Josh Imhof | staff writer

On Friday, March 28, guests were cordially invited to Bottlerocket Social Hall for the wedding reception of Mr. Brady Carrol and Mrs. Vallory Pepinski. Over 200 people attended to celebrate the happy couple, but good luck finding their marriage license anywhere.

No, they did not elope.

They didn’t get married by Elvis in Vegas.

They also aren’t in witness protection.

Brady and Vallory didn’t get married at all because they don’t exist. The two newlyweds, along with the rest of their extended family, were all played by local comedy improv actors as part of Bottlerocket’s “Wedding Party” event.

“It was going up to each person doing improv, and I didn’t know if they would do it back to me or just be like … ‘Why are you doing this?’” said Mallory McDeavitt, who played the bride.

Many guests played along with the actors, and one attendee became so immersed in the story that she even believed members of The Duke were part of the cast.

“I would say there was the highest level audience and guest participation in this [wedding event],” said Mindy Cooper, who played the sister of the groom.

Throughout the entire night, her “role” was to try and do everything possible to break up the wedding in order to be with the bride, who she had feelings for, by spreading rumors amongst the crowd about how the couple shouldn’t be together.

This and other storylines were threaded throughout the evening, including a sibling feud over an inheritance, the mysterious disappearance of the bride’s father and the groom’s reliance on an emotional support puppet.

In spite of their complexity, cast members only had an hour to come up with ideas and build chemistry with one another, making an already unique challenge more stressful.

“I was nervous going in because I didn’t know how the audience would take it. I haven’t done a lot of interactive improv, but it was really fun,” McDeavitt said. “I didn’t know if I could be a character for hours, but I was able to.”

Being dressed in a long, white gown often made McDeavitt the center of attention, allowing other cast members to have more natural interactions with guests.

Reed Rispoli and his partner, Heather Macintyre, had a conversation with the best man that they thought was real.

“I didn’t even know he was an actor when he came up to her,” said Rispoli.

In addition to the main cast, the party also featured a real wedding band, “Half Step Collective” and a guest book, where many left messages like:

“Congrats to the happy couple!”

“Mozel-Tov! – Your bearded cousin.”

“Don’t do it.”

People turned out in droves and packed the venue from the disco ball-lit dance floor to the fully stocked cookie table as retro wedding videos played overhead on vintage TV sets.

“It really exploded in the last year,” said Gracie Gickinson, co-owner of Bottlerocket. Since opening in 2022, the venue has hosted hundreds of events, ranging from fake company Christmas parties to Elvis Bingo.

To come up with these ideas, Bottlerocket staff have a groupchat on the app “Slack” where they will send suggestions to each other. These proposals are then divided into two categories: good and bad.

Despite their status, the staff at Bottlerocket still like to give some of the “bad” ones a chance.

“This was a bad idea night, and it turned out to be a good idea,” Gickinson said.

Since then, the social hall has held the event four times and sold out each one. Chris Copen, the other co-owner of Bottlerocket and originator of the “Wedding Party,” thought it would be a good way to take the best parts of these celebrations and turn them into an event.

“I thought it would be fun — people love weddings, and it’s more fun when you have no attachment to it,” Copen said.

Some guests, like Paige Terrette and Eric Lyon, took advantage of this opportunity and lived vicariously through the event. The two recently married in real life and instead of having a large wedding with a reception, they decided to do a backyard ceremony with around 10 people.

“Our wedding was great, but this is everything we missed out on,” Terrette said.

Other guests just enjoyed the moment, sporting ties wrapped around their foreheads and shirts stained with sweat.

As strands of Christmas lights gleamed overhead and the smell of alcohol fell over the crowd, Alyse Horn, who was donning a mustache and an oversized blue suit, summed up the evening perfectly.

“This is not like any wedding I’ve ever been to.”