This Beetlejuice wedding had a sandworm unity ceremony

You may have already seen the sneak peek of this wedding's head-shrinkingly amazing Beetlejuice decor, but you haven't seen anything yet! Here's the whole story.

The Offbeat Bride: Sarah, Life Skills Mentor

Her offbeat partner: Troy, Target Distribution Center

Date and location of wedding: Ravenseye Manor Haunted Attraction, Fairplay, MD and The Capitol Theatre, Chambersburg, PA — 09/14/2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Troy and I are huge horror movie nerds. Troy went to school for special effects art, and has been working as an FX artist on low budget films for years, and I have been acting in them for about eight years. We wanted to convey our love for films in the wedding, so we decided to have a Beetlejuice theme.

We asked an actor friend, Paul Sieber, to marry us dressed as Beetlejuice. We sort of cheated, and this shows how much we truly are horror nerds. We were actually married at the courthouse the day before the wedding, because that day was Friday the 13th! We chose to do this because we wanted that to be our legal date (we also didn't tell our families until after the fact!).

Although my parents were helping us pay for the wedding, we did not want to break the bank. This led us to making pretty much everything for the wedding ourselves. We started nine months before and made: hearts on sticks, pinwheels with movie quotes, black and white-striped tin cans, and wax paper luminaries. We also cut fabric and jewelry up to make fabric flowers for the bouquets, brooches, and veil. We made the earrings my bridesmaids and I wore, tissue paper flowers for the aisle, fan-type flowers for the walls at the reception, and lanterns. It was a lot of DIY!

Since Troy is an FX artist, he was able to create so many things directly from the movie Beetlejuice. This included the archway that opens on the wall in the movie during the wedding scene, the sandworm, the sculptures Lydia's mom makes, the smoking man in the waiting room, the shrunken head man in the waiting room, Beetlejuice's gravestone, the shrimp hands that come up at the dinner table, the flat man with tire tracks on him, the cake cutters, the cupcake stand, the coffin card box, and probably a few more things that I'm forgetting. We basically tried to make everything we possibly could from the movie.

We had an amazing Beetlejuice-themed cake that my cousin Lacy Barnhart made, and amazing broken glass and blood cupcakes that Julie Fender made. Paul performed the ceremony as Beetlejuice and he stayed in character for the entire evening at the reception, announcing everything for us through the evening. My parents were beyond wonderful with everything and helped in every aspect along the way. Troy's family is from Ohio and pretty much everyone made the trip to Pennsylvania for the wedding, and that made it even more perfect.

Tell us about the ceremony:
Our ceremony started with Beetlejuice saying to my dad, “We're here for your daughter, Mike,” which is a direct quote from the film (except his name was “Chuck”). Our vows consisted of “10 things I hate about you,” which was something Troy and I had agreed on a few days before the wedding because we were stumped on what to write. We just aren't the type of people to say sappy things to each other, especially not in front of a huge crowd, so our vows ended up funny instead. We wanted them to be lighthearted, but to show how well we knew each other and to show everyone that yes, we both have our faults and know what they are, but we love each other for them.

Troy
I hate how you fall asleep on the couch EVERY night and it takes FOREVER to wake you up.
I hate how you constantly tell me how to drive, but you NEVER want to drive yourself.

Me
I hate how you do the dishes then leave the stagnant water in the sink afterwards without draining it.
I hate how you constantly play with your phone while driving.
I hate the fact that you're from Ohio and I'm from Pennsylvania and it took me this long to find you.

My favorite moment:
The most memorable moment for me was walking down the aisle with my dad, approaching Troy. I can remember that moment like it was just today.

I also remember dancing with my dad to Fleetwood Mac's “Sara” which is what I was named after, and passing him off to my mom (because the song is super long) and all of my guests gave them a standing ovation.

It was great seeing them so happy all of these years later, and getting to dance alongside them with Troy.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
On your wedding day, or the day before, don't be afraid to let others take some of the load off of you. Everyone kept telling me that, but I still had been so set on doing everything myself. I just couldn't complete it all the day-of and had to delegate. Luckily, I figured this out quickly (with the help of my bridesmaid Steph who had just been married herself) without messing anything up.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Maura Housley
• Dress alterations: Ruth's Sewing Room
• Cake: Lacey Decker Barnhart
• Cupcakes: Julie Fender
• Beetlejuice: Paul R. Sieber, by FAR the best actor I know
• Catering: Savoy Catering
• Wedding video: Drew Chapis

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