The Offbeat Bride: Mary
Her offbeat partner: Craig, musician
Date and location of wedding: Midlothian Conference Center, Midlothian, TX — January 5, 2013
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: I found some Dr. Seuss Lorax Chuck Taylors and it immediately sparked the idea for a Dr. Seuss-themed wedding! We encouraged all of our guests to dress as whimsically as they wished.
Craig opted for a bright orange tuxedo, top hat, and cane. Instead of a receiving line, we made a photo booth backdrop based on “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” and had our guests line up to take their picture with us before going into the reception.
I walked down the aisle with my dad underneath an over-sized umbrella with pom poms dangling and battery-operated lights going up the pole. We entered to an acoustic version of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver performed by Daniel Katsuk and Tricky Ricky. Then they played an acoustic version of “Islands in the Stream” after the readings, which they had learned for us just that morning!
We served Technicolor cake balls instead of a full cake. There were three colors, and inside each were three different colors. Each of them had one of three flavors: lime, coconut and orange.
Tell us about the ceremony: My brother Todd officiated, and used some of his own Hindu traditions in part of the ceremony. He blessed us with holy water from the Ganges River in India that he brought back with him, and then he recited a Gayatri Mantra. We wrote our own Dr. Seuss-inspired rhyming vows.
We had an excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit, and a story called “Love Monkey” by Edward Monkton [See a video of the story here! – Eds.]. Since we are both in our late 30s, I felt this story was so appropriate and perfect for where we were in our lives when we found each other.
Our biggest challenge: We had to really think about how to keep the guest list small without hurting feelings. The only way I knew to be fair was to first invite our family members and our friends we considered family. Next came friends associated with Craig’s band. Lastly, I decided to use this rule: if I have hung out with them or talked regularly on the phone in the last year, they made the list.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? To cut down on stress, I learned to delegate some of the decision-making on to those helping me, when I didn’t have a strong opinion. I didn’t care if the runners were yellow and not red, for instance. It was easier to just go with the flow, because at the end of the day, I was thankful I was leaving there a wife!
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Live band: Daniel Katsuk and Tricky Ricky
- Venue: Midlothian Conference Center
- Photography: Amy Page
- Invitation suite: Happy Girl Creative (my business!)
- Feather birdcage veil: handmade from this tutorial
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
