Amy & Justin’s Reno Wedding

Amy filled out the contact form on my website in December 2025, we talked on the phone that same morning, and by early afternoon she had booked me for June 13th, 2026 at the Galena Creek Fish Hatchery, up in the pines of Galena Creek Park.

The ceremony was on the stone patio at the edge of the forest and the reception was inside the old stone hatchery building, so I set up twice. While guests gathered under the pines, I played the list Amy and Justin put together themselves: Bow Wow Wow, The Buggles, Kirsty MacColl, Bananarama, Culture Club, Kim Wilde, and a bardcore version of Toxicity by System of a Down.

The wedding party walked in to God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, and Amy walked in to Once Upon a Time... Storybook Love by Mark Knopfler. They read their own vows, and their officiant closed with a poem called What I Learned About Love, I Learned From My Dog.

Amy's Vows

“

I never thought I'd be lucky enough to meet you: the person I can say anything to without fear of being judged.

They walked back up the aisle to a bluegrass cover of Sweet Child o' Mine by Thunder and Rain, with their guests cheering on both sides. Then Silent A Photography took them out into the forest for portraits in the evening light, while I kept cocktail hour easy with Nat King Cole, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Van Morrison and Jimmy Buffett.

I brought them into the reception to Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours by Stevie Wonder, and Justin came through the door with his arms wide open. This was a wedding with a lot of people who wanted to say something: Justin's best man Randy, Amy's oldest friend Sarah, Justin's brother, his dad, and then an open mic where one friend after another stood up to talk about them.

Their first dance was Never in My Wildest Dreams by Dan Auerbach. Later the floor filled up for Whitney Houston, Twist and Shout and the Chicken Dance, and the last song of the night was Dirty Water by The Standells.

I recorded the ceremony and the toasts, so they can hear them again whenever they like. Amy wrote afterward that I was "extremely thorough from the moment I contacted him to the very end." Thank you, Amy and Justin.