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The Offbeat Bride: Holly, SEN Teacher
Her offbeat partner: Sam, Incident Manager
Date and location of wedding: The Crooked House, Himley, Dudley, England — March 30, 2015
Our offbeat wedding at a glance:
We got married on the 30th of March, exactly three years after we first met. We knew from day one that our wedding would not be 100 percent traditional. Sam proposed to me at our Halloween party with him dressed as Joker and me as Harley Quinn, which kind of explains us as a couple.
We wanted something that really represented us: weird, geeky, offbeat, fun, relaxed, and family-orientated. We decided on a steampunk theme within a few days of getting engaged.
It was really important to me that the day was true to us, so I handmade as much as possible. I made many of the fashion and decor items myself.
Tell us about the ceremony:
Our ceremony was a pretty tradional registrar ceremony. I walked down the aisle with my dad to Jose Gonzalez's “Heartbeats,” signed the register to You Me at Six, and walked out to Muse's “Feeling Good.”
My brother read from Corelli's Mandolin.
Tell us about your reception:
Our reception was a relaxed party — we wanted everyone just to have fun and enjoy themselves. We had an amazing three-course meal followed by speeches. Our table names were names of characters from my favourite games, and our venue was decorated steampunk-style.
For the evening we had a hog roast followed by a candy cart, popcorn, candy floss, and milkshakes. Our first dance was Red Jumpsuit Apparatus' “Guardian Angel.”
Then came my father/daughter dance (*guilty whispers* Taylor Swift's “Best Day”), but my niece stood on the dance floor shouting, “No! No, Grandad, dance with me!” So she was picked up by my dad, and my other niece, seeing this, comes running up and throws herself into my arms turning our father/daughter dance into a father/daughter/niece/granddaughter dance.
What was your most important lesson learned?
The hardest part for me was trying to explain our steampunk theme to our older and more traditional relatives. There were doubts, but just stay true to yourselves and what is important to you. We wanted our day to be about us, weird and geeky and individual, but we still wanted to include some traditional elements.
Vendors
- Photography: Dawn Molina Photography
- Venue: The Crooked House
- Dress: http://www.tailorwedding.com/
- DJ: Sounds Good Dudley
- Bridesmaids Dresses: Lindy Bop
- Brides and bridesmaids Corsets: Corsets UK
- Made by the bride: Favor boxes with sweeties, hot chocolate favors, party bags for the little ones, sweetie cart, cake stand, cakes, cupcake stand, cupcakes, centerpieces of copper candelabras, mine and my bridesmaids' bouquets, boutonnieres, maid of honor's shoes, decal-ed vases for on tables, place names, card box, order of service, invites, save the dates, large order of the day, confetti and confetti cones, hair comb and hair pins, fascinators for bridesmaids and my mum and mother in law, my garter
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I love you steam punk theme! Your wedding turned out beautifully and the part about your nieces is adorable. I’m glad that even though it was supposed to be special moment between you and your father, that you didn’t get upset about them interrupting. Yes they are kids but still it can be a little hurtful. Regardless it probably made that moment more memorable for you. I hope my wedding day, which is in September, is as beautiful as yours. Congratulations!
For me it was more special having my nieces dancing with us. Yeah it wasn’t traditional and was so very awkward dancing with my dad in a big dress then adding 2 little ones. But it was very us and my nieces and nephew are really Important to me xoxo
Your bouquets are absolutely amazing!! How did you do them? I’m doing something sort of similar for mine, but it’s going to be pin backs instead of buttons. My plan is currently a styrofoam ball and lots of hot glue but if you have any tips for me I’m dying to hear them! 🙂
Styrofoam is what I’m using for my bouquet and centerpieces. Mine isn’t buttons but I used boutonniere pins and made paper flowers. All I did was glue the stick inside the ball after carving out the hole. I only used the pins to secure the flowers no glue needed. I guess it also depends on how heavy the items are that you are securing to the Styrofoam. The only thing that is even remotely hard about it is how tedious it is to put on every little piece. Good luck though and hope to see your wedding on here soon.
Thanks! My general plan is similar to what you did. Just put the hot glue onto the pin back and slide it in. It worked well with my bridesmaids bouquets but there’s have silk flowers rather than pin backs. I so hope my wedding gets featured on here but it’s not until Halloween so it won’t be for a bit! Keep your eye out though 🙂
Yes lots of hot glue and a Styrofoam ball and lots of burnt finger tips. Lol. It took lots and lots of time but I managed to include little personal items like my nans brooch and a six penny from my niece. Just be patient. Message me if you need anything xoxo
Thank you so much! I’m waiting on three last orders of pin backs to arrive and then I can get to work. I feel like this is going to be the longest project of all but probably also my favorite. All the pin backs I chose are from movies / TV shows that hold some sort of significance to our relationship. There are also some, like the Mario Kart ones, that are relevant to special childhood memories of mine. So it’s definitely the most personal project of the wedding. I’ll let you know if I get into trouble! lol
If you want to see all the pin backs you may need something to cover the Styrofoam ball so there’s no Styrofoam peeking between any gaps. I found I had to have about 3 layers of buttons to cover all the gaps xoxo
So far what I’ve done to avoid this is painted the ball black so if there are any little gaps they won’t be white. I also got straight pins with fancy pearl heads on them and I’m planning on putting those into all the little diamond shaped gaps that appear when you put pin backs next to each other. Hopefully this will look as good in practice as it does in my head!
before gluing anything try it out first so you know if that’s the way you want to go.
I’m not really into steampunk but this wedding looks amazing!!! Such beautiful details! And you are a beautiful bride!
Congratulations!
Thank you
Aww I really wish I’d seen this wedding earlier! I was very keen on getting married at The Crooked House but my partner wasn’t, so I had to book elsewhere. I think if he’d have seen these gorgeous wedding photos he’d have felt differently.
How fabulous! You both look amazing, and you two obviously worked soooo hard to make this happen with all the fantastic styling!
I adore the Crooked House, I had no idea they did weddings, but what a perfect venue! I am longing to write a ceremony for a Steampunk Wedding. It was so lovely to look at all your happy photos and quirky touches. Congratulations!
Awww, everything looks so great! Love the details and the atmosphere. You guys did a great job!
Me and my fiance are thinking about the stampunk theme too. We’ve come up with a lot of ideas and everything was fun untill we told my parents… I was stroke with a very negative reaction, specifically with the dressing up in this style in public… Did some of your more conservative relatives react with less enthusiasm? How did you compromise?