Alison & Dodge’s skulls and zombies retro wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Alison, Educational Admin babe

Her offbeat partner: Dodge, Warehousing Super Supervisor

Date and location of wedding: Civic Park and City Hall, Newcastle, NSW, Australia — May 11, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We had small but important things that made the features of the day truly ours. My bridesmaids wore swing dresses with purple petticoats and little birdcage hair clips. The groomsmen wore Converse sneakers (as did Dodge and I!). Ours were Batman: Arkham Asylum-themed with our nicknames embroidered down the heel. My “something blue” was a strip of my hair dyed bright blue!

Our first dance was to “The Ballad of Serenity,” the theme song from Firefly. We also walked into the reception to a hard rock version of “What is Love?” by local Sydney band, Not Another Sequel, Just Another Prequel.

Our wedding favours were lemonade-flavoured rock candy with our names in them. I still have a couple of bags left over that I munch on occasionally.

The cake topper was a cute little salt and pepper set of a skelly bride and groom who kissed with magnets. The cake itself was a big part of the day! I won it in a competition run by the baker. The only condition was that I had no say in the design of it. She asked for the colours and theme and some info on us and who we are, and came up with the most amazing cake I have ever seen. She even took the design of the bridesmaids' hair clip and incorporated that into it, too.

Tell us about the ceremony: We added a few small things to the very basic and traditional, non-denominational ceremony. I found a great reading on Offbeat Bride, and made a few little tweaks to personalise it to us.

For our second reading, one of my younger cousins read “Oh, The Places You'll Go!” by Dr Seuss.

Our vows were quotes from one of our favourite movies, Serenity:

Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘verse… but you take a boat in the air that you don't love… she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down… tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.

Instead of the regular “until death do you part,” We said, “until death, or zombies, do you part.”

Our biggest challenge: We had some problems with certain guests saying they were coming, then not coming, then coming again. This was pretty frustrating as I'd already sent off my table settings and payment. However, I rang the event manager to inform her of the change and she was happy to make the arrangements for me. In the end, as frustrating and upsetting as all of it was, it was great to have our guests there with us.

My favorite moment: Dodge is someone who isn't very emotional (even he admits to being emotionally inept). He says he hasn't cried since he was a little boy. So imagine my surprise when I start walking down the aisle, and see him fighting back tears! I just about lost it on the spot. It meant so much to me that he was that so moved. He even struggled to get through his vows. It was also surprising to see his best man get choked up, during both the ceremony AND during his speech later during the reception.

My absolute favourite moment, though, was when I was getting into my dress and I received a text message. My maid of honor picked up my phone and said it was from Dodge. She asked my photographer to come and take pictures while I read it. He had sent, “Achievement unlocked: Obtain a wife.” I burst into tears.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
Not everything will go exactly as planned, but that's okay! I had a great support network around me full of amazing friends and family who were happy to run around doing all the last minute things to help.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Matthew Elder
• Reception venue: Newcastle City Hall. I cannot imagine us having our reception anywhere else. Great food, beautiful venue, and wonderful staff.
• Dress: custom-made by Australian Designer Bridal & Formal
• Decorations: Events of Elegance
• Photo booth: The Booth Fairy. They were just a blast to work with. They even photobombed some of the pictures with hand puppets and signs! I just loved them.
• Cake: Kim Stubbins from Cake by Kim
• Bridesmaid's dresses: Betty Page Clothing

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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