Posted byYou've seen photos from this wedding of a magician & his assistant on Offbeat Bride before, but now it's time for all the glorious details …
The offbeat bride: Katie, magician's assistant & director of magic company
Her offbeat partner: Mario, magician
Location & date of wedding: The Lounsbury House, Ridgefield CT. October 11th, 2008
What made our wedding offbeat: As a magician and his assistant, we have a kind of unique lifestyle, and we really just wanted to share that with our family and friends.
In our everyday life, we are very inspired by all things vintage & vaudevillian. We love old silent films, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and we incorporated as much of that era and attitude as possible.
We chose a venue consisting of several smaller rooms as opposed to one large banquet hall. This encouraged lots of movement and mingling. It was great to see everyone interacting!
We put our hearts into every details. I hand-drew a playing card caricature of us and then Goccoed it onto the cover of our programs. Our favors were postcards of vintage magic posters, and every guest got a hand-sewn felt “faux-stache.”
We encouraged our guests to dress in vintage-inspired garb, but kept the era loose (late 1800s to early 1900s) to make it easier, and kept it optional, so as not to annoy anyone. We were shocked at the amount of people who dresses vintage. Everyone looked stunning, and we really felt like we had stepped into a time warp.
Our biggest challenge: 1. The invite list! We really wanted it to be an intimate affair, and that meant keeping our guest list to close family and best friends only. This wasn't always easy to explain, but we are very fortunate to have very understanding families.
2. I made the mistake of bringing my bridesmaids to a bridal shop for their dresses. It was a total nightmare. The dresses were fabulous, but it wasn't worth the trouble we went through dealing with horrible bridal shop people and their attitudes, lies, and disorganization. As soon as we had our hands on the dresses, we got out of there and had them altered elsewhere.
My favorite moment: My handsome poppy walked me down the stairway to an amaaazing rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.” It was moving, upbeat, and put a real hop in our step.
My offbeat advice: Get all the big and/or boring stuff out of the way as early as possible, so you can focus on fun details for the bulk of the months leading up to your big day.
My favorite vendors ‘n' stuff:
- Photography: Daria Bishop Photography
- Wedding gown: Nicole Miller
- Bride's hairpiece: Boring Sidney
- Music: Saints of Swing
- Magic: Cardone the Magician
- Flowers: Mamaroneck Flowers
- Food: Ciao! Cafe & Two Steps Catering
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
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I LOVE this wedding. So awesome 🙂
This has always been one of my favorite weddings. So so so amazing.
*squee* finally!!!!
i love everything about this wedding–
currently trying to not drool all over my keyboard.
omg, i adore that 20s look…you are both so elegant and gorgeous 🙂
In love with your wedding =)
Those 'staches are things of absolute beauty.
Favorite. Wedding. Ever. (I suppose to be honest it's _one_ of my favorites, since I'm sure I've said this before. But seriously, it's one of those that makes me want to get married again and again so that I can copy it.)
I love that you had ciao & two steps cater your wedding. Two of my favorite resturants in Danbury!
Absolutely amazing!
I was completely shocked when I saw that the house for this awesome wedding was in Ridgefield!! and that the catering was done by Ciao's and two steps! the owners are friends of the family and I am totally drooling and estatic that the house is 10 minutes away from my parents, I may have to take a day trip back to my hometown and get some rates for when my wedding rolls around, congrats Katie! This was one of my fav weddings on the site!
I hve just been sorting through old family wedding photos and the vintage look that has been created here is a fab modern twist on the old photos. Plus all of the smiles shows it was lots of fun too!
The preview of this wedding a while ago is why I joined the tribe, it is so amazing! It solidified some of my plans by showing me how great an idea can be if you run with it, what inspiration this wedding is! Beautiful and imaginative, I am in love.
Can you let us know where the groom acquired his awesome outfit? I'm looking for places with fun offbeat formalwear for the gents. 🙂
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!! This site was a huge inspiration to us as we planned our wedding, and I'm so thrilled to be able to pass on the inspiration to others! Working with Gail at the Lounsbury House was so easy and fun. And Tom Devine of Ciao and Two Steps, our caterer, seriously made the whole event stress-free. Not only was the food amazing, but he guided me along the way with every question I had, food-related or not. His insight and familiarity with the venue was a lifesaver, and he never blinked an eye with any of my "offbeat" ideas. I can't say enough of all of my fabulous vendors… Daria and Andy of Daria Bishop Photography made me photo dreams come true, and Mamaroneck Flowers created the perfect floral adornments to our evening. The music and magic, by Saints of Swing and Cardone the Magician respectively, solidified an awesome vintage mood. To answer the question about Mario's garb… we pieced his outfit together from various sources. The pants were pinstripes by Hugo Boss, the vest and cravat were from gentlemansemporium.com, the jacket and 100-year-old top hat were thrift store finds, and the shirt was from Nordstrom. Hope that helps! xoxo
Love, love, love this wedding!!!!!!
You both look absolutely stunning, Congratulations!
A friend of mine kept saying, "You have to see photos of this wedding." It was yours and I sat down with my fiance and watched your slideshow and we are so impressed. I love it when people stick to who they are when it comes to their wedding. Thank you for being you:) Love and light, Taraleigh
I fell in love with this wedding when some of the photos were featured before. Everything is gorgeous, and you two looked stunning!
i am so in love with this wedding! lol they totally nailed the time period.. and the pics with the phony mustaches are hilarious 😀
*sigh*
Absolutely wonderful!
truly fantastic. a lovely couple that truly embraced their passions! it's making me very excited for my own "offbeat" wedding!
Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing your awesome wedding.