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The offbeat bride: Kate, seamstress/costume designer wannabe
Her offbeat partner: Alex, composer and music teacher
Date and location of wedding: Nash Farm Park, Hampton, GA — May 20, 2012
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: One of the things that attracted Alex and me to each other was our shared nerdiness, and we wanted to incorporate as many of our favorite things into the wedding as we could. We nixed some of our early ideas like having someone dressed as an alien from the Alien films prowling around during the ceremony, for example, but most of them made it in.
The entire bridal party wore costumes from different films, shows, and genres, most of which Alex, a friend, and I made. The ring bearer/flower girl wore the rings on a chain around her neck and was dressed as a hobbit. The minister was Gandalf, and the groomsmen were composed of a Jedi, a Stormtrooper, and a Jaffa (from Stargate).
The bridesmaids were composed of an elf, a fairy, a pirate, some Regency garb, medieval garb, and steampunk. Alex wore a Star Trek dress uniform and I wore a fantasy dress I designed with historical influences (Elizabeth's wedding gown in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie was my jumping off point). Almost all of the music we used was from TV and movie soundtracks.
The centerpieces had different themes: Beauty and the Beast, The Last Airbender, The Lord of the Rings, medieval, steampunk, Star Trek, pirate, The Phantom of the Opera, and fantasy in general, and our cake toppers were Eowyn, Captain Kirk, and the TARDIS. We found some rather Elvish-looking favor bags in which we put pirate coins and mini boxes of Nerds.
Tell us about the ceremony: Writing the ceremony was a little challenging for me. We wanted to include and be respectful to our beliefs without being too traditional or preaching a sermon. We ended up tweaking a lot of traditional wording, coming up with original wording, and interspersing and changing quotes from The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. We also had one of my sisters read a poem we like: “To Love is Not to Possess” by Jack Kavanaugh.
Here's the intro, which also got a laugh at the end:
Strangers from distant lands, friends of old, you've been summoned here to join Alex and Kate on this special day, the day that they begin their life together as husband and wife. They have asked me to especially thank you all for coming to share this day with them — the support, friendship, and love offered by you all is truly appreciated. They don't know half of you half as well as they should like, and they like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
Then we had a prayer, the poem reading, and a passage from Colossians:
Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
The charge followed (props if you can figure out all of the references):
In this galaxy there's a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all the universe, three million galaxies like this. And in all that, and perhaps more, only one of each of us. Alex and Kate have found each other, fallen in love with each other, and decided to spend their lives together.“However, one does not simply walk into marriage. The heart's gates are guarded by more than just feelings. There must be love there that does not sleep, and a good spouse is ever watchful. It is a road that goes ever on, riddled with friction, anguish, and despair. But it is not folly. There is always hope.
“Remember that true love, which is a choice more than a feeling, a solid friendship, and the faithful observance of your vows are the foundation of a successful marriage and a happy and enduring home. Make it so.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Then came our vows ending with the minister saying, “You have chosen… wisely,” the exchange of rings (which started with “Bring forth the rings!” of course), the declaration of marriage and the kiss, the closing prayer, and the presentation, finishing it off with, “Alex and Kate, live long and prosper.”
Our biggest challenge: Getting all the costumes done in time. Alex and I both sew, so we wanted to make them all. I had mine, four of the six bridesmaids' (one made her own and another's mother made hers), and the flower girl's. Alex had his, the minister's, the three groomsmen's, and ones for two other friends he wanted in costume. He also made the Jaffa and wizard staves. Thankfully a good friend of mine can sew and was happy to help, so she did a couple of hems for me and sewed the flower girl, ring bearer, and Jack Sparrow costumes together after we cut them out.
Alex was crazy and stayed up until 6:00 a.m. the night before the wedding finishing the Jedi costume and gluing part of a ballpoint pen to Eowyn's hand after we lost the tiny sword (I didn't even notice the difference until he told me after the wedding).
My funniest moment: The most embarrassing but funny moment was the kiss. It was super short because I was a little weirded out by kissing in front of people, and everyone laughed at it. Our photographer made sure to get a shot of us kissing later because he said it was the “shortest kiss ever.”
Another good one was when Jack Sparrow introduced us at the reception to Weird Al's “White and Nerdy” in the background. We ended up stepping in right as Yankovic sang, “I'm just so white and nerdy.”
Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? We did the reception potluck-style by asking guests to bring an hors d'oeuvre to share, but said not to feel like they had to since so many were coming from out-of-state. I was concerned there wouldn't be enough food, but there was plenty to spare.
My advice for Offbeat Brides: Remember that it's just one day in the rest of your life. A pretty important day, sure, but whatever little things might go wrong, be forgotten, or get budgeted out, it's not going to affect the quality of your marriage. They say your wedding should be the happiest day of your life, but I say it's only the beginning.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: Curt Collier
- Tablecloths: Linentablecoth.com
- Bride's dress and most of the other costumes/garb: Bad Wolf Costumes (bride's site and Etsy store)
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
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This is pretty amazing. The wedding party looks so much fun!
Amazing wedding! I’m in awe of your costume making skills!
This was totes awesome! I love how you just “went for it” and let all your nerdy ideas find their way in. It looks like this was such a lovely representation of the two of you and what you love. And that’s the coolest thing of all.
I think my favorite part was “You have chosen…wisely.” You two are awesome and adorable <3
Wow what a wedding party!
& LOL, I immediately had to go listen to White & Nerdy, I love his songs
This is all kinds of awesome. Huge kudos to you for doing your own thing. I proper love this wedding.
So awesome!
Love love LOVE. Star Trek dress uniform? Awesomeness!! And Nerds as the favors!
I know I didn’t get all the references, but I loved all the ones I caught! Will anyone be upset if I “borrow” some of this wording? It’s a great way to make silliness & nerdiness sound big & formal. I love ALL of it!
I love this! We’re also incorporating a good deal of nerdy loves in our wedding. We were originally going to include costumes as well, but that ended up becoming a beast of a project, so we nixed it. Your costumes are amazing!
I love the quotes you used from LoTR! I may have to steal those. Really, it never occurred to me how perfect the “Not all who wander are lost” passage is for a wedding ceremony. And the “live long and prosper” at the end is perfect!
I am so freakin impressed at all the costumes. I can’t believe you made so many! That is dedication. And it turned out AMAZING! Especially your dress and the groom’s outfit – both gorgeous. I seriously love everyhting about this wedding, and it’s left me wishing I could have been there! 🙂
So I see the Punisher, Indiana Jones, a stormtrooper, a Jedi, a Gryffindor student, Captain Jack Sparrow, and a Jaffa. But who’s the guy in the green and gold doublet?
It’s a Renaissance-inspired costume in general, no one in particular. 🙂
Everything is just lovely, but especially your hair! Those beachy, elfy waves are so perfect and flattering and squee!
Looooove it! My fiance has a dress uni jacket almost identical to your husband’s, but for teal piping for science officers. 🙂
The minister…
…was GANDALF. :O
I love this.
Wow! You are beautiful! Everything and everyone looked wonderful, a feast for the eyes. And thanks for the heads up, I had no idea being an Aliens fan qualified me to be a nerd, yessss.
How fantastic! I’m also having a hodge podge of genres and I admit to being a little nervous about people’s reactions. But it looks like yours was awesome! I keep telling my Star Trek buddies to wear their uniforms. I hope they do! Your wedding looks wonderful and I’m stealing the Nerds idea
I am in love with that wedding party! Too fun!
I’m glad that your wedding was such a successful myriad of geekery. My wedding is going to be a conglomeration of mine and my fiance’s favorite things and I’ve always been scared that it might be too much, and won’t appear to be a wedding. But really… who cares?! It’s our wedding, right? 🙂
OMG! This is sooooo much like what we are planning for our wedding! We are also having White and Nerdy to introduce us at the reception!
Looks like a fantastic wedding! Way to go on putting so much of yourselves into it and making it really your own. That’s what the day is supposed to be all about. You paid such attention to all the details and I’m sure it was a fabulous day for all to share with you. Many blessings for a long, wonderful life together.
Amazing wedding. I love how you incorporated so much of yourselves into the wedding. Looking back some of my favorite memories of our wedding were the “weird” things we incorporated into our wedding. Kudos for sticking to your guns. Also great job on your hard DIY work and I personally love soooo much: your necklace, the rings, the outfits, the references, cake toppers.
Thanks everyone!
HOLY CRAP the dress uniform!!! I love your ceremony wording too. 🙂
Everything looks lovely! 🙂
“and our cake toppers were Eowyn, Captain Kirk, and the TARDIS.”
There’s a joke in there somewhere about Captain Kirk running out of women in the 23rd century, and having to use the TARDIS go score new babes, but it doesn’t somehow seem appropriate for your wedding. 😀
Mr Ivriniel asked me to pass along greetings to Alex from a fellow member of The-Up-Until-6AM-the-Night-Before-Your-Wedding Society. He hopes Alex didn’t end up facedown on top of something, like he did with his laptop.
I notice that in one of the pictures someone appears to be putting a necklace on the flower girl during the ceremony. Was this some sort of special moment?
The flower girl also ended up being our ring bearer, and she wore the rings on a chain around her neck (a la Frodo Baggins). That was when my sister was taking them off during the ceremony.
Wow!! How neat and unique is this wedding?! I love how unafraid they were to do something so original!
You are my wedding hero. Seriously.
This is amazing! My nerdy heart will not stop squee-ing! Every single element of this wedding is ultra-cool – and all your effort totally paid off. You look so, SO happy!
You have got to be the coolest people on this planet!
I love it!
Squeeeee! I love this wedding so much! And we read the same passage from Colossians at our wedding 🙂 (that is definitely not the coolest part of your wedding, but I do love that passage.)
<3_<3
There is a restaurant here called The Broad Axe Tavern that has been around in one form or another since 1681. If we had gone with a local ceremony this would have been my defacto venue choice. What better place to start an adventure?
(We ended up getting married in the Italy Pavilion in EPCOT, which was almost as good. And my dad kept his costume a secret and surprised me by dressing as Gandalf the Grey complete with natural beard and 4 inch lifts. Quote of the day was “Holy shit! Your dad’s fucking Gandalf!” Which can be taken the wrong way far too easily…)
I love all the pictures. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun! At first I thought Alex was dressed as Miles Vorkosigan, heh.