A little bit glamour, a little bit country wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Jacqueline, actress

Her offbeat partner: Felipe, electrician

Date and location of wedding: Shenandoah Mill, Gilbert, AZ — September 7, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

Fil and I got married in an old mill in Gilbert in a very family friendly event. His family, being from Oklahoma, inspired us to have a country vibe with our decor, my musical theatre background influenced our more glamorous touches, and the nerd culture we share made small appearances, too.

Tell us about the ceremony:

I HATE long ceremonies. Also, dealing with Arizona heat and an outdoor ceremony, my husband and I knew we were going to keep things short. We also wanted to keep it true to us and who we are as a couple. Needless to say, we defied expectations and changed up some of the standard traditions.

We kept our decor very simple, opting for simple wooden chairs for our guests. The venue itself had a beautiful awning covered in foliage and we didn't feel the need to add anything to it. Anticipating heat, we supplied ice water, sweet tea, and lemonade.

For the ceremony itself, the wedding party walked down the aisle to, “For You I Will” from the Space Jam soundtrack. It's such a great song — totally underrated!

The flowers my girls carried were assembled with love by my aunts. My maternal grandmother walked me down the aisle and cracked jokes the whole way down. Also, rather than having men on one side and women on the other, we wanted our families to stand with us. By my side stood my cousin, brother, and my best friend. On Fil's stood his brothers, sister, and his best friend.

We exchanged simple vows and then proceeded to what ended up being my favorite part: the “Mother's Kiss.” After exchanging rings, our mothers were brought up so that the first person to kiss us at birth would also be the last person to kiss us as single people. I'm not a crier, but that moment with our moms totally got me. Then we were pronounced husband and wife.

Tell us about your reception:

Our reception was so much fun! We had an open-air photo booth, a DJ playing love songs that spanned the decades, Disney and Broadway show tunes, and open bar, and lots of food. Our space was decorated with lace, Christmas lights, and battery-powered tea lights. We also handmade paper bags out of Disney love song sheet music to line out walkways and to sit on our cake table.

For the photo booth, I helped to design the layout of the picture and chose to utilize a 4×6 rather than traditional strips.

The cake had three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet with a Cinnabon icing-flavored frosting. Neither my husband nor I are cake eaters, so our baker accommodated us by frosting chocolate brownies for us to eat after the cake cutting. It was a nice little secret between the three of us. Our cake toppers were little figurines of Goku and ChiChi from Dragon Ball Z.

While the wedding party took photos, the bar was open to guests and we had a mash-tini bar happening as well. Guests ate mashed potatoes out of martini glasses. Dinner consisted of fried chicken, mac ‘n' cheese, green beans, and Hawaiian rolls, buffet-style.

Some fun moments from the reception included a dance off between our siblings, my normally shy husband doing the worm, and the dance with our parents. I am not particularly close with my father, so a father/daughter dance would not have been enjoyable. Instead I danced with my father-in-law while my husband danced with my mother.

What was your most important lesson learned?

My husband and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on our wedding because even though it would be the first day of the rest of our lives together, it was still ONE day. So what did I learn? How to trade and really look for deals.

I didn't realize how many people I knew in different parts of the wedding industry. I got my photo booth for free because I had worked with the company before. The DJ service was provided by a friend with whom I'd worked for years and I received a huge discount. The cake was made by friend with a bakery who also gave me a discount. For photography, we used a friend of our best man who normally shoots concerts. Even the caterer was someone we knew. Fil and I had spent a few years babysitting for her family and her oldest son was our ring bearer. We came in under six grand total.