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The Offbeat Bride: Krys, User Experience Designer (and Tribesmaid)
Her offbeat partner: Chris, Artist and Stunt Performer
Date and location of wedding: Sanborn County Park, Saratoga, CA — 06/30/2013
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We wanted to have a lot of people join us, but we were working with a $5K for everything. So, we decided to make it a picnic wedding in a County Park (both of us love the outdoors), and make almost everything ourselves. We bought our clothing and the cake was made by the amazing Laurie Clarke of Sweet Celebrations, but everything else, we handled with the help of almost all of our friends.
It felt weird to have flowers just to throw them away afterwards, so we made all the flowers from fabric and paper. We put them in vases filled with origami paper stars instead of water. Between us and our friends, I think we made about 10,000 paper stars.
Tell us about the ceremony:
Neither of us is religious, so we had our dear friend Peter perform the ceremony. He wrote it based on a mixture of traditions that he thought fit our personalities. He started with something he called “The Witnesses' Creed,” in which he asked everyone watching to vow to support us, advise us, and help us through the tough times.
Then, we had some friends of ours who have been married for 27 years each read pieces we love. Peter had us repeat some vows after him. I had been very clear that there would be no “obey” in the vows, and he winked at me as we finished up.
At the end of the ceremony, after he presented us, he said. “Now, we have one last, small ritual to perform to make this ceremony complete. As you can probably tell, these guys have a love for history and tradition. This final, sacred tradition was born A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…”
This was the cue for our “in the know” guests to pull their lightsabers out of hiding, power up, and form an arch for us to pass through. None of the other guests had any clue that was going to happen, so it was a total surprise.
Our biggest challenge:
Because the whole wedding was DIY, we had a crew of people with assigned jobs for the day of. We figured that if we spread the work among lots of people, it wouldn't be a huge burden on any one person. We also had a few people show up that had no assigned jobs, and it's a good thing because we needed them.
My favorite moment:
Because my father passed away six years ago, my mother gave me away. When we got to the end of the aisle she gave me a huge hug and I almost started crying before the wedding even started!
During the speeches, my stepfather spoke and said that it felt like my father was here with us, and that he'd be proud. I had been sucking in the tears all day but that totally launched the flood. It was absolutely the perfect thing he could have said.
My funniest moment:
During the reception, instead of a bouquet toss, we shot the bouquet out of a trebuchet. When we practiced it a few days before the wedding. The bouquet flew 40 feet and it was really spectacular. However, on the wedding day, it decided to fizzle! We lined all the single ladies up 40 feet away, told everybody to expect a big sweeping arch, and pulled the string to fire. It plopped to the ground 15 feet in front, making all the ladies race forward to scoop it up. And wouldn't you know that my 17-year-old daughter was the one to catch it? I nearly went gray right then and there.
Also, instead of me wearing the garter, Chris wore it. And he ROCKED that Batman garter.
Have you been married before and if so, what did you do differently?
Chris was married once before in a secret elopement. It broke his best friend's heart to not be included, because they've been besties for 30 years, and as boys growing up had always promised they'd be each other's best men. They had long since gotten past that disappointment, but it was still incredibly touching to see the last bit of healing take place while we all stood there together during the ceremony.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
We knew to have a day-of coordinator who kept everything running on schedule and everyone happy. What I didn't know, was that there needed to be one calm, cool rock of stability for me, too. My bridesmaid Michelle stepped in and played that role like a champ. She kept us all supplied with mimosas and pragmatism. From the moment I arrived, she was next to me, smiling and reassuring, reminding me that everything was going fine, feeding me information from outside the room where I was sequestered.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Dress: Victorian Trading Company
- Groom's jacket, groomsmen's ties, and kilt pins: The Celtic Shoppe
- Photographer: Tristan Crane
- Cake: Laurie Clarke
- Food: Lisa's Tea Treasures
- Venue: Sanborn County Park
- Piper: Richard Charette
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
photography: Tristan Crane
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I don’t know what I love more, the lightsaber arch or the trebuchet…
SO MUCH AWESOME.
The arch, the trebuchet, the Batman garter. Loved it!
WEDDING TREBUCHET.
The trebuchet almost makes me wish I was throwing my bouquet. I opted to skip that tradition, but I love how you handled it! I also love how you turned the garter tradition on its head! <3 What a beautiful day ^_^
This wedding is full of so much win! Fabulous 🙂
Dying to know where you got those temporary tattoos from! I’ve been thinking of having some as wedding favors.
I know that other Offbeat Brides have used http://tattoosales.com
Ooh, thanks Ariel!
I had a look at that site – lots of interesting tattoos but nothing quite like that one. It’s just gorgeous.
I designed them and printed them at home!
You can buy temporary tattoo paper on eBay or Amazon.com – be careful, it can be like $5 per sheet. We bought the pack of 2 sheets at Amazon and I just laid the designs out as close as I could to get as many out of it as possible. 😀
Temporary tattoo paper is the BEST THING EVER.
That is super cool! Consider me officially inspired.
I am soooo impressed – you did an amazing job with them. Where did you get the pattern?
Aw, thank you!
It’s all original artwork, that’s what I do professionally. If you would like to use it, I would be happy to send you the files, sized and reversed for printing. I like sharing and believe that art should be free when it’s possible. 🙂
There’s three designs – the celtic knot heart, “OMG they finally did it” and “Trust Love”. 😀
Oh yes please – that is so so so generous of you. You have a fabulous eye and they are just the classiest temporary tattoos I’ve seen!
Oh my gosh, I almost died on seeing the photo of your dude wearing the garter. That is the best photo ever, closely followed by the one of you licking his head. You guys seem like so much fun!
That picture of Chris wearing the garter is my favorite photo of the entire wedding set (which was like 500!). He’s adorbz and I’m a lucky girl. 😀
Love your bouquet – so pretty. Where did you get your trebuchet – did you make it? Also love the rope of flowers connected to it. What kind of flowers are they? I like the colors and am thinking of something like these for my arch. Lastly, the parasols/umbrellas are gorgeous. Congratulations.
The treb was made by and belongs to Tim Jesus, a family friend. If you’re in the CA bay area he might be willing to rent it out and I could put you in touch. 😀 If not, check with renaissance faire people in your area, and if all else fails you can probably find plans to build one on the internet. It’s not hard as long as you’re comfortable working with wood.
The flowers connected to it are your typical craft store flower garland, silk cornflowers if I remember correctly. To fire a trebuchet you have to pull a rope and Tim just wove the rope through the flower garland. I think the chain type is best because it’s strongest – the garland broke when I first picked it up.
The parasols were from Amazon – there are so many pretty ones it was hard to choose!
WOULD LOVE to hear “The Witnesses’ Creed”, if your friend wouldnt mind sharing it?
I loved the bouquet and the tartan plaid and the bagpipes and the Celtic knots and themes. What was in the little bags for the guests?? Were they seeds or some kind of treats?? Thanks so much for sharing your wedding. Best wishes to you both!!!
This is amazing! We are trying to plan our 10 yr, and funny thing is we are planning redwoods and Irish touches. I love what you did for your father. Both my father and mother in law are gone, so this would be a beautiful thing to do.
I am seriously considering having our wedding at Sanborn Park as well!! And I would love to know more specific details about your wedding?? Could you share who your day-of coordinator was?