The Making of a Kraftwerk Wedding

Photo - Jon Wolding

It all started with a challenge to take a memorable (and awesome) driver's license photo... I donned my platinum wig & got an excellent glamour shot. David decided to dress as Kraftwerk for his driver's license photo and the rest (as they say) is history...

Knowing we were going to have a Kraftwerk themed wedding, I came up with the "weddingbahn" concept, created the 'cover art' for the invites and mailed them out. We'd set the date for January 4th, a Wednesday which would pair nicely as a Kraftwerk themed Wax Wednesday at Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe in Tampa, FL (our favorite local restaurant). We reached out to our pal Michael Donaldson (aka Q-Burns Abstract Message) to compose Kraftwerk-esque wedding music & asked him to be our DJ for the event.

Getting a red shirt made online was the easy part (even if I put it off too long and then had to expedite shipping). I ordered my red shirt from Sumissura and it fit perfectly! I couldn't be happier with their attention to detail. The shirt was beautiful.

I hadn't given any consideration to decorations until Chef Suz at Ella's told us we could come in and setup the night before. Decorations? We didn't have any decorations. Easy. Well, that didn't last long - David said we needed decorations! His brainstorming and my crafting/painting/gluing capabilities brought forth mini album cubes, hashtag/Instagram table toppers, mini traffic cones, a life-size Computerworld photo prop and two Kraftwerk podiums for us.

The mini album cubes would prove the simplest to Photoshop, cut and glue together. Searching online for mini traffic cones (akin to the first Kraftwerk album cover) was an exercise in futility. Small traffic cones with two stripes are not a thing that can be purchased, therefore mini non-striped cones were purchased & painters tape was used to mask off the two stripes. Biscuit colored refrigerator paint & Rustoleum pearl paint were used to give the look of reflective stripes.

I bought the last 40x60 sheet of white foam-core from Office Depot, photoshopped up the album art from Computer World so that the computer had a left corner(!) & would be 40x40 when printed. I printed it out in sections, used glue sticks to piece the sections together and David helped me with spraying the paper and the foam-core with spray adhesive and gluing the two pieces together.

 The podiums were fun to make! The top and bottom are slender Amazon boxes, the center column is from double wall cardboard from IKEA (they always have huge sections of double wall cardboard in their box bins out in front of the store). The boxes were stabilized internally with expanding foam and a few chunks of brick (David's idea). I found photos of Kraftwerk's equipment online and with some minor photoshopping, edited those images into usable replicas of their gear for the top of the podiums. The printout of the equipment was done in sections on 11x17 paper, glued together and then spray adhered to two sections of tempered hardboard. The tempered hardboard was then glued and clamped to the top of the podiums to create a flat, smooth stable top to the podiums. The finishing touch was applying reflective tape to the front and sides of the podiums to give the look of the luminescent edges on Kraftwerk's actual equipment podiums.

Photo - Jon Wolding

Our padre was none other than Keith Ulrey, owner of Microgroove Records (an obvious choice). The cake was a chocolate/chocolate fudge cake from Charlie's Bakery in Orlando (hands down the best cake on the planet) photo printed with a white Arp Odyssey synthesizer and dollops of icing made the sliders 'pop' on the cake. It was delicious and gorgeous all at the same time.

Many thanks to Scott Imrich of WMNF (and Ella's Wax Wednesdays) who put in some DJ time so Michael could eat and catch up with old friends who were in town for our wedding!

We hired Jon Wolding of Ground Up Films to do our photography and his work was stellar! Here are just a few of the great pictures he captured of our wedding.

Photo - Jon Wolding 

Photo - Jon Wolding

Photo - Jon Wolding

The retro-futurism aesthetic Kraftwerk embraced throughout the 1970s led me to choose the short black 1920's finger-wave styled wig from Paramount Wigs for a feminine Kraftwerk look. I booked a 45 minute makeover at Sephora with the lovely and talented Christine in Sarasota (that was the closest Sephora with a next-day makeover appointment!). I wore my wig but no makeup, showed her the Man Machine album cover and she helped me craft a look to match the feel of the album cover and the style of hair I'd chosen. She did a great job and taught me a few tricks so I could recreate what she'd done for the wedding day!

The biggest thanks goes to our friends and family who came to our wedding in red shirts and black ties to take part in the Man Machine absurdity! We couldn't have done it without you! We made the news in several places due to your willingness to play along!

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