Erik Riekenberg and Aaron White have been friends for 25 years. Both DJ's, they went to UNR together.
"We were college roommates," White said. "We both had a job working at Best Buy; he worked in one department and I worked in another and we used to hang out on our breaks. We had those Nextel pagers and we'd text each other, it was hilarious because we could see each other and we'd be like 'hey, what are you doing tonight? Do you want to hang out? Yeah, lets hang out!'"
They went their separate ways after school but reconnected a few years ago when they realized they had similar interests.
"I've had a camera in my hand for like 30 years," White said. "I started off doing nightclub and video and photos for my DJ friends while I was traveling, and one day Erik and I approached each other and I said, 'this wedding stuff is really fun.' We did one and I was like, 'this is awesome.' It was great to be a part of the best day of these peoples' lives. When we delivered the pictures, the bride's mom called me crying and I was crying. I was like, 'this is amazing' and fell in love with it, it's awesome."
Riekenberg handles the DJ and MC duties at Epik Weddings and Events and White is in charge of capturing the epic moments. The goal is to make things as easy on the bride and groom as possible.
"We said, why don't we collaborate our services into one so couples can come and get a one-stop shop," Riekenberg said. "Couples interview an average of 13 vendors for their wedding and we said, why don't we just make one stop so couples can come in, interview us, and then they can knock out four things right there with the DJ, photo booth, photography, videography, and be able to collaborate with other vendors. We want to make that wedding magical, remove that stress of interviewing and instead focus on the other things that are going to make that wedding fun."
The busiest wedding month is June but September is a close second.
"The best part about what we do is we get to be with people on the happiest day of their lives," Riekenberg said. "They're moving into a new chapter, starting a family, everyone there is for the couple, they're surrounded by love and we get to help orchestrate that and help it become a reality. Our goal is to knock it out of the park for them so their wedding is the bar every other wedding is measured by for the people that are there."
Riekenberg was named Best DJ and White got Best Photography in the latest edition of the Reno News and Review's Best of Northern Nevada poll.
"We can't thank the community enough because they were the ones that made this happen for us," White said. "We want to represent the wedding community as best we can and show it in a positive light because we are so thankful."
