Michele & Matt’s steampunk, cocktail party wedding

Wow, we've been teasing this wedding for quite a while now… Remember the “Yay!” flags, made by OBT member Michele, that everyone loved so much that we made Michele give us an “how to” post? And then remember the awesome steampunk groom fashion post? Well that was all from the same wedding and we finally have the whole scoop!

The offbeat bride: Michele – interior designer (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Matt – character animator

Location & date of wedding: The James Ward Mansion, Westfield, NJ — October 9, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: The decision to throw a Steampunk cocktail party came early, so we decided to address every detail by making nearly everything to create the wedding of our dreams.

Matt designed and made the beautiful copper pipe candelabras — twenty-one total, all different. I started in July making the felt flowers for the bouquets. My mother made my skirt, and the rest of our ‘outfits' were purchased and altered by us. We worked for months creating the perfect cocktail menu, which included such concoctions as “The Rye Elderflower Manhattan” and “The Aviation” (original recipe).

Our officiant was also our dj — he wrote a beautiful ceremony and played nothing but the best indie music, which everyone is still raving about. “Yay” flags were passed out to all guests before the ceremony, and were a hit all evening with people waving them and yelling “yay” each time we walked in the room.

We exchanged vows in sealed envelopes and read them in private later on.

For the ceremony, we walked in together to the title track of Edward Scissorhands and walked out to “Wonderwall” by the Mike Flowers Pops. We exchanged rings and had a handfasting. We exchanged vows in sealed envelopes and read them in private later on.

The venue is made up of numerous rooms, and we filled them all with small tables for people to mingle easily and sit wherever they wanted to, which was perfect for the “never ending cocktail hour” theme. We served an assortment of pies instead of cake. Matt also did Michele's eye makeup — one of Michele's favorite moments!

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was finishing all of the projects we had started. We are both artists and decided that in order to totally create the party of our dreams, we needed to make everything we could. Most of the production was started in July.

The list of diy projects included:

• felt flowers, enough for three bouquets and three boutonnieres (embroidered and adorned with buttons, gears and copper)
• copper pipe and fitting candelabras
• “Yay” flags
• Michele's jewelry, hair piece and skirt
• Michele's bustle
• all arm/leg garters, belts, cuffs — all leather items were made by Matt

Items we altered included:

• Michele's corset (Matt made the safety pins lining the front out of brass)
• Michele's shoes (added brass to them)
• Matt's goggles (stripped them to their original brass construction and made the leather straps)
• Michele's jacket (embroidered M&M on the sleeve, trimmed it with lace from Mom's wedding dress, and added the leather straps to the back)
• Matt's jacket (tailored it with leather, buckles, and brass hardware for a more fitted look).

The main challenge resulting from the diy endeavor was finishing the pie toppers. Matt was still working on the sculpting the morning of the wedding, which meant painting them minutes before we got in the car! They were finished and beautiful, but it was a stressful morning.

My favorite moment: Michele's favorite moment: I loved when Matt started crying when we were pronounced officially married. I loved the moment right before we walked into the ceremony, when it was just the two of us and it was so quiet and we couldn't believe what was about to happen. It was a moment of pure peacefulness and being madly in love with each other… so excellent! And I have to say that even though this happened pre-wedding, my most favorite moment was when Matt did my eye makeup. I was fairly stressed: the pie toppers weren't finished, and I really wanted help with my eye makeup. Matt is an incredible artist, so I asked him to apply the makeup. He had never done this before, and wasn't sure he could do it ‘right'.. but it was perfect and I absolutely love the fact that he did my makeup for me on our wedding day.

Matt's favorite moment: Matt loved the whole ceremony. Everything we did — the music, the rituals, the rings, the silent vows, the kiss. He loved the whole thing.

My offbeat advice: Decide on your concept early and stick with it. Whether your inspiration is a specific color palette or a full-steam-ahead theme, try not to change your mind along the way. Not only will this enable you to address every detail to fit your vision, but if you decide to make items for your wedding, you will have enough time to finish your projects. It will also save you money along the way by not making purchases of things you won't be using.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Corset- Shrine, Los Angeles
• Bride's Jacket: Buddhaful's Crop Jacket
• Stockings- SockDreams
• Bride's shoes- Demonia Vampire 03 in Black (various vendors- purchased from Shoebuy)
• Earrings: American Eagle Outfitters
• Bride's gloves: American Vintage Clothing, Los Angeles
• Nail polish: Sephora by Opi, “Under My Trench Coat”
• Groom's vest, trousers, goggles– Gentleman's Emporium
• Groom's shirt- Therapy, SF
• Groom's coat- La Rosa Vintage, 1711 Haight St., SF
• Spats- California Surplus, SF
• Groom's hat- hats.com
• Ascot- handmade by The Custom Shop with silk from Discount Fabrics, SF
• Catering: The Ultimate Caterer
• Photographer: Jacob Bauch

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.