Remember this inside look into one Offbeat Bride’s experience on a wedding reality show? No more longing to see the full story of that wedding, because we’ve got it!
The Offbeat Bride: Stacey, NorCal Ambassador (and Tribesmaid)
Her offbeat partner: Brandon, senior designer
Date and location of wedding: Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA — August 3, 2013
Our offbeat wedding at a glance:
Our theme was Atompunk, a retro sci-fi theme and guests were encouraged (but not required) to dress up accordingly. Some people wore silver pants, rocket packs, retro-inspired dresses, etc. The view of The Bay is spectacular from the science museum, but I was prepared for fog, which rolled in just as our ceremony started. However, even though the fog blocked the amazing view, it really added to the sci-fi theme we had going on. The fog was so thick that people couldn’t find the parking lot!
We secured our venue just over a year before the wedding date, and we secured our caterer shortly after that, so that gave us time to create extra little projects. We decided to spray paint branches silver and place them in vases with clear rocks and blue LED lights for our centerpieces. Our seating chart was cards on a large branch, also spray painted silver. Each card had a name and table assignment, and then once the guests sat at their table, the card had instructions to guess where we will be five years in the future.
One of my favorite projects was the giant silver balloons in the courtyard. They looked like big silver floating orbs!
Our friend designed our guestbook with a Polaroid camera that prints sticker pictures. Guests took pictures of themselves, stuck the sticker in the guestbook, and then signed it.
Our wedding favors were laser gun squirt guns, space duckies, rocket bubbles, and LED “diamond” rings. As a last-minute idea, we decided to create a tinfoil hat making station. We had an instruction card and rolls of tinfoil. Boy, that turned out to be popular! Brandon’s mom even wore hers to the ceremony.
The exhibits in the museum were all interactive, so guests would have had plenty to do at the reception. But I decided to bring hula hoops and double dutch ropes to keep everyone even more entertained. It was fun doing double dutch while in a wedding dress.
Tell us about the ceremony:
I didn’t feel comfortable walking slowly down an aisle while everyone stared at me. We didn’t have a wedding party, so Brandon and I just walked together to the altar. Our friend and officiant, Jeremy, said a few short words, Brandon and I each said a few short words, and that was it. We didn’t have seating for the ceremony because we knew it would be short. There was seating available for cocktail hour for whomever needed it.
Our biggest challenge:
A lot of aspects of our wedding were DIY so there was a moment right before the ceremony started when it was really hard for me to stop being the party planner and just be in the moment. Once I got my wedding dress on, I relaxed and just let go of the little details.
Also, we had to be creative with decorations since our venue didn’t allow anything on the walls. We used uplights, a table top disco ball for the dance floor, and the oversized balloons.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
If you set up a tinfoil hat making station, people will make tinfoil hats.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Dress: The TV show Randy to the Rescue
- Caterer: Royal Raspberry
- Party favors: Oriental Trading Co.
- Photography: Myleen Hollero
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
