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Offbeat partner: Bethany, Teen Program Director
Offbeat partner: Kate, Librarian's Assistant
Date and location of wedding: Publik. Coffee Roasters in Salt Lake City, UT — October 14, 2017
Budget: $10,000
Our offbeat wedding at a glance:
Autumn has always been our favorite season, so it was really important to us that the feeling of the season was reflected in everything in our wedding, so our florist did an amazing job using in season flowers/plants/elements (many of which he gathered himself in the canyons in Northern Utah!).
As practicing pagans, we also incorporated many elements of our spirituality, such as tarot readers at the reception and a Samhain memorial altar. Harry Potter has been interwoven into our relationship for 20 years, so we had subtle hints of our love for the series in our decor (side note: we got engaged at and shot our engagement photos at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter). We made our reception personal by including all the things we love: coffee, beer, tattoos, and tarot!
Tell us about the ceremony:
We had two different ceremonies — one was a private pagan ritual in the mountains the day before (on our 13th anniversary!), and then a more formal ceremony with our family and friends the next day. For the formal ceremony, we wrote our own vows and had our friend of more than 20 years officiate it.
We chose to walk down the aisle together, because Kate's dad passed away when we were in high school and I don't have a close relationship with my dad. We recited some poetry by Tyler Knott Gregson as our vows and then did a handfasting with cords that we had braided ourselves. Tori Amos has always been a big part of our relationship (we have driven all over the country to see her six times!), so our processional/recessional song was "A Sorta Fairytale."
Tell us about your reception:
We wanted the reception to feel like a fun autumn party. We had barista service for two hours during the reception and guests could order cafe drinks. We also served our favorite cookies from a local vendor instead of having a wedding cake. We had an open bar with beer from a local brewery.
We had two tarot readers that read EVERY guest's cards. They stayed for five hours to get through everyone! We also had a table with temporary tattoos that the guests could apply. Our wedding favors were tarot cards from a favorite artist that were dispersed throughout the decor on the tables and people could take home whatever card they were drawn to. We also had a Polaroid guest book that we had custom-made so guests could take a picture and leave us a message.
What was your most important lesson learned?
Every decision that we made and every detail of our wedding was completely and entirely ours. It was so important to us that this wedding was about us and reflected our 20 years of friendship and 13 years of dating. Weddings bring up a lot of emotions and expectations in friends and families that you may have never expected from them, but it is so important that you are staying true to yourselves and making decisions because it is what YOU want, not what other people think you should do. Especially two women getting married in a more conservative area, coming from religious families, we had to stay true to what we wanted and needed and had always dreamed of.
Vendors
Venue/Barista Service: Publik. Coffee Roasters • Floral/Decor: Leuca Floral • Food: Ruby Snap Fresh Cookie • Beer: Talisman Brewing Company • Photography: John & Cara Stephens • Dresses: David's Bridal • Hair/Makeup: Becky Trujillo-Carter and Michelle Jackson Burton • Nails: Devin Markle/Salt City Lacquer • Tarot Readers: Forrest Mathias and Paige Dugan • Wedding Favors: The Wild Unknown • Guest Book: Liumy Design • Tattoos: Tattly • Sound/Music: Trevor Weller • Signage: McKay Mattingly Design • Day-of Coordinator: Alexa Weller
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As a witch and tarot reader myself, I love this so much! The Wild Unknown is a dream wedding favor 🙂 Wishing you both many blessings and years of joy.
Gorgeous! Congratulations, it looks beautiful. I’m really interested to know if the guests picked tarot cards that made you say “…of course you picked that one!”
Surprisingly, no one showed us what cards they took! I’ll have to follow up with people and see what they chose.
Did you serve a dinner? I am just sitting here amazed at how beautiful everything was and how much you did with only 10k! I would like to keep my budget about the same.
We did not serve dinner, because catering costs would have destroyed our budget! Instead we held our ceremony mid-afternoon and then gave our guests several hours to go get dinner before the reception. We invited about 60 people to the ceremony and about 120 more to the reception, so we just made sure to communicate with our ceremony guests during the entire planning process that they would be responsible for feeding themselves and to our reception guests that we would be serving only dessert and drinks. It worked out great and gave everyone, including us, the chance to relax, eat, and freshen up before the reception!
I don’t know you, I somehow accidentally tripped over your wedding site here and I have to tell you, it brought tears to my eyes! My partner and I were together 8 years when she was diagnosed with Lung cancer, metastasized to her brain. We had always planned to be married, we had six children between us and sadly, our time ran out much too quickly, as she passed a few months after diagnosis. Vicariously, I have lived what may have been our moment through your pictures and sweet retelling of your day. May the gods and goddesses continue to shine their favor upon both of you and I hope you enrich each other’s lives for all times. Bless!