Lacey & David’s Mad Hatter garden tea party with an umbrella canopy

The Offbeat Bride: Lacey, Costume Designer

Her offbeat partner: David, Engineer

Date and location of wedding: McCloud Guest House, McCloud, CA — July 21, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We really didn't know what kind of wedding we wanted to have until we ventured out to the Black Rock Desert for our annual trip to Burning Man, in August 2011. There was an art sculpture out there that was the most beautiful thing either of us had ever seen. It was a gazebo, sitting in the middle of the desert, full of white umbrellas, with lights flying through them like rain in a rainstorm. Immediately, we knew we wanted to recreate the energy, beauty, and vibe that we felt the moment we saw those umbrellas. After making the decision that we must have hanging umbrellas at our wedding, our theme slowly built itself. We were going to have a “Mad Hatter Garden Tea Party!

David and I are very fortunate that we have so many talented, awesome friends and family in our lives who helped us make it all happen. My best friend is an amazing chef, and she took on not only the roll of maid of honor, but she also planned and prepared our entire menu for 150+ people! My sister Tricia is a photographer, and she gifted us with her amazing eye for photography. My sister Stacey is a pastry chef, and she made us an amazing cake.

I'm a costume designer, so I made bits and pieces of all the outfits as well as other things I just couldn't find elsewhere: my train, David's tails (which were as long as my train!), the garden fairy dresses, the tablecloths, and 160 napkins.

The name tags were especially fun to make. We put random directives on them like, “Look left! The first person you see with blue eyes — sit next to them!”) Also, David and his father are both engineers, so together they were able to recreate the umbrella sculpture for over our ceremony space and dance floor, and help create the frame wall for pictures.

A month later, we were back at Burning Man, in our full wedding get-ups, walking to The Temple to say “I do” once more. Almost everyone who attended our wedding at Burning Man had been with us in McCloud for our first ceremony. It was so special to get married again, at The Temple, at our favorite place on earth, Black Rock City.

Tell us about the ceremony: We were married by my maid of honor's dad, Allen. I've known Allen, his wife Kathleen, and my best friend Jamie since I was two years old, and David's family has known their family for about 20 years as well. I've always loved Allen like a father, so he was the perfect officiant for us. He wrote all of our vows, and never had us read them until we were standing at the altar, getting married.

Our biggest challenge: I would say the biggest challenge was how much everyone took on. We all knew it would be a lot of work making, assembling, and taking down every bit of the wedding, but none of us realized it would be so exhausting to complete all of it! There was never time to actually have a real rehearsal, a nice dinner, or even time to chill the night before or the day of. I bit off more than I could chew, and it got passed onto everyone who helped! I can't imagine what would have happened if we didn't have such amazing people in our lives.

My favorite moments:

• Watching all eight garden fairies, in the dresses I made for them, waddle down the aisle.
• Watching my sister put the top tier on our cake as she completed it.
• Sitting in the garage with all my girlfriends making all the bouquets.
• Putting rings on my step-daughters' fingers.
• Fooling everyone by starting our first dance to Celine Dion's “My Heart Will Go On,” and then having it spin into “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros as we spun into a contemporary ballroom routine we had taken months to learn.
• Watching two of our best friends lead two of the best bands I've ever heard.

My funniest moment: When David used the cake cutter to put the cake into my mouth! Oh wait… maybe it was the bear walking through the lawn just behind the stage in the middle of the party?!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Tricia Davidge
• Venue: McCloud Guest House

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!