“It’s the Super Moon, bruh” at this Spaceship Earth forest rave wedding

Offbeat partner: Tracy

Offbeat partner: Josh

Date and location of wedding: The Brazilian Room, Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley, CA — October 7, 2018

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We met at a Full Moon Gathering campout, Moontribe's 20th anniversary. It was a fantastic weekend and we heard echoed throughout the party, "It's the Super Moon, bruh" as the explanation for the awesomeness everywhere. Five years later, still following cosmic novelties and electronic music, we trekked to Oregon for the Solar Eclipse festival Symbiosis. Josh proposed during the eclipse with the solar ring as my engagement ring! We carried this theme through our engagement shoot and wedding.

Our wedding favors were galaxy print boxes with Earth colored seed bombs inside. The best man read a Neil DeGrasse Tyson quote on making meaning in the universe. Our green screen photo booth backgrounds were galaxy, full moon, and Burning Man. Unexpectedly during our cocktail hour, there was a SpaceX rocket launch visible, putting on quite the show. It was the cosmos blessing our union yet again!

Tell us about the ceremony:
Our friend who we recently met while planning a rave, officiated our ceremony. She is polyamorous and a shining example of love in our lives. She helped guide us through ceremony norms and gave us space to throw out traditions. We wrote our own ceremony and vows. The only remotely Jewish element I included was walking down the aisle with both my mom and my uncle, the closest person to my dad, who is no longer with us. It might not be breaking the glass or dancing to hava nagila, but my family appreciated the gesture. The Matron of Honor read "On Marriage" by Khalil Gibran and the best man read a quote from Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

We had a Glow Stick Unity Ceremony! We experimented beforehand to figure out how many glow stick we needed to separate to fill two graduated cylinders, and to see how long the liquids would store so we weren't frantically breaking 75 glow sticks the night before. I'm a STEM Coach and borrowed the cylinders from school. The results of our trials were that the refrigerator will keep the liquids viable for 3 days, and there is no way to water or oil it down to extend the volume of the liquids. These experiments were the only disagreements we had in the planning process, haha!

In our vows we included Battlestar Galactica several ways. I vowed to be the Starbuck to his Apollo, in this galaxy and beyond. We both ended our vows with a call and response from the audience, "So say we all." So say we all.

Tell us about the reception:
We actually won first place in a sweepstakes and got our entire day of photography for free from Funny Bunny Photography! I submitted our story from our wedding website to the sweepstakes I saw on Offbeat Bride and won. It could happen to you too! Natalie is amazing and will totally capture your style.

We decided to have a Cheese Wheel Wedding Cake, yes, tiers of cheese. We cut the cheese, hehe, and had mini pies from a local bakery. We gave out glow stick bracelets to everyone during the dance party so everyone could get in on the glow action and get down with their inner raver. I made some string art decorations for the reception. The heart shaped Love sign was given to the officiant as a gift. "Trashua" is our joke of a couple name. We don't take ourselves too seriously and we're not on Instagram, but we used it for our wedding website on With Joy. The Thank You string art sign we used for the cover of our Thank You cards. These projects were small touches that personalized the event to me.

Since we won the photography sweepstakes, we poured some extra dough into the Live Image Green Screen Photo Booth. You get to pick three backgrounds so we went full nerd connecting to our story of how we met and got galaxy, the full moon, and Burning Man. It was so worth it! Guests got to take home hilarious prints instantly and we got a photo album to remember the moments. Featured in the album is Natalie from Funny Bunny in the photo booth with us.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
Wedding planning definitely put a strain on our relationship. We've planned big events before so we thought this was small, but it could consume too much time every day if you let it. We defined our roles, divided and conquered, and set meeting times to discuss choices so it wasn't all we talked about for months.

Use the Offbeat Bride Spreadsheet! It saved our sanity and we're still using it as we send out our Thank You cards and check over our budget. Plus you can customize it to your needs and it has more than enough scaffolding to make sure you don't crash and burn in the process.

We were hesitant to ditch the cultural norms from our Jewish and Christian backgrounds, but our families appreciated our twists on traditions and now have a better understanding of our scientific silly outlook on life. Be true to you! It's YOUR day, love yourself and embrace the special unicorn that you are.

Forest rave wedding vendors

Coordination: Offbeat Bride Spreadsheet • Photographer: Funny Bunny Photography • Dress, Hair Clip, Groom's Tie, and Mother-of-the-Bride Kimono: Wai-Ching Clothing • Engagement Ring and Earrings: custom work by Jewelry By Johan • Venue: The Brazilian Room • Photo Booth: Live Image Photo Booth • Cheese Wheel Wedding Cake: The Cheese School of San Francisco • Mini Pies: Gala Bakery • Bucket List Guest Book: Transient Books • Seed Bomb Wedding Favors: Plantables and Paper • Wedding Website: With Joy

Forest rave wedding gallery

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