It was a creative collaboration that also happened to be a wedding, complete with retro glamour, a prized vintage automobile, walking zombies and a 3-D slideshow. Stephanie Chan and Kevin O’Brien’s creativity, a passion for all things 50s and flare for fun brought everyone along on their incredibly visual wedding day.

By doing most of the planning themselves, it allowed them to spend money on the elements they considered most important—capturing their story visually to share with everyone in their lives.

It also meant a lot of changes along the way - starting with the decision to marry.

“I have wanted to get married for a long time, and Stef wanted to for a long time, but there was a point where she really started to look at all the traditions and everything. It turned into more of a feeling of ‘what's the point?’,” Kevin said. “We were already together and didn’t plan on splitting up or anything, so why bother with the ceremony of it all?”

On a visit to her sister in Los Angeles, Stef changed her mind. They could get married... “On her terms,” Kevin said. “So I took her up on that as quickly as I could so she wouldn’t have time to change her mind again!”

Once he got Stef committed, the realities of planning began. Stef was just finishing art school and Kevin still had a year to go in a 4-year apprenticeship as a classic car restoration expert. They shared a love of rockabilly, the 50s and kitsch, and so the basic wedding theme was set early in their planning.

But as artists, the couple went back and forth with the details, creating and then making changes when the reality didn’t match their vision. That meant multiple shifts until late into planning, from Stef’s wedding dress to hand-making sleeves for 45s they handed out to guests when the ones they ordered weren’t the precise color they wanted.

“We stressed every detail,” Stef said. “It might not have been the best way as a bride, but it was the only way we could do it as artists.” It was, she said with a laugh, glorious torture.

The feedback they got from their wedding invitations blew them away, and the couple knew they needed a showstopper for the ceremony. They found it in a 3-D slideshow they would create to show their guests at the wedding.

“I didn’t even realize we could put it together,” Stef said. “It came to me in a flash of an idea. And I was so excited, I started shaking and Google-ing to learn everything I could about the technology.”

Stef and Kevin worked with their wedding photographers , Reilly and Miranda Lievers of Blue Olive Photography to come up with a storyline of the lengths a couple goes through to pay for a wedding. Then the photographers, using multiple cameras to create 3-D images, shot the couple in various scenes, created the 2-minute slideshow and set it to music.

Photography ended up being one of the major costs of their wedding, but the couple felt it was worth it.

“They were an absolute godsend,” Kevin said. “There is no way we could have seen our vision through without them. We went in there with the crazy notion of 3D and they came back to us with excitement and an unexpected OK.

“If you're going to spend money on one thing for your wedding, it might as well be for the memories. And the photos are going to help us remember that one day of our lives a lot better.”

“They did it all and it was amazing,” Stef said. “The result was as much fun as I envisioned in my head.”

Even more amazing to the couple was discovering how they could show it at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, the site of their wedding. “We thought it was only going to be a 7-to-8 foot projection,” Stef said. “When it filled a 20-by-20 foot wall, it was just incredible.”

And so as guests arrived, they had no idea what was in store for them. Kevin - dressed in a navy and purple pinstripe suit, vintage tiki cufflinks and a fresh pompadour - greeted guests as Stef made her final preparations at a friend’s condominium nearby. Guests were escorted to chairs, each with envelopes containing the 3-D glasses and a message: do not open.

Right after what seemed to be the start of the ceremony, Kevin stepped forward and instructed everyone to open the envelopes. “I said a few words and walked to the back to dim the lights,” he said. “There was a lot of disbelief and laughter at first. But everyone smiled or laughed at some point.”

At the end of the show, with their guests entertained and cheering, the glamorous Stef made her entrance.

By coincidence, their wedding was the same day as Zombie Walk , an annual Vancouver celebration the couple loved. “With our wedding theme, we knew we had to have a picture with the zombies,” Stef said. Shortly after the ceremony, the couple and Miranda walked to the mob of zombies and began taking photos.

And then it was on to their after-wedding session, bringing in Kevin’s passion: his 1953 Ford Customline. Kevin had purchased the car and had been working hard on its restoration, because he knew he had to have it in the wedding photos. The couple headed out to parts of the city where Miranda captured the spirit of the day.

Their attention to detail shows in every photo. And the months of planning and sweating over the smallest touches was worth the enjoyment Stef and Kevin got from their specially designed day.

“Our attitude was very much one of wanting all our guests to really enjoy themselves. I really think we succeeded,” Kevin said. “But I think we've made it just a little harder on everyone else to try to outshine us!”

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