Wait until you see the interactive puzzle game at this books & RPG wedding

Offbeat partner: Kristina

Offbeat partner: Joe

Date and location of wedding: Georgetown Ballroom, Seattle, Washington — May 4, 2018

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Our wedding was VERY unapologetically us. I love books and reading, my husband loves D&D and roleplaying, and we both love puzzles and escape rooms — so our wedding encompassed all of it. Everywhere we could infuse a bit of flavor to fit these themes, we did. From my bridesmaid's book-bouquets and the groomsmen's d20 boutonnieres, to our wedding arch made of repurposed books, to the actual puzzles guests could solve starting with their seat assignments, we found ways to surprise and delight throughout the entire evening.

Our cake looked like a stack of books, we used dice as decorations everywhere, and instead of flower petals, we scattered little hearts cut from book pages all over the floor. Our welcome sign looked like a giant book, our ring bearer carried a sword, and our flower girl wore a unicorn horn. The decorations (upon closer examination) were puzzles guests could solve, which ultimately led to winning their wedding favors! Not to mention I wore shark hands during my dress reveal, just to make my husband laugh (it worked).

The entire day was absolutely magical in every way.

Tell us about the ceremony:
First things first… here's a video of my husband's vows. They were truly the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, and people couldn't stop gushing about them all evening.

Our ceremony was wonderful. Our wedding party walked out to the Star Wars Throne Room song, I walked out to “Harry's Wonderous World”, and when we said “I do”, we played the “Level Complete” sound effect from Super Mario. Our recessional was “True To Your Heart” from Mulan.

But the best part of the ceremony was that we rolled for initiative to determine who said their vows first. I had a big custom d20 made in our wedding colors, and we took turns rolling it down the aisle. I of course rolled an 18 to his 7, setting the tone for our entire marriage. (In actuality though, his vows were the show-stopper here, so I'm glad I went first!)

We kept our ceremony short and sweet, likening our marriage to starting our adventure together. Here's what our officiant said instead of the standard stuff:

“Will you, Joe, promise to keep Kristina as your favorite person, to laugh with her, go on adventures with her, support her through life’s successes and critical failures, be proud of her, grow old with her, and find new reasons to love her every day?

Will you fight each other’s dragons, will you believe in one another, will you strive to grow, learn, and make beautiful things together, and choose each other every single day?”

And here was the pronouncement:

“In the presence of your friends and family,
through your love and commitment,
the two of you begin life’s quest as adventuring companions.”

After we kissed, our best man tossed the d20 back to us and we boogied down the aisle, easy peasy. Married!

Tell us about the reception:
Cocktail hour started with guests finding a large board filled with puzzle pieces with their names on them. The puzzle pieces told them which table they were sitting at. Once they went inside and found their table for the reception, they realized putting their pieces together with the other guests' pieces made a larger puzzle, which had a code on it that instructed them on how to light up the wooden box in their centerpiece that was actually a lantern. Inside the lantern was a series of “quest logs” — puzzle sheets that gave clues for additional puzzles to solve throughout the venue that yielded stickers once they'd solved them. Getting all of the stickers revealed a meta puzzle, which gave them the solution to a final lockbox, and inside that final lockbox was their wedding favors: a bag of dice in our wedding colors, with a wooden token engraved with “I Solved Kristina and Joe's Wedding.” The puzzles were a huge hit and kept our guests highly entertained throughout the evening.

We also have some incredibly creative friends, and one gave a toast that included (I kid you not) a t-shirt slingshot, which he used to give away five or six t-shirts with our faces on them that said “I Went To Kristina and Joe's Wedding And All I Got Was Hit In The Face With This T-shirt.”

It was a night we will never forget.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
Honestly, the biggest lesson I learned was that my husband and I are ridiculous and often take on too much. Did we NEED to have a wedding with an entire interactive puzzle room element, on top of infusing every single element of the wedding with our own unique flavor? Did we NEED to custom laser print and electrically wire lanterns triggered by magnets for all 19 centerpieces? Did we NEED to construct a book arch which required drilling holes through over 100 used books?

No. We didn't need to do any of that, and we almost made ourselves crazy trying to pull it all off. There were some rough days leading up to the wedding as my husband and I were both up to our eyeballs in the chaos we rained upon ourselves, but our friends and family were incredible in helping us pull this monstrosity of a wedding off, and pull it off we did.

So in the end, it was worth it. Would I do it again? Probably not. But I am so proud of what my husband and I were able to create together through this zany experience, and I really think it shows how much passion we both have for each other, and for making beautiful experiences together. I think if we put a fraction of the effort into our marriage that we put into this damn wedding, then we're going to have an exceptional life together.

Vendors

Dress: Secondhand (after Alfred Angelo went bankrupt and totally screwed me — I managed to find my same dress again online from a consignment shop!) • Photographer: Focal Point Studios • Videographer: Northwest Film Co. • Venue: Georgetown Ballroom

Gallery

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