501st Legion Saves the Day!

Vader warns me of the consequence in taking a bad pic

So about three months ago I was approached by a friend to help out with her pals wedding as her fiance is a huge Star Wars fan.  I gave her a tentative yes, as I kinda wasn't into the idea of walking around a beautiful reception hall dressed as a Stormtrooper.

A few months go by and after getting my homie to agree to join me on the Imperial appearance, I let the soon to be Bride know that we were in to help with her big surprise for her man.

And then 2 weeks ago my pal informed he couldn't make it out as he was on-call for work that weekend..doh!!  With less than a week to figure out how I was going to let Melissa know that we had to cancel-- cause I ain't rolling through any regal event without my Sith Lord-- why not reach out to the 501st Legion and see if they could help. So I did.

In less than a day the local Golden Gate Garrison responds back to me on my issue and with less than 3 days of notice-- they agree to have a Darth Vader attend.  I was still in a state of disbelief and concern that this was really hapenning

It's the big wedding day and I was all pumped to work as a personal guard for one of the 501st's finest -- so I spent a few hours in sprucing up the armor with a good cleaning which was way overdue from trooping at SDCC and Wondercon earlier in the year.  After making all the needed preparations- grabbing some water bottles, verifying I got every piece of the fit, a few towels and so on I made way to meet on location with Brian (SL-2865) of the Legion, the wedding coordinator and the bride.

Brian and I were received and brought to a changing room to get ready for Melissa's special wedding surprise for her husband, Matt.  During that time I got to pick Brian's brain on best approaches to problems I have had with my armor fit and also getting some insider bits of info on new tech in boom mics and other shit that you don't get from your average cosplayer.  Sweet! 

You can tell from Matt's (the groom) huge smile, he was psyched to have Vader in attendance

Gotta say it was sick seeing your average 5'11 guy transform to a menacing 6'5 Darth Vader.  Badass.

Every detail of his fit was on point and I was stunned to hear that he spent over 240+ hours on handcrafting his costume. 

So we were all ready to go, Brian became Darth Vader with his heavy breathing apparatus and all.

Then the door busted open and we see Melissa come in with Matt which wasn't planned-- and he went ape-shit, crazy on seeing that he had a legit ass Darth Vader and Stormtrooper at his wedding.  The look on his face and things that were coming out of his mouth was priceless.  Melissa was nearly in tears and Matt was huggin it out with Vader and me.  This was captured on video and I will post it once I get it from the filmographer. 

After taking hundreds of pictures over the course of an hour or so with many of Melissa & Matt's friends/family and sweating like a mofo more so than any daily cardio that you can partake in-- Brian and I felt Imperial for repping the Empire and ensuring order at this event.

If anything my calling in improving the armor fit with a torso strapping kit and finally installing the voice changer/amp prior to my eventual application to the 501st is more pressing after all of this -- as that feeling you get from seeing how much love you can bring to people is crazy addicting.

Congrats again to the newly married couple and thanks again to TK 8272, SL 2865 and the rest of the 501st for making this all happen.



This post was written by:
big O