Misty & Corbin’s historic and haunted Deadwood wedding extravaganza

Remember Misty's epic red dress juxtaposed with Corbin's casual outfit in the tuxedo alternatives post? Here's the whole haunted, old west-style wedding WITH a peek at Misty's fantabulous, vintage underthings! -Becca

The offbeat bride: Misty, Assistant to VP of Academic Affairs, full-spectrum photographer (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Corbin, Automotive Technician (and motocross racer)

Location & date of wedding: Upper veranda of the Historic Franklin Hotel and Reception at the Historic Bullock, Deadwood, SD — June 27th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband's proposal, a sweetly romantic avowal of eternal love and other such emotives, was followed by my “yes” and then his “… on one condition.” Er. Back up. On a condition? There's a condition? Boy said what?? Well, it was actually a request — that he fervently desired to have our wedding in Deadwood, SD. No problem there, it would have been my choice as well!

We love Deadwood. It's a strange mixed-up vibe of sentient historic buildings, Victorian grandeur, Old West outlaws, and all-night long party-casinos, Vegas style! Throw in the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a constant influx of tourists from all over the globe, (as well as Harley riders galore), and the 1950s era celebrations throughout the town, and you have a mix of good times that is really hard to explain!

Corbin wanted our announcement for the newspaper to say, “Misty and Corbin are having a fun fu@#ing Wedding in Deadwood, and you can't come!” Well, that wasn't going to fly with the newspaper, but it did seem to set a certain tone as we planned (except for the “you can't come” part — warped senses of humor notwithstanding, we invited about everyone we knew. We, ahem, have exhibitionist tendencies).

The resulting wedding was ours in a way we'll always remember. Our favorite town. Our music. A haunted hotel (yeah, I really like ghosts and antiques). Kick-ass attire (scarlet for me, jeans for him and the guys, and whatever style dress my ladies felt good about), and a DIY extravaganza!

Our biggest challenge: Hmmm, our biggest challenge would have been the limited amount of finances for the wedding vs. our desire for a certain amount of pomp, grandeur, thematic style, grand theatrics. Obviously, a bit of creative thinking was going to be paramount here.

There were many things that we (um, okay “I” ) wanted for our wedding, and many were out of our budget. A beautiful setting for the ceremony: yes. Spending hundreds on decorations (or having to lug them clear to Deadwood): no. So we carefully chose a spot for the wedding that was incredibly kick-ass all on its own. We didn't put up one decoration — the 100+ year-old building and incredible view did the decorating for us.

Ebay came in terribly handy. I was able to gift all the ladies in the wedding with fabulous, vintage 1950s-era Aurora Borealis jewelry (plus buy my own) to wear in the ceremony at a VERY reasonable price! Great vintage stuff, plus we all sparkled like hell! For that matter, we bought my antique engagement (circa 1940) and both wedding rings (circa 1925) through an ebay antique dealer.

I wanted a tiered, amazing wedding cake, which was ridiculously expensive. So we ordered three plain white rounds through a store bakery, stacked them and decorated them ourselves.

Flowers, $400 for a few florist bouquets?? Yeaaaah, no — wholesale! They were shipped in a box, and we made bouquets ourselves. We outfitted the reception with The Dollar Store and online price-comparison shopping, and it all looked AMAZING!!!

My favorite moment: We had reserved most of the Historic Bullock Hotel for our attendants and guests, and it was so incredibly FUN having all of our friends and family all over that hotel. Most arrived two days before the wedding; we couldn't poke our head out of our room without seeing some of our crazy wild friends or eccentric family members. They are a truly hilarious group of people. It was great and we made the most of thoroughly enjoying our favorite town with all of our favorite people!

My funniest moment: A moment in time that I will always love is the walk to the ceremony. My ladies helped me with hair and make-up in our suite at the Bullock (kicking my poor Corbin out by 8:30 am) and then we walked over to the Franklin (ceremony location) in order to put our dresses on. I was stoked by my authentic corset and knickers (all the way from England!!) so, that's what I wore for the walk over. Walked Main Street from one side of Deadwood to the other in my knickers, with my entourage of ladies trailing along, toting the dresses (they were so amazing!). Of course, we were running a bit later than we meant to be, so all the guests saw us breeze by on our way to the “fainting room” to dress, and my grandmother used BOTH my names as I passed, first AND middle. God, we laughed… loved it!

My advice for offbeat brides: I think my advice would have to be: however expensive it is, you DO NOT have to pay that much for it to have equal quality. We saved a great deal of money through DIY options, utilizing the internet, buying at auction prices, comparison shopping… and not one item that we saved on was a compromise. Our goal wasn't just to stay in budget; it was to have absolutely everything exactly the way we wanted it and STILL stay in budget. It took more time, research, and effort, but we did have everything just the way we dreamed it would be, without indebting ourselves to our wedding.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
We live in a fairly small, kinda backward (oh!) town in Wyoming, so almost the entirety of our wedding shopping was done online.

• Dress: Lana by Maggie Sottero My wedding dress was one of our few full-price items, but it was the RIGHT dress.
• Veil: I had my wedding veil custom-made by the seamstress who altered my dress, (out of bits of leftover dress!). I decorated it with an antique brooch (ebay). Not a lot in the way of red wedding veils that I could find …
• Jewelry: My ladies and I all wore vintage Aurora Borealis crystals that I bid on on ebay.
• Corset & knickers: La Magia
• Cake decorations: Lucks
• Flowers: Potomac Wholesale
• Favors: Oriental Trading
• Reception items: Invitations by Dawn, including a kinky little black chiffon garter with a motorcycle charm on it! (My husband is a motocross racer).
• Photographer: Mike Roberts
• Venue: The Bullock Hotel, where we held our reception, and also stayed for the week, catered the reception and they were GREAT. I would highly recommend them! Also, the Bullock hotel is one of the most haunted places in America — it's worth a stay even if you're not having a fabulous Deadwood Wedding Extravaganza!

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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