This Couple's First Dance Took Place in Front of a Bank Vault at The Treasury in St. Augustine, Florida

Kyle and Jeremy wanted their wedding, which took place in front of a bank vault at The Treasury on The Plaza in St. Augustine, Florida, to be "beautiful, elegant, and emotional, yet also upbeat, modern, and fun. The style we aimed for to achieve this was a mix of urban and rustic, as The Treasury perfectly embodies both of these concepts. We ultimately gravitated toward gold, black, and silver as our main color palette, which we used to color all of the invitation material, cake, attire, decorations, and more," says Kyle. 

For their wedding at The Treasury on The Plaza in St. Augustine, Florida, Kyle and Jeremy wanted the event to be a family- and friend-focused as possible. "We really wanted our loved ones to be a part of it,” says Kyle. "We had large wedding parties made up of friends from all walks of life, and we each had our sibling as our best person. Our aunts sang during the ceremony, and my dad even officiated the wedding. We both wanted someone we knew personally to officiate us. My dad has been a role model throughout our entire relationship, and he knows us better than anyone, so he was able to make the ceremony personal in a way that no one else would've been able to do." In addition to Kyle's father officiating the ceremony, his aunt also performed for the nuptials. "My aunt sang two beautiful songs during the ceremony, one of which was "Simply The Best" (featured in "Schitt's Creek" as the couples' special song, and one of Jeremy and my favorite songs)."

In addition to keeping their loved ones at the center of the wedding, Kyle and Jeremy also prioritized meaningful personalization for their St. Augustine wedding. "We wanted a moment to commemorate the LGBTQ aspect of our wedding,” explains Kyle. “So, we stood in front of the Castillo de San Marcos [National Monument] during the photoshoot and set off vibrantly-colored smoke bombs to create a Pride rainbow. The result was everything we could have wanted." Beyond Pride-inspired portraits, the couple also brought personalization into their wedding with a unique unity ceremony. "We had a unity glass ceremony, where we combined crystal shards in the color of each other's birthstones into a vase. Later, those crystal shards were melted together to form a stunning, beautiful colored sculpture representing our unity," explains Kyle. 

Making the wedding feel festive and celebratory was especially important to Kyle and Jeremy, and their music choices helped create the party atmosphere they were after. "We had 3 phases of dance music that progressed from upbeat dancing throwbacks (like 'Everybody' by Backstreet Boys), gay dance anthems (like 'Toxic' by Britney Spears) to contemporary EDM (like 'Leka' by Armin van Buuren). We believe this choice of music was successful because we were told by every guest we talked to, that the music was incredible. Our DJ also stated it was one of the best (if not the best) weddings he's ever DJ'd for," recalls Kyle. "We have a very upbeat and high-energy crowd of friends and family, so we wanted to raise the bar in terms of the level of excitement we brought out in the crowd. The dancing was designed to be club-like but also include songs that many people in the crowd knew and could sing along to. We even told our wedding party to initiate crowd surfing!"

Looking back on the wedding at The Treasury on The Plaza in St. Augustine, Florida, Kyle notes that "everything was executed exactly to our vision and felt incredibly natural. It almost didn't feel like we were throwing a wedding because it all flowed so smoothly. Overall, the day was a combination of overwhelming beauty and emotion. People were crying, but it was also the best party we had ever been to. I don't think we could have achieved the perfect balance at any other venue in St. Augustine." Kyle and Jeremy encourage current to-be-weds in the midst of wedding planning to remember "not to be afraid to make your wedding exactly how you want it, even if that goes against tradition or isn't what your family envisions. It should be about what's most special for you and your partner, rather than trying to please everyone else."