Christina & James’s Punk, underage, Christian wedding

A couple years ago, we featured Christina's kick-ass skull necklace. We finally have the full scoop on this red, pink, and black, skull-happy, pin-up stylin' wedding! -Becca

The offbeat bride: Christina, Student & Clothing Designer (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: James, Welder

Location & date of wedding: The Lumber Baron Inn (a Victorian Mansion), Denver, Colorado — July 12, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: First of all, no one in our wedding party was over twenty-one years old! Since we met each other and all of the friends in our wedding party at various punk concerts, we definitely wanted to incorporate the punk rock aesthetic into our wedding.

The bridesmaids wore 1940's, pinup-style, red and black, skull and crossbones dresses that I designed and my super-skilled mom created and made into reality! We also made little black and red, netted hats embellished with rhinestones for the girls and they wore seamed fishnet stockings with their dresses.

I had the tips of my hair dyed bright red and black and wore a rhinestone skull and cross bones necklace.

James and all of the groomsmen wore their beloved combat boots.

Our centerpieces were tattoo flash-style swallows.

I walked down the aisle to an Elvis song (“Can't Help Falling in Love With You“). We played plenty of old school punk songs at the reception as well as Rock ‘n Roll oldies and a few country songs since the groom is from Wyoming.

James, my mom, and I made nearly everything for the wedding from the save the dates, invitations, and bridesmaids' outfits to 100 chair covers, the centerpieces, and even our wedding cake!

Tell us about the ceremony: We were lucky enough to have James' father as our officiant and we had a Christian ceremony. We had readings from the book of Genesis (in the Bible) as well as the Apache Blessing, the Irish Blessing, and a rose ceremony in which two different colors of rose petals are mixed together by the bride and groom to symbolize the uniting of two families.

Our biggest challenge: Planning the wedding from two different states (Colorado and Wyoming) was a definite challenge, but thanks to extensive use of the telephone and emailing or texting photos, it wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be

My favorite moment:

• Walking outside to where the ceremony was to take place and just taking everything in and being overwhelmed by all of the love and hard work that had gone into making such a beautiful day. I saw the gazebo my mom and future husband had decorated, all of the flowers my dad had used to decorate the aisle, all of the seat covers my friends and family had lovingly tied into bows, and my brother running around orchestrating music. I was surrounded by the smiling faces of friends and family. People had come all the way from six other states and even our friends in touring bands managed to make it.
• Catching the first glimpse of James and walking down the aisle toward my beaming future husband. It was surreal.
• Hearing his vows, which were so sweet and special they blew me away and brought me to tears. His vows had been inspired by the Song of Solomon book of the Bible, which is, in my opinion, the most romantic part of the Bible ever!
• Dancing at the reception to songs we heard at the concert where we first met and the concert where we first held hands and became a couple. Watching my new husband skank energetically to The Ramones in his wedding suit will always be a favorite memory of mine.

My funniest moment: Our funniest moment actually happened right before the wedding began. I had completely forgotten to bring my strapless white bra to the venue so that I could change into my dress. The dress was just not going to sit properly or stay put without it and I was in a panic.

My bridesmaid, Savannah, quickly proceeded to try to take off her black strapless bra to lend it to me but was so encumbered by the corset-style lacing of the back of her dress that the bra got tangled up in the lacing and was hanging off the back of her dress. The dressing room was on the top floor of the venue and we had pretty much been forgotten about while my mom raced around looking everywhere for a bra.

Meanwhile, I could hardly move in my dress (a very form fitting mermaid style dress!) and could hardly help disentangle Savannah, so the two of us were waddling around trying to fix our bra situation and yelling for help until finally my mom rushed in with the bra. 😉

The runner up is that the man of honor had jammed the box with my ring in it in the front pocket of his vest (usually just reserved for little pocket squares) and could not get the thing out until he jumped up and down and wiggled out a dance in front of everyone.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? James is from a very conservative family and was worried about incorporating a red and black color scheme, skull and cross bones, and tattoo motifs into the wedding. Though those colors and symbols are seen in our everyday life, he felt they would rock the boat too much. But the more we talked about why I felt the colors and symbols were something special to incorporate into the wedding — they represented aspects of our lifestyle and the story of how we met — the more we were on the same page.

However, he just couldn't stand the idea of that much black at his own wedding. He was hoping for some pastels as he knew this would make his mom happy, but he felt that any color would be better than black. When I asked what other color he'd like to pair with the red I was shocked when he said “Well, how about pink?” I had never thought of the combination before but I loved it. It was perfect.

We still kept some black as an accent color, and we still had tattoo swallow centerpieces and invitations and skull and crossbones' were peeking out from the bridesmaids' dresses, and everyone was happy. Even his mom gushed about what a beautiful wedding we had pulled off and I couldn't believe how happy I was with our decision to go with red and pink.

My advice for offbeat brides:

• Make sure to stay true to yourself and your groom. Your day should be a reflection and celebration of who you are.
• Stick to your guns on what is most important to you .
• Try to keep an open mind for new ideas.
• Make sure to collaborate with the groom — it's his day too and you never know how much you'll love his ideas!
• I lived by this quote when planning my wedding (and any other days): “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind” –Dr. Seuss.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Bridesmaids Dresses & Hats: Bombshell Bridal
• Bride's Corset: Rave's Oh My Goth
• Bride's Shoes: How Cool

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.