Couple with Autism and ADHD Plan Sensory-Friendly Fantasy Wedding Fit for Royalty

Who says you have to compromise to have a sensory-friendly wedding? This couple certainly didn’t.

When Ramona “Mona” Jones and her partner, Aaron Gibson, got engaged and began planning their wedding day, they knew the event would have to be custom-designed to meet their unique sensitivities. Mona is on the autism spectrum, and Aaron has ADHD. But to look at this magical fairytale wedding from the outside, you’d never dream that it was planned around the idea of sensory friendliness.

Mona and Aaron planned most of the wedding themselves to make sure all the details were what they wanted and nothing came as a surprise. They visited their venue multiple times to help it feel like a “home away from home,” which made Mona more comfortable. They invited only 16 friends and family members, and they got ready at home the day of the wedding. The bride even wore earplugs all day to help her feel less overwhelmed.

Throughout the day, built-in breaks helped the bride and groom relax and recover from the overwhelm. Personally, I think more people should do this on their wedding days; who doesn’t need a minute or two alone to soak in the reality of getting to marry their very best friend in the company of all their favorite people? Mona and Aaron even took things to the next level by reserving a designated room at their venue for breaks.

After the wedding ceremony, there was a brief break for the couple to take a walk, followed by an outdoor picnic with their guests, held outside so that it wouldn’t be too noisy. Mona and Aaron sat at the end of the table, where things would be less overwhelming and wouldn’t require as much eye contact. Afterward, there were stress-free lawn games to enjoy.

The couple chose not to have a reception or dancing, so they had the evening to themselves after 4 p.m. Having only half a day of festivities really helped cut down on how exhausted and overloaded they felt at the end of the day and gave them more time to truly relish their first day of marriage. They changed into comfy clothes, ordered takeout, lit candles in the library of their gorgeous estate venue, and just enjoyed the evening.

“I think every wedding I’ve been to, I’ve either had a meltdown or something has always gone wrong,” Mona says. “One of the most important things that we did was at the beginning, we sat down and discussed the weddings that we’d been to, what I found hard, and how we could avoid that in our own wedding. We took it very seriously to make sure that it was a nice day, and it wasn’t something that I was terrified of.”

We love seeing neurodiversity represented like this—as a beautiful and bold statement of love without compromise or fear of what outsiders will think. Mona and Aaron do things their own way, and we think everyone should!

@monalogue How we had a sensory friendly wedding ❤️ #wedding #actuallyautistic #actuallyautistictiktoks #neurodivergent #couples #autism #adhd ♬ Heartbeats – Jose Gonzalez

Support Research & Therapy

Help those with Autism and their families at The Autism Site for free!

Whizzco