Jennifer & Mark’s 1950s, vintage Barbie, Hollywood glamour wedding

Day two of Offbeat Mama-Bride week brings us Jennifer and Mark's vintage-style wedding with a Barbie theme. Jennifer's daughters were both MOHs and rocked some pretty incredible bridesmaid's dresses.

The offbeat bride: Jennifer

Her offbeat partner: Mark

Location & date of wedding: The Russian Hall, Little Falls, NJ — 09.19.09

What made our wedding offbeat: We had an elegant, 1950s vintage Hollywood wedding on a small budget. I did everything myself, and it was fabulous for the amount of money I spent!

My daughters were both maids of honor, and we had a family unity ceremony for them.

I wore a vintage inspired second hand gown, and $5, silver, 1950s shoes from a thrift shop. A birdcage veil and rhinestone headpiece. Custom made french beaded bouquet, featuring Evenstar pendant from Lord of The Rings (the first gift my hubby ever gave me eight years ago).

I am forty-two, he is thirty-three, and this was my second marriage. My daughters were both maids of honor, and we had a family unity ceremony for them. Wrote our own vows and ceremony. And we hand-made the invitations featuring our dogs in wedding attire.

The men were dressed in shawl collar typical 1950s tuxedos, with paper, rhinestone and guinea feather boutonnieres, and bow ties. The groom wore a feathered rat-pack hat. My girls wore “Barbie,” black, elegant, fishtail dresses, and carried hand painted fans, and wore vintage rhinestone jewelry.

My entrance song was ‘Let It Be Me' a classic big-Elvis Vegas song, and most of our wedding was Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin type music. We had a doo-wop group perform, featuring my new father in law! A candy buffet dotted with vintage barbie dolls, and silver chinese take out containers. Famous Hollywood couples photos that I custom made into table number cards. A Superman grooms cake. Vintage Barbie and Ken wedding cake topper!

Our biggest challenge: Having an elegant wedding that was DIY but didn't look it or feel it. Centerpieces were made for under $25 each, grooms cake for $80. Dress for $600, bridesmaids dresses on sale from Lord & Taylor for $150 each. My shoes were $5! Finding the right space was HARD but actually got the tip from an OBB and The Hall was wonderfully kitchy! My bouquet was $70 and it was gorgeous!

The challenge was doing it all with no help, as my daughters are in college — and one lives in VT and was physically unable to be there, and the other daughter is also in grad school, and works two jobs! My husband helped, and we did it all!

The invitations were my biggest challenge, and took me three months to finish. We dressed our dogs in wedding attire and had a photo shoot on the bed, and we made HUGE invitations: 8 x 11! They probably cost the most money but people went NUTS over them! I worked so hard on those and I STILL get compliments.

My favorite moment: When my new hubby and my kids exchanged vows and rings and we became a family, even though they are in college.

My daughters speech made the entire crowd cry! I'm not kidding!! My kids had a challenging life with their biological dad, and ever since Mark came into their lives, they have seen me happy and they have had someone to depend on and care for them. It was truly, truly a beautiful moment!

My offbeat advice: Cohesiveness. I have seen many beautiful weddings on OBB that really inspired me to just go all the way and not leave any detail out. I got such compliments about how much love there was in the room, not only in the new family we have made but in how we created this day to reflect the true “us.” It was remarkable!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• On Etsy I got the boutonnieres (custom made, with some elements I sent the creator to help her) and the custom painted fans. I found that I could get ideas from these very creative people, start a conversation with them, and lead them in the direction I wanted, and they really came through!
• All my Barbies were gotten on ebay and some from my own collection.
• My jewelry was all my grandmothers, lucky me! Including my engagement ring which we had re-set into a rose gold VERY unique setting! Lovesss it!

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:

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