LEGO Wedding
On April 1, 2007, my former roommate John Chase married Kelly Kennedy in Redding, California. Since John and I had been building a large LEGO airplane, and Kelly had also played with LEGO when she was younger, I decided to make them a LEGO wedding gift. After building a few prototypes to test different designs, I arrived at the sculpture featured on this page. The sculpture includes two levels: on the top are three-inch-tall figures representing John and Kelly under a large white arch; the bottom level features the couple's initials: J + K. Click the photo at below for a larger image.
Construction Details
I wanted to design a sculpture using a variety of LEGO elements (not just rectangular bricks) and innovative construction techniques. The bride and groom figures were inspired by those made by LEGO artist Sean Kenney. Wanting to place the figures in some sort of garden scene, I designed the white arch. The arch is constructed almost entirely from 1×3 plates and 1×1 round plates, combined alternately to form a sort of flexible panel. Placed with studs facing forward, this became an arch. The green trellis behind the figures is another example of studs-not-on-top construction; the vertical green plates are simply wedged between studs on the gray floor to hold the trellis upright.
To make the lower level more interesting, I scattered some "sand blue" bricks in the white wall and set the initials at an angle. The letters are eleven bricks tall and secured to the base by one or two studs each. Since an ampersand (&) was too intricate to make at this scale, I settled for a plus sign between the J and K.
Nearly all of the pieces were new and purchased from BrickLink.com. The tan hinge plates that make up the bride's arms were quite rare and had to be purchased from a seller in England.
At the Wedding
The LEGO creation was a bigger hit than I imagined it would be among John, Kelly, and their family and friends. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and some didn't believe at first glance that it was constructed from LEGO elements. The photo below shows John, Kelly, and myself with the sculpture at a brunch the day before John and Kelly were married. Photos of John and Kelly's wedding are available in the Gallery.
