Kim & Cole's barn and bonfire wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The Offbeat Bride: Kim, Artist

Her offbeat partner: Cole, CrossFit Coach

Date and location of wedding: The Windmill Winery, Florence, AZ — March 2, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We wanted our wedding day to incorporate each of these elements: adventurous, fun, and artistic. I did a painting of us that we used for our wedding invitations, website, and app. We didn't want to stick to a color theme, so the decorations were inspired by spring. We are very drawn to vintage decor and fun crafts, so the DIY aspect of our wedding was inevitable. Crinkle fans from BHLDN were used to string a curtain backdrop, and colorful, vintage tins were filled with spring blossoms.

Tell us about the ceremony: My dad was the officiant! The ceremony started off with all of the guests simultaneously blowing us a kiss. We didn't adhere to the traditional or religious format of a ceremony, and allowed my dad to write it from scratch. During the ceremony, he read a passage from a letter one of our friends in Germany had sent. He had everyone laughing and crying with us. It all culminated in us chugging a beer at the altar after we were pronounced as wives. Guests played kazoos, maracas, and whistles as we exited.

Our biggest challenge: About halfway through the planning, my job moved us to Sydney, Australia. Finding a venue from there that had everything we needed was challenging. The Windmill Winery has the perfect feel, and offered both indoor and outdoor locations for weddings and receptions. Their on-site coordinator connected with us on Skype so that we could pin down wedding day details.

At this point we still hadn't settled on a photographer, which was an important element to us. We also wanted to make sure the photographer would be fun to be around on our big day! Kym Ventola was also kind enough to Skype with us from across continents to ensure that we would have a seamless photography experience.

My favorite moment: We had quite a few friends from Germany, the UK, and Australia who were unable to attend the wedding, so my parents reached out to them for video footage giving us marital advice and well-wishes.

Family is really important to us, so we made sure to include our families every chance we could. Cole's mom made our desserts, and my mom built our wine cork chandelier and helped design the invitations. My sister built a photo booth from scratch, and even made our wedding rings.

My funniest moment: My dad was wearing a microphone during the ceremony. We chose not to wear mics so that our exchange of vows would remain private. After our big kiss, we gave my dad a hug at the altar and, forgetting that he was mic'd, Cole said “Whew, we made it! That was impressive.” All of the guests laughed at that.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great?
When we arrived at the hotel on schedule, we discovered that the couple in the honeymoon suite the night before still hadn't left! There were only three available rooms in the entire hotel, so our wedding party and families all piled in to the three rooms to shower and get dressed. Although the hotel's lack of organisation was stressful, it turned out to be really fun for all of us to get ready together.

My advice for Offbeat Brides: Don't let tradition stand in the way of what you want. Don't like the script for your ceremony? Rewrite it! Not a fan of the bouquet concept? Don't have one… I didn't. Want to skip the garter toss? No worries.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Venue: The Windmill Winery
Photography: Kym Ventola
Clothing and accessories: BHLDN and Modcloth

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Comments on Kim & Cole’s barn and bonfire wedding

So. Much. Hotness. Mind blown.

Beautiful.

Most stylish wedding ever. Dying over here.

Simply beautiful. I want to go back in time and put up a backdrop made of fans at my wedding now.

And, can I just say, I’ve been reading OBB for over 2 years now. After all this time, I see “beautiful wedding,” not “two brides” or “lesbian wedding”. If only the whole country had as much exposure to couples of all types as we get here, then maybe everyone would just see the love of a relationship instead of who’s in it.

OffBeat Bride should be required reading.

Love it

Honest to goodness, you look like the coolest pair of chicks ever. So happy that you found each other. Your wedding looks kick arse.

Love this wedding, you both look gorgeous. We’re doing similar with a lack of colours or themes, just taking inspirations from Autumn because we’re getting married at the beginning of November. May have to add fans to my ever increasing craft list.

Please don’t blame the hotel for “lack of organization.” 🙁 They have no way of forcing the guests to leave the room aside from informing them that if they don’t leave by a certain time, they will be charged for another night (and if the couple wants to stay another night, they won’t care!). Hotel policies don’t even allow employees to enter occupied rooms without guest approval. The hotel had no way of making it more organized.. if the in-house guest won’t leave and they’re almost sold out, there’s nothing they CAN do. The poor employees were probably practically in tears trying to make it right. Believe me, honey.. I work front desk and problems like this happen weekly.. needless to say, I’m a Jack-Daniel’s-until-I-pass-out-at-night kind of girl! >.< Your wedding was beautiful, by the way!!