Alyssa & Davey’s fireworks and comic books wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Alyssa, Lighting Technician (and Tribesmaid)

Her offbeat partner: Davey, Accountant

Date and location of wedding: The Willow on Wascana, Regina, SK, Canada — August 11, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We had a comic book theme with the goal of having major fun. Davey made us a comic book cover-styled save the date, and then a complete comic page for our invitation. A surprising number of guests asked if they were supposed to dress up in costume. I would tell them that the dress code was “underwear on the inside.” Everyone dressed as themselves, some with “normal” clothes in superhero colors, and after the dance started our cousins all changed into superhero t-shirts.

We also named our tables after pop culture and comic icons such as: Super Mario, Spider-Man, and Quail-Man. We made several comic references in our vows and ceremony script, and the chef even gave comic names to our dinner. We had a Good vs. Evil entree of “Barley Quinn vs the Green Lamb-tern.”

For a guest book, we had guests fill out a comic book page with prompts such as “What is your favorite memory of Davey and Alyssa?” Our cake had a topper that was the plastic Green Lantern ring that Davey had used to propose. We also had mini cakes that had little action word bubbles on top.

In deference to my theatrical occupation, we had glowing orbs and disco-ball necklaces for centerpieces. By the end of the night many of the necklaces were being worn as party bling. My coworkers did a fantastic job of decking out the tent in LED lights, mini disco-balls, and projecting our custom gobo (fancy lighting stencil) onto the floor.

For cocktail hour we had our favorite local band The Bystanders play an acoustic set of their original music. During dinner we had the DJ play mostly TV and nerdy movie music, along with some of our mutually favorite bands.

Davey's dad and my boss were in cahoots, and they hijacked part of the reception for a surprise Pyromusical. After the speeches, everyone was invited back to the ceremony lawn to watch the fireworks show.

Tell us about the ceremony: We were outside in the open air with a garden arch that had flower arrangements on it at the front. The boys walked in to Steven Page crooning “Marry Me,” while the girls walked in to “Waiting for the Lights” from Tangled. I walked in to “Romantic Flight” from How to Train Your Dragon.

We were married by Justice Scotty, a very dear old friend of Davey's grandfather. He included, with his thoughts on marriage, a love a quote by author Robert Fulghum that Davey and I thought was particularly fitting:

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

We had my co-worker Bruce read “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarden” by Robert Fulghum, which has some very good advice including, “Say sorry when you hurt somebody,” “Flush,” and “Be aware of wonder.”

Judge Scotty described love as this:

We who love can look at each other's life and say, ‘I touched his life” or ‘I touched her life,' just as an artist might say ‘I touched this canvas. Those brushstrokes in the corner of this magnificent mural, those are mine. I was a part of this life, and it is a part of mine.' Marriage is to belong to each other through a unique and diverse collaboration.

Our biggest challenge: The morning of the wedding, I went to pick up my girls for our hair and makeup appointments when I learned that the previous night my maid of honor's father had had a stroke. We cried and held each other, and once Papa had gotten his cell phone back we called and talked to him. Luckily he had gotten medical attention right away, and they were able to treat him. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard that day was for my maid of honor. I would love to say that we had some magical answer for facing adversity, but all we could do was stick together and hope for the best. Really this could have been so much worse, we are all so thankful that Papa is okay.

My favorite moment: During his speech, the best man pulled out an old Halloween Batman cape of his, and asked Davey to put it on. He then proceeded to tell the crowd that “That is the way I have always seen my big brother.”

My funniest moment: We got a good laugh out of the crowd when we started the ceremony with “Somebody's Getting Married” from The Muppets Take Manhattan. That song took all the “sappy” right out of there, and set the tone as light and fun.

We would like to include a special thanks to some cousins and my brother for their hard work that morning, removing from the ceremony site an extraordinary amount of goose poop. We promise we will return the favor by ensuring their weddings are also goose-poop free.

My advice for Offbeat Brides: My advice is to do your paperwork. A contact sheet with all vendors and participants, and schedules with times/people/locations should go to everyone involved in the event. If you fill these things in as they are decided, it won't be an onerous task.

Also write a full script of the ceremony. Have a copy for yourself, the officiant, and (if you have one) your event planner.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Men's suits: Colin O'Brian
• Photographer: Jason Grover
• Photo booth: Last Mountain Photography
• Venue and catering: The Willow
• DJ: Kings Court Music
• Band: The Bystanders
• Fireworks: Ruggieri Fireworks & Special Effects
• Lighting: Ruggieri Lighting & Staging
• Honeymoon: Elkhorn Resort

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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