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The Offbeat Bride: Katie, IT Admin Support and Photography student (and Tribesmaid)
Her offbeat partner: Gordon, Retail Model Hobbyist
Date and location of wedding: Staglands Wildlife Preserve, New Zealand — January 26, 2014
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Gordon and I both have a love for animals, especially birds. We both wanted to do some sort of bird theme, so when we first visited a potential venue, it was set in stone as soon as we saw all of the flocked beauties everywhere!
We DIYed quite a lot of things to save money such as my brooch bouquet, flowers from a wholesale market, doing our own table runners, ties, and decor. I was watching our budget like a hawk, but I can really see how weddings get so expensive! Ours was mid-range and we did all we could, without sacrificing what we most wanted.
We had no bouquet toss (though we did consider doing a Companion Cube toss, but we got too attached to the toy!), no garter toss, no parent dances after the first dance, and we stayed together the night before.
Tell us about the ceremony:
The day was full of drizzle and a couple of downpours, so we made the decision last-minute to move our ceremony to our reception site, as it was more covered there. Gordon entered the ceremony to a Princess Bride track, and the girls and I entered to “Everlasting Light” by the Black Keys.
We had a peacock making a full circle around us during the ceremony. My best friend/maid of honour and another good friend of mine read A Lovely Love Story.
Our vows included references to tolerating each other (something we joke about) and we ended with “I love you,” “I love you more,” “I love you most,” from Tangled.
Our biggest challenge:
We had two groomsmen pull out a month beforehand and some of our entertainment pulled out two weeks beforehand. My mum was also in and out of hospital the month of January and was still in hospital four days beforehand. I was pretty stressed trying to find out when she would be out.
One of our challenges, since my mother wasn't able to do some of what she was planning to do, was not having people understand the urgency to avoid last-minute mishaps.
My funniest moment:
A naughty goose kept things interesting. He/she kept trying to eat my dress, interrupted the ceremony by eating my bridesmaid's dress, kept trying to eat people's food, and at one point went for a ride on my train.
My favorite moment:
Having some time to ourselves after the ceremony was really nice. We had relaxed more at that point and having time alone was really lovely.
Our MC, a colleague of mine, was giving his speech and I was wondering what he was rambling on about. We then realized that he'd gotten us a letter from Buckingham Palace. He invited the queen to our wedding, so we got a framed “thanks, but no thanks” letter presented to us!
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links? Dress from Rasha Taylor Couture
- Photography: Lace Monitor Photography
- Bone gauge earring: Pasirputih
- Caterers: Blue Carrot Catering
- Venue: Staglands Wildlife Preserve
- Girls' dresses: Closet
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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I love this – looks so gorgeous, and fun too!
This is amazing, I love the naughty goose shots! My partner and I both love ducks (it was actually the first thing we bonded over when we met) and he’s determined we have a venue with ducks nearby. Can’t imagine we’d have as much luck getting them in our photos though!
Thank you! We also bonded over ducks early on when we were having a picnic and Gordon saved Mrs Duck from getting … well raped by a random teenage duck while Mr Duck was running around distressed.
This!.. and. that! and this over here! and Adventure Time! and your feathery straps! and the Gooooose! *wheeze*
I love this wedding 🙂
Thank you! Gordon made the cake toppers and was still making them the morning of the wedding! He had to get one of my bridesmaids to drive 30 mins away to pick up more paint! 🙂
Awww, that goose! “I are bridemayd too!”
BEAUTIFUL wedding! I love the artwork on the seating charts & the feathers on your dress! Congratulations!
Thanks 🙂
All I did was buy fancy glossy paper, take photos of our center pieces (the birds, which were decorations we got at Christmas time), edit out the background in Photoshop and applied a filter onto it! They came out really awesome! 🙂
Everything is beautiful and perfect (THAT GOOSE, and that peacock oh i love birds so much HOW LUCKY YOU ARE) but I wanted especially to mention how beautiful you look. I have a similar shape/body type and struggle sometimes with my self-image, and I’m so happy to know that I might possibly some day look as radiant and amazing as you do in every one of these photos. Congratulations! 😀
Thank you so much. I am smiling so much as I really understand how you feel. I had also a different dress planned than what I got (see my journals). I was going to get a mermaid style which I thought really flattered me but it was not working with the dress maker so I was scared with the alternative, but I was pretty happy 🙂
And I am positive that you WILL look amazing!
Love all the vibrant colors in this wedding.
Wow! I love your wedding – from the style, the venue, how gorgeous you look (yay curves! and feathers! and glasses!), the fun you can tell was had in the photos – all of it. I like the simplicity of what you did to the venue while still putting lots of yourselves into it. We’re getting married in a “character” venue as well, and I take so much inspiration from you for adding yourself while not forgetting the place is already interesting.
Question for you, if you don’t mind – we’re also hoping to use xmas/fairy lights. Did you rent them, or buy them, or borrow them? Just curious.
Thank you 🙂 That was certainly the idea of the venue – it’s already amazing enough!
We bought a few off like groupy and stuff and we borrowed off friends 🙂
Awesome, I was thinking of asking to borrow people’s (cheaper and greener than buying more!).
Your wedding looks so beautifu! The photos capture the magic of the day so well. We love the watercolor birds…might you share with us who designed those? They are so lovely!