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The offbeat bride: Kim – production designer, illustrator and shadow caster (and OBT member “Kim“)
Her offbeat partner: Alex – filmmaker and shadow caster
Location & date of wedding: Bloor Cinema (ceremony) – Gladstone Hotel (reception) in Toronto, ON Canada — Saturday, October 31, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was a huge smorgasbord of all the little things that we held dear as a couple: our love for zombies, Tim Burton, movies, toys, shadow casting, poutine and of course, Halloween. All of these were incorporated into many wedding details from the decoration, to the favours, to our outfits and even the ceremony itself.
We were married at our favourite repertoire theatre in Toronto, The Bloor Cinema. While an old movie theatre may be a pretty unconventional wedding venue, it was perfect for us. It was our home away from home. Aside from seeing countless of films here, this was also the very stage we perform our monthly shadow cast of Repo! The Genetic Opera on. We've had one of our films played on the same screen. This was also the place where Alex proposed to me during the 2007 Toronto Zombie Walk. This theatre was the venue for many of our most cherished memories, so it was most appropriate for us to exchange vows on this stage.
For our reception, we opted for an afternoon cocktail party at the Gladstone Hotel. We wanted our friends and family to mingle without the confinement of assigned seats and it worked really well. Everyone had a blast! Our food also echoed our laid back style. Along with hors d'ourves, we also served the ultimate all-Canadian dish: poutine!
We wanted a wedding that truly brought out the kids in all of us. We definitely achieved our goal!
Our biggest challenge: Since Canadian October weather tends to go insane, and the spread of the fall flu/cold is inevitable, many of us in the wedding party were fighting the germs leading up to and during the actual event. My MOH and I were getting hints of the sore throat. My dad's tonsils were inflamed the day before and had to miss the rehearsal. Alex was also combatting a fever the night before and on the actual morning of the wedding! It was terrible, especially since we still had so much to do and couldn't really rest.
How did we get through the day without dying of plague? We all drank copious amounts of orange juice, took shots of oregano oil and hoped for the best. We had no time to get sick! We were freaking getting married!
When the wedding was over and we were back from our honeymoon, my immune system finally called it quits and I got the mother of all fall colds. Go figure.
My favorite moment: Our ceremony was tough to get through because we all couldn't stop laughing! I had never experienced a wedding ceremony where everyone laughed that much. I guess it helps when the groom starts off the event by walking down the aisle with a cape to the Batman score! True to the tradition of the Bloor Cinema experience, there were also a lot of callbacks made during our ceremony. Our favourite was “Everybody! Everybody make your fiance your spouse!”, which our shadow cast yelled as a tribute to “Repo!”.
To add even more geekiness to our ceremony, we tweeted “I DO!” to each other and fist bumped with our new interlocking wedding rings while screaming “WONDER TWIN POWERS ACTIVATE!”
Dancing with my dad was also a highlight for me. We danced to “Sunrise/Sunset” from the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack, which was a film we always watched and sang along to when I was growing up.
Later that evening, we attended the Rocky Horror Picture Show screening at the Bloor Cinema and the cast did a shout-out to us in front of a packed theatre. We did our Betty and Ralph cameo and danced our first Time Warp as hubby and wife.
We had a really long day, but every moment of it was perfect. What an awesome way to spend a Halloween!
My offbeat advice: If you can manage it, try to hire the least amount of vendors as possible. Find a venue that has an all-in-one deal (in-house catering, table linens, sound system, etc.) and turn to your talented friends (or yourself!) for the rest. Not only will this save you money and the hassle of having to coordinate multiple strangers, this also guarantees that you will have a wedding that is truly custom-fit for you because… well… you and your friendors did it yourselves!
That being said, since this route ultimately leads to more DIY projects, be sure to start working early and set realistic goals. If you are getting close to crunch time and there are still a lot left to do, learn to improvise, delegate, or just simply let go. It's not the end of the world if your DIY centrepieces aren't exactly like the concept sketch you had in your planning book!
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:
- Custom outfits: Provocouture Studios
- Hat: Creepsuela Switchletto
- Custom Pimp sticks: We Kill You
- Photography: Calla Evans
- Guest Gwin: October Toys
- Zombie illustrations: Me (Pretty Poopie)
- Rings: Steelwerks
- Bouquet: Princess Lasertron
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.
I'm so glad to see Alex and Kim up here! The Wedding was so epic! XD
So awesome! You guys seem like such an adorable and fun couple. Congrats <3
Yay! Great to see you guys on here!
LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!!
Freakin adorable couple! Badass wedding! And I'm swooooooooning over the groom's jacket!! Why didnt I think of that?!
What an adorable couple! The groom is rocking some serious sideburns!
Great wedding!
I really love the idea to marry in a theatre! Congratualtions for this awesome wedding!
What a fantastic idea!!!! Congrats on your great wedding.
"wonder twin powers activate!"- i love it! sounds like so much fun 🙂
Zombie wedding represent! I was one of the bridesmaids in this wedding and it was awesome. One of the most fun weddings I have ever been to! Go Kim and Alex!
All I can say is WOW…WOW WOW WOW!!!!! Freakin' awesome! I want your wedding! lol And your photographer too! 😀 Congratulations on the wedding and having such a beautiful and memorable event!
All I can say is WOW…WOW WOW WOW!!!!! Freakin' awesome! I want your wedding! lol And your photographer too! 😀 Congratulations on the wedding and having such a beautiful and memorable event!
Wow! I'm from Toronto too and it's SO COOL to see both the Bloor Cinema and the Gladstone incorporated in the same wedding! Two of my favourite places. What an awesome wedding. Congrats!
Lovely wedding. How were the bouquets and boutonnieres made? They are amazing!
The bouquet and boutonnieres were handmade by the lovely Princess Lasertron. You can visit her blog here: http://www.princesslasertron.com! I highly recommend her. Awesome products and even better customer service!
I would have loved to have crashed this wedding; it looks incredible!
OMGEE! What a super-duper wedding! love that you did the Wondertwins, it's so great that you two had so much fun at your wedding! Congrats!
Oh man, TWO Gladstone weddings in one week? I think I might swoon!!
this wedding was SO AMAZING. kim and alex did such a great job and it looked like such a fun party!!
What fantastic wedding photos! It looks and sounds like so much fun. And thanks for the link to the Repo! shadow cast site – my fiance and I both love Repo! and might make a trip from Ottawa this year to catch your show. Congrats!
Vive le poutine! Very cool wedding/
"We wanted a wedding that truly brought out the kids in all of us."
What a fantastic goal. Your wedding is divine.
My fianceé and I met on Twitter, conducted our romance on Twitter, and made a big, orchestrated announcement of our wedding on Twitter. We're even planning on having our guests live-tweet the wedding. I *might* have to take a page from you guys' book and bring some Twitter into our vows…
Anyway, this is one of the coolest-looking weddings ever. Congrats on getting married in such a spooky, classy, and super fun way.
DO IT!!!! We're both addicted to twitter, so it was only natural for us to tweet during our ceremony 🙂
The funny thing was that a few weeks after our wedding, a guy became internet famous on Youtube for posting a video of him tweeting at his ceremony. The media credited him as the first live-tweeter groom… but PSHA we did it before him. Hehe. ;P
aww yay! If you do end up coming to our show, be sure to come up and say hi 🙂
actually… if you are from Ottawa, you should also check out the Necromerchants Payment, that is Ottawa's Repo! shadow cast. They perform monthly at Club SAW.
Aww, thanks for the love guys! Alex and I had such a blast at our wedding. Glad we could share it with you 🙂
If you guys are interested in more wedding details/photos and such, I kept a wedding planning blog. I'm lagging with the recaps, but they are coming. http://nightmarewedding.wordpress.com
Oh, the thunder-stealing! ::shakes fist:: We had a similar scenario; we thought we were going to be the first people we knew who met on Twitter and then got married. But then two friends of ours on Twitter from two different *continents* got married all-of-a-sudden a month ago, so we kinda lost that title. 🙂
Ah, well. The more we talk about this, the simpler and smaller the wedding seems to get. So I think live-tweeting and a ustream broadcast is going to be a MUST. We already have (and are using) a wedding hashtag…
This wedding is amazing!! It looks like you all had so much fun, which is what a wedding should be! And the bride is like movie star gorgeous. Congrats you two!
I am so jealous and yet so inspired at the same time. This is really a rocking wedding that incorporates a lot of the same interests that me and my SO have. Congrats and glad to see you had fun! ^_^
looks like fun!! I am having a Halloween wedding this year, I plan on doing ransom note invitations, and having the ceremony and reception in a cabin. I plan on being zombified after the ceremony, and of course we will have a zombie cake!
i love this wedding!!! ive been trying to read the "guest book gwin" for about and hour now and i cant figure it all out!! lol what does it all say?!?! its so cute!!!!!! please tell me its killing me!!
haha you know, I haven't gotten around to really reading every single note on the guest gwin yet… there were so many!
Testify! Wow, I adore your unity jack 'o lantern! What an amazing and gorgeous wedding. (and hooray for Repo!)
I love your wedding! Geek weddings make me happy. 🙂 The shoelaces are a great touch that adds a certain witchy-ness to the Halloween thing.
So awesome! You guys seem like such an adorable and fun couple. Congrats <3
Congrats guys! I was excited/surprised to see someone I know on here! Oh Alhooter. Those were the days. What are the chances we would both get married on the same day. Hah. Glad to see you so happy.
I sort of know these people! All of a sudden I feel much cooler by association 🙂
Hi Hi everyone my cuzins wedding was the best ever it was amazing and I saw the look in Alex’s eyes as he saw his bride walk to the stage he had a twinkle in his eye that I have never seen him have before and the look on his face was she looks amazing I am so ready for her to be mine forever… 🙂 Hope to see you guys soon