Wedding Guide

Love Is a Circus

Veronica Triplett and Trey Johnson’s carnival wedding even had a fire-eating officiant.

Veronica Triplett (l) and Trey Johnson (Photos by GIa Quilap)

After first eloping in Las Vegas at the Little Chapel of the West on May 10, 2021, Houstonians Veronica Triplett, 40, and Trey Johnson, 47, were wed in what they call “a great big queer circus-themed costume-party wedding” on May 7, 2022. 

“It was a conglomeration of our interests, and wanting to support and hire all of our creative friends [to provide] the venue, photography, cake, and flowers,” Veronica says.

Massage-therapist Veronica is the owner of Core Body Lab, and hairstylist Trey is the owner of Tr3y Blades in the Heights. 

The two first met in 2014 through a mutual friend who wanted to set them up. But they didn’t actually meet until Veronica went to Trey to get her hair cut after several friends had referred her. 

“We ended up having a wacky conversation about ‘space church,’ and after that first meeting we instantly wanted to be friends,” Veronica says. “We set up a hangout to teach ourselves how to throw knives, and our friendship grew from there.”

Veronica knew she wanted to marry Trey the moment she realized Trey would be fun to grow old with—a life of joy, creativity, laughter, playfulness, adventure, and love all rolled up into one dynamic package. 

“We are going to awkward-dance in the kitchen making breakfast and race our mobility scooters through grocery stores and make crazy art and adventure our way to the grave together.” 

For Trey, it took a little longer. “We became friends first (unlike the typical lesbian U-Haul dating) after a few years of being together and forging a stable and healthy relationship,” Trey says. “I couldn’t imagine Veronica not in my life, and I was ready to commit. There are so many amazing things about her. She will find humor in any situation. So even if things are challenging, you know you will laugh about it later.”

In 2020, the pair did a lot of hiking in the Rockies. On one trip, they each independently decided to surprise the other with a proposal. As they descended from a hike early one day due to bad weather, they passed a sign that read Dream Lake Overlook that Trey thought was “a sign” for sure. So Trey stopped to set up a camera at the overlook while secretly pulling an engagement ring out of a bag. While they were posing, Trey proposed.

The following day, Veronica surprised Trey by proposing after a very arduous hike to Chasm Lake (elevation 11,823 feet). Naturally, Trey said yes.

Their ceremony was held in an actual circus ring with their fire-eating officiant, Y.E. Torres. “She started the ceremony with a fire dancing/eating performance,” Veronica recalls. Jenny Dahlgren, an Olympic athlete in hammer throw, dressed as a giant sunflower and was their flower girl. Trey’s son was their ring bearer. “We made him dress up as a bear—a ‘ring bear!’”

Things only got more interesting from there as they walked down the aisle to music that sounded like “the beginning of a duel in a spaghetti western.” Twelve confetti cannons exploded when they kissed. Their cake, of course, was a unicorn pegasus funfetti cake with two enormous glitter Pegasus figures that the couple made themselves as the backdrop. Their guests dressed for the evening in costume.

The ceremony was followed by a circus performance. “We had two aerialists who did silks and cube performances; a bearded burlesque performer; a mullet-wearing drag-king emcee in an all-denim outfit—complete with denim fringe, a drawn-on six-pack, and tear-away pants; a hula-hooping contortionist; Gal Fiery doing a Guy Fiery drag performance with hot dogs and sparklers; and a fire-fan performance,” Veronica recalls. Jugglers, hoopers, and stilt walkers also wandered throughout the venue. Trey described the entire celebration as The Moment. “Seeing all of our friends dressed in costumes having so much fun, watching my dad tickled with wonder at the circus performance, both of us tearing up while expressing our vows, laughing and dancing the night away and ending perfectly.”

And, Veronica adds, “When Shelly Arnold, dressed as our taxidermied raccoon bride lamp (that’s a whole other story) got up for our toast and just hissed loudly into the microphone” was a moment not to be missed.

The couple agrees it was a perfect night. “The only thing I regret,” Veronica adds, “was not being able to get a mechanical bull!”

 

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Jenny Block

Jenny Block is a frequent contributor to a number of high-profile publications from New York Times to Huffington Post to Playboy and is the author of four books, including “Be That Unicorn: Find your Magic. Live your Truth. Share your Shine." She has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs from Nightline to BBC Radio to Great Day Houston and has performed and spoken at bookstores, events, conferences, and resorts in the US and Mexico, as well as on Holland America Cruise ships.
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