are so happy you had fun doing it :)
Fantastic wedding! The outfits are phenomenal, but oh wow, that cake!
I absolutely loved working with Niki and Leo designing their wedding flowers: from the lightbulbs in the bridesmaids bouquets to the locks and keys in the bouts and bouquets. Everything was so much FUN!
Such a fun theme!
This is wonderful!! I love this wedding! They didn’t leave any detail out and I love how so many of the guests were all in as well!
FABULOUS!! I’m in love with all of the details and that this couple opted for something untraditional and so beautifully put together. Bravo!
What a fab cake – love it!
I LOVE your balloon chinese lantern, how did you get it to stay up?
Really unique ideas!
Wow I hope to shoot a wedding like this some day.
What a crazy amazing wedding – love the bridesmaids red dresses, the Groom’s hat, the other hats, the settings…all very Alice in Wonderland on an Around the World in 80 days trip helped by Monthy Python. Love it.
Breath-taking!!!
Niki, your bouquet is gorgeous! Can you tell me the rose type/colour that was used?
Thank you! I belive it was just regular red roses, dahlias, and calla lilies.
Is the cascading flowers red amaranthus?
Oh my gosh, this is just the best thing I think I’ve ever seen – the cake is absolutely fantastic
Thank you so much! Each layer was different. The main layer was white cake soaked with amaretto with whipped lemon and some kind of nutty filling. the middle was chocolate soaked with Jack Daniels and ganache filling. The top was yellow cake with gran marnier and fresh strawberry whipped filling. It was amazing!!!