Soulbound: A World of Warcraft-themed wedding

We've all heard about weddings that get taken over by overbearing relatives and fussy wedding planners -- celebrations that end up bearing not the slightest resemblance to the hopes, dreams and plans of the hapless bride and groom. Even when the couple keeps a firm hand on the steering wheel, some personal touches get shut outside the circle for fear of seeming inappropriate. You guessed it -- we're talking about geekery of all sorts, from gaming to sci-fi and fantasy and all the way down to garden-variety nerdiness. It's hard to find a place to give a nod to these sorts of interests in a more formal or traditional setting.

Then there are those unabashed couples who let their so-called freak flags fly high and proud. But we don't think there's anything freaky at all about the wedding of World of Warcraft players Amanda and Jeremy. They encapsulated their WoW romance in a traditional celebration that nonetheless managed to pack in game references in ways even the uninitiated could appreciate. A talented artist, Amanda toiled for two months to create all the WoW-themed details. It was personal, it was romantic, and it was truly the event of a lifetime.

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Main characters
Amanda Lilyia
Jeremy Teliko
Guilds
Hers None (still looking for that right fit of raiding and RP)
His (banking guild, for now)
Realm Earthen Ring

WoW Insider: Hrm, a WoW-playing couple ... This sound suspiciously like one of those love stories we need to tell from the very beginning. But in your case, that means in Azeroth itself, isn't that right?

Amanda: Yup! I even wrote up an RP story for our wedding on how we actually met for the first time in game with an RP flare. Although I did change story, since back in vanilla, I played a different character, but when TBC dropped, I switched my main to a paladin and have been playing it since, so I felt it was right to redo the story to that character.

Long story short: Astranaar was being attacked. I flew into the zone. All the NPCs were killed, so I yell in general chat, "Who wants to kill some Hordies?!" Teliko joined my party, and with a group of other players that were in the zone, we attacked the town (sparing civilians of course, back in those days). Killed some Hordies that came in defense, then left to go RP our victory. And our friendship flourished from that day forward.

So eventually over the course of several years, that friendship became something more. What next?

Amanda: We were close friends by this point, and we talked every day. We would even chat when he was at work. One day during a random conversation, I asked him if he would want to come visit me. He was in Georgia, while I was living in Illinois. So he set up a vacation to come up and visit for week. Funny thing, though: When we first met each other, we showed each other our IDs to make sure we are who we say we are and didn't lie about our age, right there in the airport parking lot. *chuckle*

About three weeks later, I was packing my things and he was driving up to come move me down to Georgia to live with him. It was a really crazy decision, but there was a special connection between the two of us that neither one of us could deny. We took a chance, a big chance on each other, and it worked out like a fairy tale. We have been together ever since.

And so on to the altar! Whose idea was it to make the wedding follow a WoW theme?

Amanda: I will take the blame for that. Originally we were going to get married in Montana on my father's ranch with just family. But about six months before the wedding, our plans changed drastically and we had to have the wedding in Illinois. So because of this change, my father was like, "Have the wedding you want and do what makes you happy." And so came the idea of having small Warcraft wedding with just immediate family and few friends. The game is a big part of our lives, and we would have never had met each other if it weren't for WoW.

Jeremy: The WoW-themed wedding was all her idea. I helped here and there with ideas and what not. I mainly just wanted her to have the wedding she wanted. So I just kind of followed her and supported all her ideas ... Except for wearing the night elf ears. LOL

How did your friends and family react to the plans?

Amanda: Our friends loved it. My family was a little lost, to be honest. They really didn't understand it or didn't know about the game, but they stayed supportive through the whole thing.

Jeremy: My family thought it was cool having a WoW-themed wedding. They knew of the game but didn't know all the ins and outs. ... My family is kind of loud and obnoxious, so with my side being Horde, they totally fit right in. Not that there is anything wrong with the Horde. I love them!

Let's talk about the wedding details. Tell us all the little ways that Azeroth worked its way into the ceremony.

Amanda: It was everywhere! I wanted to have a small, traditional-like wedding with the Warcraft flare but represent the both factions that we play. At the time, both of us were Horde, but we had started off as Alliance.

The main thing was our colors. We went with blue and red, of course, with the accent colors being gold and black. We decided that I would take the Alliance since I am a Ally at heart, and my husband took Horde since he loves the Horde. So we split up the invitations as such. I made the invitations reversible, so if you were from my side, you got the Alliance side as the front and vice versa for my husband's family. I had help with my maid of honor on inking and redesigning a piece of art nouveau frame I liked, and she helped me put them all together. I even made a primer that was included with invitations that explains what WoW is, the RP story of how we met, and what the Alliance and Horde are.

From there, I went online looking at Warcraft items that others had put into their wedding and then adjusted it to suit what I wanted.

The actual ceremony was more tame compared to the reception. But Warcraft was still very much a part of it. I used the original login music (Legends of Azeroth) to signal the start of the wedding. I hand made my own veil from scratch with an Alliance symbol on the back made of beads. The groom and father of the groom ties were painted with a tribal-like Horde symbol, while my father received a tie painted with the standard Alliance symbol.

The best part of the ceremony was the script. Our officiant was wonderful and on board with the whole thing. I had looked online for RP scripts of weddings that have been done in game. So I took snippits of one I found that I loved , edited the script the officiant had given us, and then merged it into a ceremony, changing a few words and adding some to make it fit us.

I also decorated the archway, but it kinda failed. It was really windy that day, and the flower arrangement fell apart. But it was red and blue flowers that I arranged. The red flowers in the center were in the shape of a heart with little accents of the blue flowers around it.

And then there are our rings. We had talked about it way before the wedding planning even started. We wanted them to say "Bind on Equip" on the inside of the band to signify us becoming soulbound to each other once the ring was placed on the finger. Even in the script for the ring ceremony, I chose a particular set of vows I found that would state becoming soulbound. We are also planning soon to add "Soulbound" to the band on the inside with our wedding date.

There must have been even more WoW touches in the reception.

In terms of the reception, I went nuts. I wanted it to be fun. I wanted people to be able to walk away with something, and I wanted to thank everyone personally that they took time out of their schedule to celebrate in our day. Almost everything I had a hand in. Even the restaurant allowed me to redesign the menu and printed them for me.

We had little votive candle holders that were trimmed with our colors that my husband's mother painted. I then decorated the table with our minis, collector edition boxes of TBC, Wrath and Cata, a Deathling statue, and a Alathena Moonbreeze statue. All these things were items we have collected over the years.

As my personal touch, I made everyone their own faction crest to hang on the wall, although my maid of honor got a special gift of a gnome chibi sculpture to say thanks for all her help. I even used WoW Model Viewer to make name cards for seating. Each one was different and had a different character corresponding to the side they were a part of. With our friends that do play WoW, I used their in-game models for their name card.

For the cake and treats boxes, I went all out on those too. For the treat boxes, I painted two sets of boxes, one with the Horde symbol and the others with Alliance. When you opened them up, they were a mix of candies of both blue and red shades. I even made my own cake cutting set with Ashbringer and Malchazeen hilts. Basically I took a $10 set from Walmart and cut off the plastic and shaped the hilts out of clay.

I also made our own cake toppers out of clay in chibi form, with the groom being the female blood elf and the bride being a female draenei. I got the idea for the achievement from a picture I saw online of a couple that made their own achievement sign for the reception. And I love achievements. So I took that idea and shrunk it down to fit the cake. I made my character cheering with a /ding and his just /facepalming my antics. I wanted to do more to decorate the cake like add that star wire garland to express the true ding, but I just ran out of time.

What about that pièce de résistance, the cake?

For the cake, I ran into a problem. The bakery didn't want to do the cake without a copyright release, but they didn't tell me till about a month before the wedding. I was frantic. I didn't know how to even go about to get a copyright release from Blizzard with in that amount of time.

So I took to the customer support forums. There, a wonderful fellow who goes by the name Bavra got me the email for Blizzard legal team. Within a couple days, I was speaking with a wonderful lady from their legal department. She worked as quickly as she could to draw up the paperwork for me so then I could have my cake made. Within a couple of weeks, I had a hand-signed copyright release to use the Horde and Alliance symbols on my cake. She was absolutely wonderful and understanding of the situation, and I thank both her and Bavra for their help to total stranger.

So once all that was done, I designed the cake for the decorator and went with it and the final product came out wonderful. The pictures really didn't do it justice. But I did put our Blizzard plushies on either side -- 'cause why not, I already went this far.

Did you find it difficult to convey your WoW-related ideas to any of the people who helped execute your designs and plans?

Amanda: Not really, no. I did a lot of this myself. The only downfall to creating this wedding is that everything was handmade and it was made in about a two-month time span. There wasn't a lot that others could help with because of the custom work I doing. ... There were even a few times where I just broke down because of the stress. Because of everything and not wanting to put my stress on others, I worked on them night and day the months leading up to the wedding. I was pretty much done with everything two weeks before the wedding except for a few items and some assembling.

What part of the WoW touches turned out to be the most meaningful to you personally?

Amanda: Everything I made meant something to me, honestly. It's really hard to single out a thing when you put so much time into one day that last a few hours. But if I have to choose, it would be our rings and the RP story I wrote about how we met.

Now, the item that makes me squeal with joy just because they are adorable is my cake toppers.

How has being married changed the way you play -- or has it?

Amanda: Not in the slightest bit. I still yell at him for ripping aggro or being a smart-ass, and he still makes fun of me for accidentally bubbling tanks and caring too much. We still have our date night where we PvP together, farm old-world content, or level our characters together. For four out of six years we have known each other, we have been at each other's side almost every day in-game and out. We married each other for each other; nothing is going to change who we are or how we play the game, even if we are on opposite sides of the fence.

Jeremy: But now that I think about it, something has changed. When on a DPS toon, she tends to let me die more often. But I am sure that has to do with my playstyle. =p

Visit Amanda's DeviantArt page for more of her pristine World of Warcraft images.

"I never thought of playing

WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com.