Amber & Dylan’s Roaring ’20s prison wedding

We've seen this historic prison venue before and it is awesome! Check out this wedding that takes full advantage of the venue with a 1920s gangster vibe.

The offbeat bride: Amber

Her offbeat partner: Dylan

Date and location of wedding: Mansfield Reformatory, Mansfield, Ohio — April 4, 2009

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: At first I wanted only 50 people in a small ceremony because I liked the idea that I knew all of those people well and that they would be there for us throughout our marriage. But as the guest list grew, so did the budget, and I decided that if we are going to spend all this money, we are going to make it something memorable and all about our guests having fun.

We love black and white and the '20s. One day my mother-in-law called and said she'd found a prison that had just started hosting weddings. The first thing I thought was, “I do not want ‘prison' written on my wedding invitation!” But I promised to tour it and we booked it the same day. It was really fun combing the internet for fun little favor and decor ideas, and we immersed ourselves in everything Roaring '20s.

My mother-in-law is a genius graphic designer. She helped me design wedding invitations that would have probably costs thousands from a high-end designer, and she printed them all for us. She made signs to show our guests where things were. She was a great resource for us and I honestly cried when I saw the invites. I also stuffed a single peacock feather into each invite as peacocks and other birds were very popular in the '20s.

I asked all the bridesmaids to pic a flapper-style dress in black. There were lots of popular styles, even in plain retail stores. They dressed them up with feather hairpieces and pearls. As gifts, I got each girl a flask with her intials and a garter to hold it in under her dress! Instead of bouquets, they carried fans made of white and peacock feathers.

The guys rented mobster-style suits with hats and chains. As their gift, we gave each one a set of Chuck Taylors in their size and some argyle socks.

In the central guard room, there were two very large cell blocks on either side. On the guests' way into the cell blocks, we had a “booking station” set up. Instead of a guest book, there was a huge table full of props such as boas, '20s wigs, cigarette holders, and bowler hats for people to wear in the photo booth. The backdrop was an actual caging area that was once used to hold inmates. We had a little sign they each held up to look like their inmate number but it started with 04042009___ and then they signed the guest book and entered the number next to the entry on the card. Later we got to print everyone's shots and paste them next to their words in our book.

Our cake was built with octagons with a '20s art deco feel. The groom's cake was a small chocolate cake with chocolate wafers crumbled on top to look like rubble and King Kong stood in the middle. They must have been good because the only piece we got was the one we shoved in each others' faces which then fell into my dress.

For the bouquet toss, I knew there would be three specific ladies who wanted it. So I made three mini bouquets. Each of the girls got their own! I also created six information sheets as placemats: Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Ladies of Film, etc. But the most popular card was “'20s slang” with 30 phrases I heard getting belted across the room all night.

Our first dance was to Bjork's “It's Oh So Quiet.”

Our gifts to the guests were large stemless wine glasses with our wedding emblem on them. Our emblem, created again by my awesome mother-in-law, said D & A in an art deco style like it was a marquee. We used the emblem on everything we had printed.

Tell us about the ceremony: I did get my small ceremony with about 50 people in the Warden's Dining Room at the Mansfield Reformatory where we booked. We asked those invited to the ceremony to sign an agreement that my mother-in-law created for us in '20s style. It spoke of supporting us in our new marriage and also of our promise to love and support them as well. We had a sand ceremony and an Irish Bell Ceremony, as I am Irish on both sides and love that heritage. Here were our vows:

Our officiant, Nick, to Dylan:
Dylan, do you promise to support Amber's dreams, share her burdens, and bring her joy? To pick her up when she is down, and shelter her in your arms? To share times of prosperity and endure times of need?

Do you chose to support Amber through her many illnesses, her need to over-organize, plan-ahead, and still show up late? And do you further promise to always press pause for her?

Do you promise to choose Amber every morning as you wake, and choose her every night before you sleep?

Nick to Amber:
Amber, do you promise to support Dylan's dreams, share his burdens, and bring him joy? To pick him up when he is down, and shelter him in your arms? To share times of prosperity and endure times of need?

Do you chose to love him through his snoring, Warcrafting, and poor dancing? Do you promise to always work the DVR for him and believe him when he says “it will be ok?”

Do you promise to choose Dylan every morning as you wake, and choose him every night before you sleep?

Bell ringing ceremony:
Soon I will announce Amber and Dylan as husband and wife. But there is one last tradition in which they would like to partake. In Ireland, it is traditional to present the newly married couple with a bell that was ringing as they kissed for the first time as husband and wife. It not only brings them good fortune and luck for the future, but it also symbolizes the sound of their marriage. Should there be a quarrel or tiff, the old Irish remedy is to ring the wedding bell and renew the feelings of love that they felt on this day.

Our biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was to stay calm. I did not do this well before the big day. I was worried that things weren't in order or something wasn't going to go well, or I had forgotten some detail. But once I met Dylan in that grand hallway before the ceremony to take pictures, it all went away. Someone could have set off the fire alarm and I wouldn't have noticed.

My favorite moment: I always thought of the ceremony as the boring part. But I loved the words we chose to bind ourselves together. We both love literature and we each chose things that went into the ceremony. I love that people laughed at our quirkiness.

And I love that Dylan knew me so well. He knew I was incredibly nervous and hate standing in front of crowds, so he played two little jokes on me. First, when he went to hand me my ring, he pulled from his pocket a bright blue plastic butterfly ring he had won on a little excursion to Chuck E. Cheese that morning. He placed it on my finger and then laughed and took the real one from his best man and put that one on my finger too. To this day he considers that plastic blue butterfly my wedding ring! When our buddy and officiant Nick said “you may now kiss the bride,” he paused and put his hand up, pulled chapstick out, and glossed up his lips before the kiss!

My funniest moment: The most surprising was when a ghost locked us into a room as our wedding was starting! We had gone with our two photographers before the ceremony to take some pics in the unrestored part of the reformatory. We honestly didn't quite know where we were, but the chipping paint and gorgeous old architecture was just such an opportunity. At some point we heard a loud noise. We found our way back to the entrance room of the unrestored wing and saw the giant heavy wooden door had closed, and there was no doorknob! Just a hole where a doorknob should be. By this time we were supposed to be walking down the aisle. We started calling people's cell phones for help, but they were all turned off. Finally, someone answered and the groomsman came looking for the mysterious door, and shouldered it open so we could RUN to our ceremony!

My advice for offbeat brides: Write your own vows! That was the most meaningful part of the day and one of the most fun parts of planning.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photographer: Natural Element
• Venue: Mansfield Reformatory
• Catering: Uncle Dudley's

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