Pinkee & Pony’s Dia De Los Muertos, cemetery bash

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#Real Weddings: Western US#black wedding dress#cemetery#church#corset#diy wedding#economical wedding#feathers#fluevogs#goth#lesbian weddings#los angeles#mohawk#short hair#tacos
Portrait before ceremony

The Offbeat Bride: Pinkee, video marketing

Her Offbeat Partner: Pony, manager of adult store

Location & date of wedding: Forest Lawn Cemetery/Rec Center Studio, Los Angeles, CA — 11/01/09

What made our wedding offbeat: Firstly, we planned the whole thing ourselves. We utilized our amazing group of talented friends for photography, DJing skills, coordinating abilities, and helping hands to help us hang lights and set up tables the morning of. Our tribe pulled through for us and made it spectacular, and we couldn't be more grateful.

ring exchange 2

Secondly, neither of us had ever even BEEN to a wedding in our adult lives. I think this is really what gave us the freedom to play with the “tradition” element, as neither of us really knew what that meant. To us, the most important thing about our wedding was making it distinctly, unmistakably and uniquely OUR OWN. Looking back at it, I think it was a complete success.

The guests wait

Our ceremony was in a chapel on the grounds of a cemetery, a la Dia De Los Muertos.

We nixed the sit down dinner for a taco stand vending vegan and non-vegan street tacos. The alcohol flowed freely, and people DANCED. Everyone was dressed to the nines, looked beautiful, ate cupcakes. To round out the evening, we had Aztec dancers come in as a tribute to Pony's heritage and in honor of the Day of The Dead.

dia de los muertos

Afterwards, all we heard from our friends was how much FUN they'd had, how it had been perfect for who were are as a couple and SO unlike what they'd come to expect from weddings, with all the fun and none of the stuffiness.

dia de los muertos

Tell us about your ceremony: In the spirit of Dia De Los Muertos, inspired by the chapel on Olvera St., as guests filtered into the ceremony venue and took a program, we asked them to approach the altar where we had about fifty pillar votives set up. They then one by one lit one of the candles we had set up there in the memory of someone who had passed on.

Inside, the guests lit candles for love ones passed away

What was your biggest challenge?: The biggest challenge was definitely wearing both the “planner hat” and the “bride hat,” especially the day of! I was up on a ladder the morning of, hanging things, on the phone with vendors and setting tables up. At one point, the hour to change hats was there and I just had for FORCE myself to let go and delegate while I got my makeup done. It was definitely more stressful than say, going to the spa, but I was so proud of all we did together.

cupcake tower

What were the most meaningful moments of your wedding?: What was really amazing about the way it turned out was that we didn't plan any of the “wedding moments,” they just kind of happened organically.

For instance, the father/daughter dance, which seemed kind of hokey in theory, just happened at one point in the night and nobody planned it or forced it to happen, and it was really special.

fire dance

Instead of throwing a bouquet, we decided to toast to our friends, Walter and Paul, a couple who have been together for over thirty years. From before being married was even an option. They've loved each other for more than each of our lifetimes, and when we recognized the incredible power of that relationship, nobody of the four of us could keep from crying.

WE GOT MARRIED!

My advice for other offbeat brides: Something might not go as expected. We totally had like three minutes of “dead air” at our ceremony when we waited for the “ring blessing” to end so we could continue to the next point in the ceremony. I could have gotten really upset about it, but instead just looked around and realized we were surrounded by friends, and we just laughed.

Things will go wrong, things may get tripped up, especially if you are DIYing it. When I look back it was ALL perfect, even in it's imperfections. Embrace it!

cake kiss

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!:

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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Comments on Pinkee & Pony’s Dia De Los Muertos, cemetery bash

  2. This is actually the first wedding where I went through the whole slideshow 🙂 AMAZING!

  4. I love this! Man you both are cooool 🙂 Congratulations on your wedding – the bit about the toast to your friends had me welling up a bit! That is very special indeed and how wonderful to honour their love as part of your wedding. Everything about this is WICKED! PS Pinkee: is that a Maori design on your dress? Looks like the "koru" or fern symbol often seen in New Zealand 🙂

  7. you both are gorgeous. i love the dress. and pretty much everything else.

  8. I am an LA bride, and while my fiance and I are not religious, his family is. I would love to honor that by getting married somewhere similar to where you got married. What part of Forest Lawn did you get married at ? I also love your candle idea as both of my parents have passed away. I think this would be a great way to honor them.

  10. Wow! This is so not my style, but unlike some of the other 'not my style' weddings, I think I might be officially obsessed. I wish I was at this party! This is some damn fine wedding porn. Aaaah, I love OBB where i can just gawk at beautiful awesomeness such as this.

  11. They are both so beautiful. The ceremony looked amazing. Everything is just so damn lovely. Gah.

  15. I only saw the picture at the beginning of the post and chills ran down my spine! And then I read it….absolutely gorgeous! I am in true awe of what you both accomplished, it looks so beautiful! I love it! I love it all! Congratulations to both of you! FABULOUS!!!

  16. Thank you all so much for your kind words!
    Sabrina- the design was a concept I brought to Simone, who designed the dress, and she really ran with it! I can't say if the maori design you saw was or wasn't an inspiration, but I like that it reminds you of it!
    Pocahotness- We got married in The Wee Kirk O' The Heather, a small chapel on Forest Lawn (Glendale) grounds. There are four or five chapels there, you should take a field trip and check them all out. They aren't TOO expensive to rent (The wee kirk, the smallest, was $600 for 2 hours) and the grounds are really gorgeous.
    Crystal- isn't Simone just amazing!
    <3

  17. Thank you so much for sharing this – I am especially proud that you had Aztec dancers in the true fashion of the culture. I have so much respect for both of you for honoring the richness of the Aztec culture and heritage. What a beautiful wedding – congrats to you both!

  18. Wow! I'd like to officially nominate these two for C.L.I.F. – couple I'd like to fuck! Badass wedding and hotness!

  19. I cant help but notice how such a badass, tattooed and pierced couple looks SO happy and completely harmless, haha! But seriously, you guys look awesome, the dancers are awesome…basically in love with it all =)

  20. I absolutely love this wedding! What a gorgeous couple, and I daresay I've never seen a more AWESOME groom! Love the traditional cultural elements of his outfit, and the facepaint is beautiful. Great hair and feathers! And the bride's corset..it looks so smashing on her…and their tattoos! Amazing! What a HOT couple!!!

    I love this wedding. The photos are so a honest…I love that you can SEE their love for each other. Such romantic and fun shots. Everyone is so rocker-chic with their fashion..really a stylish bunch! I love it so much. They are perfectly gorgeous together. <3

  21. My first visit to this blog and this wedding caught my eye. I eloped and based that decision on the fact I'd been a bridesmaid at my older sister's wedding, and she hated her wedding! She told me not to do a by-the-book wedding if I didn't want it, don't do a wedding a certain way because people tell you that's "what should be done". Now THIS wedding of Pinkee & Pony's, that's what a wedding should be! Something that's fun to you and means something to you. They nailed it on the head. Great job!

  22. Beautiful Wedding! I thought it was so awesome to see that much joy in your faces.. especially in the casual pictures. But what I really want to know is… which 'Vogs were you wearing? I myself am leaning towards red Bondgirls ( with a formal red dress, lol).

    As for gauged ears, I was thinking of either putting a whole pearl in the hole (i've done it before) or white bone carved tribal ones… a la
    http://images.marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.c…

  24. Gorgeous pictures and even more so, a gorgeous, gorgeous couple.
    I really loved this, because it appeared to be so uniquely Pinkee and Pony. I’m not one for pomp and ceremony and upholding traditions that pretty much mean nothing to the couple, and I think that because you guys recognised this about yourselves, and used it as an opportunity to take a great big fat artistic licence with the ceremony, the end result is something so personal and beautiful.
    I adore the pictures, I’m sure everyone in the pictures had the most amazing time – you can see it! (and you can’t fake that kind of joy for the cameras! 🙂 )

  25. Thats so cool! have a lovely lie together, You had begun in a great way! Congrats from a Hungarian goth:)

  27. Loved your wedding!!! Can you please share where you hired the Aztec Dancers?

  29. Ran across this while looking for Dia De Los Muertos tattoo ideas. It sure looks like it was one helluva beautiful wedding. Best wishes to both of you for continued happiness!

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