Apr 17, 2019 3 min read

There are couples who adhere to traditional wedding planning and wedding customs when it comes to their big day, and there are couples who eschew the norm when putting together their nuptials. Christopher Chappel, 35, and Jasper Sta. Ana are definitely among the latter.

They met online, and dated for about two and a half years before an April day in 2017 when Jasper asked Christopher if he wanted to go and look at rings. For about a month, the pair looked around, as Jasper wanted them to have the same symbol of love. They finally settled on a style and purchased them in May, when Christopher asked Jasper when they would actually get engaged.

“Jasper looks at me and goes, ‘Wait, are we not already?’ He thought we got engaged back in April – so basically there was an entire month where one of us thought we were engaged and the other did not,” Christopher says.

Christopher hails from Houston, Pa., and Jasper from Corona, Calif. They now reside in New York City, and took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to bring their families together to make it official. Both the ceremony and reception took place at the Ukrainian Institute of America’s Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, where Jasper is the director of operations.

And the entire event was uniquely them. There was no wedding party. Two of the couple’s best friends officiated, two of their siblings acted as official wittinesses. It was a straight-forward and short ceremony, with only one reading – one of Jasper’s friends did a dramatic reading of the Janet Jackson song “When I Think of You.” The couple’s 150 or so guests were not silent during the ceremony: Christopher says there was a lot of “hooting and hollering.”

They didn’t do a seated dinner, instead serving Filipino food buffet-style. “We just kept inviting people (throughout the planning process),” Christopher, who is the associate director of creative production at Quartz, a global news organization, says. “Every time I had a drink, I would invite everyone around me. I literally forgot that I had invited people and I saw them walking in, and I was like, ‘Oh, you’re here!'”

The couple actually didn’t even want to have a ceremony, but their families urged them do – thankfully they listened, because both cite that as their favorite part of the day. “I’m glad we did it,” Jasper says. “I saw how my siblings and my mom reacted to it – I saw my siblings tear up – it was really nice.”

They also chose to forgo the official cake cutting, first dance, mother-son dance and speeches. “It was just a huge party,” Jasper says.

The professional photos of the event are all in black and white, because the couple feels that black and white images are very timeless and cinematic. “We watched the movie “Roma” and we saw stills from the film. We loved how cinematic it was, and that’s what we wanted to accomplish with our photos,” Jasper says.

The Details

Ballon arch: The Balloon Saloon, New York City 

Floral arrangements: From an entire Magnolia tree bought in the Flower District, New York City 

Garland decor: Costco 

The cookie table: Christopher’s mother brought the cookies for the cookie table from Bethel Bakery

Neon sign: Neon Mfg, Vancouver, BC