Because of the amount of stress involved with traditional wedding planning, Gilles and I chose to have our special day at Burning Man which had been an instrumental presence in our relationship.
Gilles and I first met at an I FEEL party in 2015- a monthly themed costume party series intended to keep to keep the Burning Man spirit of revelry, community, and costuming alive year round. He first saw me through his camera lens as he took a photo of my Cleopatra costume. Later on, we connected online and he sent me a link to his Burning Man photography which blew my mind. Burning Man is so beautiful in person that it’s difficult to accurately represent through imagery. Gilles was one of the only photographers who captured the immense beauty of playa, and made me feel the same profound sense of wonder that arose when I witnessed magical moments at Burning Man.
At the time I was just starting my clothing line, and in typical Burning Man spirit, we decided to trade services: I would design Gilles’ Burning Man wardrobe and he would do a photo shoot for my website. That was the beginning of our creative union, and since then we’ve collaborated on countless artistic projects. Gilles was the most passionate person I had ever met, and his dedication to his art inspired me to forgo a traditional office job and design full-time. As a photographer/designer duo, we have the opportunity to mix epic photography with beautiful fashion. Together we came up with the brand motto, “Make Your Life An Art Piece” hoping to encourage others to add beauty to the world through their art.
I specialized in bridal design at my fashion high school and had always dreamed of making an epic wedding dress. I had an idea of what kind of design I wanted to create, but after scouring fabric stores in the Garment District, I had yet to find the perfect match. I didn’t want to make my wedding dress look like one of the sequin costumes I would sell online, and wished to create a look that blended cutting-edge technology with an elegant design.
One night while looking at the intricate shadows created by our Hybycozo lamp, I came up with the idea of creating the same effect with laser cutting and fiber optic fabric. There were several companies that made fiber optic clothing, but the styles were athletic and very basic. Gilles was a talented graphic designer as well, so I asked him to design the fabric for our wedding outfits using sacred geometry and symbols of our relationship.
After many hours of designing and redesigning to create a composition that wouldn’t fall apart when worn, Gilles came up with these vector designs that were then laser cut onto cream suede for his hood and cream satin for my dress.
The final designs included sacred geometry based on Islamic art, a Merkabah, (a crystalline energy field made up of sacred geometries that align the mind, body, and heart), angel wings, tribal motifs, a dove symbolizing freedom, and our initials.
Once the laser cut fabric was complete, I cut and sewed the corresponding pieces on fiber optic fabric and worked with multimedia artist Kirill Shevyakov to hook up the fabric to lighting and connect the power source. I had been so busy making other people’s Burning Man costumes all summer that I didn’t have time to start on our wedding outfits till the week before we left for Burning Man. This was extremely risky since working with laser cut fabric and fiber optics was a completely new concept. We would have been screwed if our first attempt didn’t work, but luckily Kirill successfully figured everything out, and I didn’t accidentally break the lighting while sewing. Even so, I didn’t finish our wedding outfits before we left for Burning Man, and had to fly my sewing machine from NYC to finish the outfits while driving in our RV to playa.
Gilles had also designed our wedding rings which were then 3D printed by Shapeways. The symbols included our initials, the serotonin molecule to symbolize everlasting happiness, the Fibonacci sequence, and the beginning of the Flower of Life: the first circle symbolized the first being, the 2nd represents two entities, and the third circle represented the creation of the first 2 circles.
Other than our wedding outfits, we had nothing else planned for the wedding! The fact that we were having our wedding at Burning Man however, took away all stress from planning because we believed in “playa magic.” From my experiences over my last 4 years attending Burning Man, there was no need to worry about the “where, when, why, how” if you were open to the potentials of all possibilities and synchronicity. Playa magic ensured that if you acted with good energy, and approached life with an open mind, the universe would ultimately manifest opportunities meant to help you reach your fullest potential. I had been so stressed out trying to get orders done on time before Burning Man, once on playa I just went with the flow and trusted that our wedding would work out in the end.
Among the thousands of events in the Burning Man WhatWhereWhen guide, I saw that there was a Bake Your Own Cake event. I contacted Amanda who ran the Black Rock City Bakery and she gave me a time slot to bake my own cake the day of the wedding. In high school I had ran my own bakery, but it had been at least 7 years since I had baked anything due to the rush of adult life in NYC. I never expected that I would end up baking on playa much less my own wedding cake!
With the help of Gilles and my friend Swan, I successfully baked a cake for 50 people the morning of the wedding. The Black Rock City Bakery provided all the ingredients to anyone who wished to make their own baked good- you just had to choose a recipe from one of their recipe books.
Working at the bakery was one of the highlights of my wedding day. The randomness of baking a huge cake in the middle of the desert was so awesome, and it was actually quite calming to mix all the ingredients together and decorate the cake. I had so much respect for the volunteers at the Black Rock City Bakery who worked throughout the day to bake delicious French pastries for the citizens of Black Rock City.
Thanks to our friend Rohan who arranged for the art car, Carl the Chameleon to pick up our wedding party, Jasna Boudard of Travel Weddings who documented our special day, and our bridal party who helped with all the little details, our wedding ceremony which I had no expectations for, worked out perfectly in the end.
Since I didn’t finish sewing before Burning Man, the bridesmaids had to finish their own outfits the day of the wedding. Ann’s boyfriend Rohan got put on crafting duty as well helping to add the fringe strips and LEDs to her outfit.
The theme for our wedding outfits was Intergalactic Gods and Goddesses. The groomsmen wore Intergalactic Druid Robes from my 2018 collection, and the bridesmaids wore futuristic silver collars embellished with rhinestones which they added LEDs and white fringe on to.
Gilles and I descended from the art car in disguise, wearing intricate masks by Dan Schaub that went perfectly with our laser cut wedding outfits and the intergalactic god/goddess theme. Underneath I wore a beautiful crown designed by my friend Saida of Object and Dawn.
Many thanks to our friends who showed up for the ceremony despite the fact that there was a massive dust storm right before, and we were at least an hour late for our own wedding! #playatime
My good friend Xuan-an who I had known since my college days in California, became an ordained minister in Nevada and officiated our Burning Man wedding.
We chose to have our wedding ceremony before the mesmerizing color changing RadiaLumia sculpture created by the FoldHaus art collective. The software engineers even coordinated the LEDs on the installation to turn on when Gilles and I exchanged rings and activated the fiber optic lighting in our wedding outfits.
Once the ceremony was over we served cake and champagne to everyone. Surprisingly the cake had turned out quite well and was devoured by our wedding guests who didn’t leave any leftovers.
After the ceremony our wedding party hitched a ride on a passing art car that drove us around playa to catch some of the amazing sights seen at night.
Our intergalactic Burning Man wedding was a result of the collaboration of many different artists and our friends’ participation. I’m so grateful to be a part of such a creative and supportive artistic community. Gilles and I had such a great time designing our wedding outfits that next year we plan to launch a collection that combines elegance with cutting edge technology in functional wedding outfits, and delve deeper into exploring laser cutting technology.
Excited for a lifetime of adventures and collaborations around the world with this guy <3
