Mammoth WVH frontman Wolfgang Van Halen married his long-time love Andraia Allsop during an intimate ceremony over the weekend on the eighth anniversary of their first date. According to People magazine the couple tied the knot at their home in Los Angeles on Sunday in front of 90 guests.
“Our goal was just to bring all of our closest family and friends together,” Allsop told the magazine. “The past few years, not only with the world, but also with personal tragedies, haven’t been the easiest, but we wanted to create this wedding as a celebration not only just for us to get married, but a celebration for the people we love.”
One of the most emotional moments of the ceremony was when Van Halen down the aisle with his mom, actress Valerie Bertinelli, to a song written for him by his late father, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who died at age 65 in Oct. 2002 after long battle with cancer.
“The song that my father had written for me, it’s an instrumental piece called ‘316.’ It’ll be a nice way to include my dad,” Wolfie said of the acoustic, finger-picked 90-second track from VH’s 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge that was inspired by Wolfgang’s birth on March 16, 1991. The bride walked down the aisle with her dad to Dean Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody” and tapped her grandmothers as the flower girls.
The wedding took place in the couple’s living room and was officiated by one of the guitarist’s closest family friends, whom Wolfgang, 32, said he’s known for most of his life. “He’s the dad of one of my best men and he’s just an important guy in our life,” the rocker said of the officiant. The backdrop to the ceremony was a stained-glass window that previously served as a backdrop for a Lady Gaga performance.
In addition to writing their own vows, the couple honored loved ones who couldn’t be there, including leaving an empty chair for Eddie Van Halen and clearing their bookshelves and lining them with pictures of loved ones who’ve died or could not attend. Allsop also made “memory charms” with pictures of Wolfie and Eddie on boutonnieres, corsages and bouquets so they would think of the late rocker “throughout the day.”
“It brings me such a nice sense of peace knowing Wolfie and Andraia have each other for the rest of their lives,” Bertinelli told People. “They really ‘get’ one another. Their humor is very similar, they like similar things, they know how to give each other space and they’re just so comfortable together… Ed would’ve been absolutely beaming and so, so proud of the man Wolfie has become and is becoming and so happy that he has found Andraia, someone who really understands Wolfie, who he is and who he wants to be and supports him wholeheartedly.”
The party included a DJ to “keep it simple,” and allow Wolfgang to enjoy himself without the pressure of performing; he kicks off his upcoming Mammoth WVH tour on Nov. 4 in Milwaukee. It was, of course, not the typical line dances and “Macarena” playlist for the couple, as Van Halen requested some non-traditional tunes from one of his favorite death metal bands, Meshuggah.
Check out a picture of the happy couple here.
