Julie & Matthew’s retro polka dots and pinwheels wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Julie

Her offbeat partner: Matthew, CNC Machinist

Date and location of wedding: Mile High Station, Denver, CO — September 22, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Matt and I really wanted a wedding that was very personal and reflected us as a couple and included our two kids. We picked polka dots to reflect my love of all things retro, and our colors were red and pink. I love buttons and used them everywhere I could. They were in the vases of our centerpieces, in the pinwheels, and incorporated into my jewelry. I wore a white dress with my own touch, a custom red and pink petticoat. Matt and his groomsmen wore converse sneakers and polka dot skinny ties.

My grandmother, who has passed, always grew beautiful dahlias in her yard. So as my way of having her with me on my special day, all of the flowers were dahlias. I also wore the diamond necklace that she gave me before she passed. Our two sons were best men, along with Matt's brother. The younger walked down the aisle with Matt, and the older walked me down the aisle, along with my dad. We really wanted the wedding to be a fun party for our sons and all of the other kids there, so we had a bouncy castle and a kids' table with crayons and paper on for coloring.

We did a lot of DIY. I handmade the ties worn by our wedding party, all of the table runners on the guest tables and surrounding tables, the candles out of recycled wine bottles for all of our guests to take home, my pink polka dot veil, red polka dot garter belt, and the earrings and the bracelet I wore — which were made our of pink and red buttons that I got from all three of deceased grandmothers' sewing kits.

I also made a polka dot hanger to hang my dress on for pictures, the earrings and bracelets worn by my bridesmaids, as well as the polka dot dahlias we all wore in our hair. I made jar drinking glasses for our wedding party with lips for the girls and beards for the boys. And I made all of the pinwheels.

My older son loves LEGOs, so he made tie pins for our groomsmen and our dads out of LEGO men that resembled each person. He also made me a little bride that I pinned to the bow on my bouquet. Matt is from Minnesota and we love their Old Dutch Dill Pickle potato chips, so we ordered mini bags of them to be served at our cocktail party.

Tell us about the ceremony:
I couldn't imagine having someone marry us that didn't know us, so I asked Matt's dad to become ordained and perform our ceremony. We outlined the parts of our ceremony that we wanted and then asked him to add any readings or scriptures that he felt were fitting. He did a great job, and I am so thankful to him for being willing to play such a big role in our day.

Before the wedding, we gave each other a letter that we could read privately before we walked down the aisle. This helped keep us from becoming an emotional mess and it is something we can keep forever.

We also picked a cute poem from “True Love,” By Robert Fulghum that we felt was very fitting for us and we asked our friend Jaime to read it. Jaime has been my friend for many years and played a huge role in Matt and I meeting. She has since become a very good friend to Matt as well and we really wanted her to have a very special role in our day.

Our biggest challenge:
For a year and a half, we planned a beautiful outdoor, fall wedding with on-site cabins for guest accommodations in the mountain town of Lyons, CO, on the exact weekend that the colors would be at their peak. A week before our wedding, the town of Lyons flooded, and as the days passed it began to sink in that this was the worst flood in the history of Colorado… and that our wedding would not be happening in Lyons.

Our amazing wedding planner rolled up her sleeves and started making phone calls. She was with us during the entire relocation process and had us visiting venues the day after our venue confirmed that they would definitely not be doing our wedding. She, along with friends and family, really stepped in to make sure that our wedding would stay afloat. We ended up moving the wedding to Mile High Station in the heart of downtown Denver.

[Note from the editors: we're SO freaking excited to be doing an event at Mile High Station, too! The February 2014 Offbeat Bride/Lovesick Expo is at Mile High — hopefully we'll see some of you there!]

My funniest moment:
When my dad and I were talking about songs that we would dance to, I had my heart set on dancing to a Tom Petty song because it reminded me of him, but he wanted to dance to something more current. Everyone, especially the grandkids, tease my dad about how much he loves Lady Gaga. We had the DJ start it off by playing “Bad Romance,” before going into “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty. Everyone who knows my dad couldn't help but laugh.

My favorite moment:
One of my favorite things was walking down the aisle. The venue had a loft above the ceremony so everyone could watch me walk around and down the stairs where my dad and my older son were waiting to walk me the rest of the way. Matt picked “Here Comes My Girl” by Tom Petty for the processional.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Venue: Mile High Station
• Wedding planner: Ashley Nicole Events
• Paper products: Tasha Rae Designs
• Florist: Quintessential Events
• Custom petticoat: Dawn's Atelier
• Photographer: All Digital Photo and Video
• Cupcakes: Piece Love and Chocolate
• Hair and makeup: Nadine Rodriguez and Nazla Guidry

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.