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The offbeat bride: Rosanne – Graphic Designer (and OBT member)
Her offbeat partner: Andrew – Warehouse Manager/Comic Artist
Location & date of wedding: Church, Park, Rosehill Venue Lounge, Ontario, Canada — September 19, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: My dress was inspired by an Irish Barbie dress and worn with a circlet; both custom made by local designers. (Less expensive than the regular store-bought dresses by far!) 
My husband wore a morning coat lined in red, with an ascot.
My maid of honour and bridesmaids wore chiffon bell sleeves made by my aunt, designed by myself, keeping with the ye olde look.
Instead of the bride/groom slideshow, we had an XBox 360 at the reception because we both love games. The cocktail reception was at a swanky converted lounge, where, admittedly, I splurged on the food stations because I'm a foodie. (No seating plans, no head table!) 
The grooms cake was made by our friend and had Gundam and Godannar anime figures on it, reflecting our anime-related hobbies.
Ended the evening rickrolling everyone with a Nirvana/Rick Astley mash-up. (Some people almost fell to the floor, laughing so hard.)
I had the guestbook refinished afterwards with dragon scales by Sunhawk and re-bound by the ribbons in my hair, Andrew's hair and the bridal bouquet.
The thank you card was more like a thank you eight page comic book using the photos taken as footage, since my husband is working on his own comic book series (with me assisting).
Tell us about your ceremony: We kept the actual ceremonies traditional. This part of the wedding, to me, was the most important. As a Christian, I believe it should be treated with respect.
Through patiently sifting through internet directories, e-mailing and calling different churches and venues we finally managed to find what we were looking for.
My favorite moment:
- The moments with my parents just before the wedding.
- Right at that point where we were pronounced husband and wife.
- Taking the photos with my ninety-one year old grandmother.
- Being with all the guests who reflect the many walks of our lives.
- The impromptu speeches by our best man and maid of honour.
My funniest moment:The end of the evening. When the DJ announced that the final song was to be played as chosen by the bride and groom, everyone cheered as Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started to play. Those cheers turned into laughter and stunned faces when the lyrics started and it was Rick Astley's voice singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” to the music of Nirvana. It was a Rick-rolling success!
My advice for offbeat brides: Sift through websites, and e-mail to ask for price quotes. It is a great way to save on time instead of personally visiting each place.
Try not to get too too many people involved in the planning. We kept most of our planning secret from others 'til it hit the “point of no return”.
Hopefully, your guests are made up of family and friends who aren't there to judge you, so, really, there's no reason to get nervous, right?
Also, the less of a schedule you have for your reception, the more enjoyable time for you and your guests.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Planning a wedding is only as hard as you make it.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Dress: Heretic, Sandra Huculiak
- Circlet: Lumiere Designs, Andrea Pope
- Morning Coat: Korry's
- Venue: Rosehill Venue Lounge
- Flowers: East of Eliza, Reed Russell
- Guestbook Dragonscaling: Christine Hogenkamp
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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.
Very nice wedding and unique too. Cool idea to have traditional wedding but with added of you in it. love the cake idea tradtional with your favorite things added to it. Thats something different.Congrats to the couple!!
Thanks! I believe adding part of “yourself” into your wedding is important as opposed to just going through the motions. 🙂
you are stunning, i love the dueling bridesmaids pic and those sleeves! what a great way to improve on a bridesmaid dress!
Thank you! The bridesmaids seem to just take it upon themselves to have some fun.
The sleeves were a way to tie-in their dresses with mine without having to do all out custom dresses. In other words, I cheated. XD
LOVE the sleeves on that dress!!!!!
Thank you!
I LOVE that you rickrolled your guests! Your wedding is geeky and classy, best of both worlds!
I second that. I think the next step should be announcing that everyone at the wedding lost the game.
Thanks! I wanted to rickroll them but not in the obvious way. I came across the mash-up not too long before the wedding date so it was perfect!
Ha! Wouldn’t that be something? Tell all my guests at the end of the night that they were losers! XD
congratulations on keeping the religious parts, that you felt were important, traditional! not EVERYTHING needs customization/offbeatery!
Thanks! I feel that there’s a time and place for everything!
Rickrolling everyone at your wedding should become a new wedding tradition. Good job!! 😀
Everything looks beautiful; I just adore the style of the dresses and the circlet, and of course, the mecha cake. Congrads!
Thanks! Who doesn’t love a good rickrolling, right?
Way to make Rick Astley happen! Also, your guest book rocks!
Thanks!
(Maybe we should have had Rick Astley pop out of the cake! …maybe not.)
Can we get a link for that Rick Roll’d “Smells Like Teen Spirit”? I am DYING to hear it!
XD
Here’s the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-biWb9gU1A
…done by DJ Morgoth
http://djmorgoth.blogspot.com/2009/11/nirvana-vs-rick-astley-best-remix-of.html
Enjoy!
I love this wedding! You two look so happy 🙂
Thanks!
We’re indeed happy and had fun!
Thanks everyone! 😀
I can honestly say that it was a fun day and generally stress-free!