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The offbeat bride: Maggie, Student (and OBT member)
Her offbeat partner: Will, Pastor and Grad Student
Location & date of wedding: Ceremony was at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, IN. Reception was at the Mill, also in Marion, IN. — July 11, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: My husband is a pastor, so we were expected (by people who didn't know us very well, that is) to have a very traditional (in this case meaning BORING) wedding. Not so!
We played Sufjan Stevens, Alexi Murdoch, Nick Drake, and Sigur Ros at the ceremony, which was short and sweet. One of our favorite professors married us, and I wore a tea-length green dress made by my mom and a rockin' fascinator which she also made. I made our bouquets and boutonnieres out of vintage buttons and ribbon. Instead of the awkward receiving line, my husband and I dismissed our friends and family ourselves.
Our reception was at a local restaurant, and it was extremely casual. We did away with special tables for the party because we just wanted to hang out with everyone. My mother-in-law and I made all of the Nutella-frosted banana cupcakes that we served at the reception, and they were AWESOME.
Almost everything involved in the wedding and reception was handmade my family, friends or myself. My husband and I have a very close relationship with our family and friends, and it seemed only fitting that they would be instrumental in making our wedding happen!
Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was the entire prospect of having a somewhat non-traditional wedding in the middle of Indiana. People are very conservative and traditionally minded here, and some people just could not get it through their heads that we didn't want our wedding to be like a fairytale — we wanted it to be fun!
My mom caught a bit of flack for not being a “traditional” controlling mother-of-the-bride and letting me do whatever my husband and I wanted with our wedding, but she's awesome and I don't think it bothered her as much as it bothered me.
My favorite moment: There were so many, I couldn't pick just one! However, I will limit it to two.
The first was when my brand new husband and I were on our way from the wedding to the reception, and it dawned on us that we had a blast at our own wedding! I'm a very introverted person, and I was not looking forward to being the center of attention. However, as I hung out with my family and friends and watched them hanging out and having a great time with each other, I realized that nobody was really the center of attention, and I loved it that way.
My other favorite moment was the surprise firework send-off! When we left the restaurant, fireworks started shooting off. This was set up by our friends, and we had no idea! It was awesome!
My offbeat advice: The wedding is great and all, but don't forget WHY the wedding is happening. The bottom line is that your marriage is way more important that your wedding. Try to look farther ahead than just the wedding day.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:
- Dress and fascinator- An adapted vintage Vogue pattern made by my mom.
- Groom's tux- Marion Civic Theatre
- Custom ties- Toybreaker on Etsy (she was awesome!)
- Reception venue- The Mill (They were amazing to work with!)
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
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So AMAZING. I love the maids' outfits. Awesome. And your mom is an amazing seamstress!
Looks like everyone had so much fun!
Agreed – I adore the bridesmaids' skirt-and-top combo instead of dresses! Nice touch!
I love your dress! Adorable. 🙂
Love the dress! Love the shoes! where did you get the shoes?! <3
Thanks! They are Pink Studio, and I ordered them online from Nordstrom (because, surprisingly, they were the cheapest there).
Hooray for a fellow Hoosier bride, beautiful wedding! I adore the bride's dress and fascinator… she is just gorgeous in that color!
Though I must say, I had an offbeat wedding as well, in Indy this September; people in Indiana aren't necessarily as conservative as everyone assumes. Not one of our 200 guests batted an eye at our weird-ish non-trad wedding – then again, everyone who came is close to us and knows that we're a bit kooky. So maybe they just expected it, haha.
Another recent Indiana bride checking in! The bride's dress is just fantastic – I love vintage patterns and the color is lovely. Everyone looks so comfortable and just happy to be there and part of the day.
We had a non-traditional wedding in West Lafayette in September. Our priest was awesome and laid-back. Plus, once everyone got to the reception and got to eat pub grub and spice cake, no one missed the dancing at all! In other words, kudos to the couple for bucking tradition in the Midwest!
Nutella frosted banana cupcakes? OMG yes! Also, love the fashion, especially the bridesmaids outfits.
Beautiful! Can I have one of those cupcakes? *drool* Nutella
Awesome dress and awesome cupcakes!! Lots of awesome everywhere. Congrats!
What an adorable, sweet wedding! Everything looks so joyously relaxed. I love it!
And excellent bridesmaid outfits – very clever and flattering!
I love it! Very similar to what my fiance and I are looking to do.
That dress is incredible!
Another Indiana bride here! Our wedding is looking pretty traditional from the outside, but you should have heard the backlash when we were toying with the idea of serving something other than cake for dessert! Every sugguestion ended with… "and then you can have a small cake to cut!" The point was to avoid the cake! FH eventually made the executive decision to get cupcakes, but if he wouldn't have spoken up this could have gone on for decades. I feel your pain!
Ah yes, the old, "And then you can have a small cake to cut" line. We heard that many times as well. Everybody raved about the cupcakes, and I still haven't figured out what the big deal about cake cutting is.
beautiful … i don't think i've ever felt the love through pictures as much as i did from these! congratulations!
Where did the boys get their ties???? 😀
Amber, Maggie posted the link under "custom ties" in the "care to share a few vendors" section of the post.
Love the dress, so glad you guys had fun. Congrats!
Banana and Nutella Cupcakes?! Those had to be amazing!
Would you share the recipe for the icing? I made some…and it just wasn't right!
Sure! I was just planning to find a chocolate fudge buttercream recipe and then substitute the fudge for Nutella, but lo and behold when I checked All Recipes, somebody in the comments had already done it! Here is the link the the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Fudge-Butt…
The Nutella addition is somewhere in the comments. Happy baking!
Thank you so much!
I LOVE THIS…especially the fact that your hubby is a pastor. I think that people assume that Offbeat=Non Christian, and it's good to see non-traditional aspects incorporated in a Christian wedding.
Hey Clair, that's exactly why we have a whole tag devoted to Offbeat Christian weddings! we love 'em.
Brilliant – and much like I envision my own day! Congratulations.
I'm so glad someone finally posted that advice. That's the one thing my man and I have made sure to do. 🙂
love love love this post! it looks like it was so much fun.
would you mind telling us about your music choices? i'm a huge nick drake fan and wanted to use one of his songs in my vow renewal next year.
also, offbeat_megan i had no idea that there was a tag for offbeat christian weddings. thanks for that info!
you're so welcome!
Thanks! We played a selection of Sufjan Stevens songs before the wedding as people were coming in, and then after the wedding as people were leaving. He's one our very favorite people ever, and we couldn't choose just one of his songs so we just played all of our favorites. The party and I walked in to "All of My Days" by Alexi Murdoch, and we did our unity candle to "From the Morning" by, of course, Nick Drake. That was was really perfect, because we love Nick Drake and that song is pretty short so there wasn't a whole lot of awkward waiting time after the unity candle was lit. We walked out to Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros which was pretty magical. As far as Nick Drake is concerned, I was also considering "Northern Sky" for awhile, but it didn't end up fitting with the rest of the wedding as well as "From the Morning."
maggie, thanks for taking the time to give us a run down on what you chose. . . all great choices btw!
best of luck with your new marriage.. and may He continue to be at the center of it. 🙂
Nutella and banana cupcakes?! OMG I want some, that is awesome!
LOVE your dress color, it looks similar to the fabric I'm trying to find. What kind of fabric was it made out of, and was it possibly from a source that is not specific to Indiana?
Thanks! The dress was made from dupioni silk, which is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It was impossible to find the shade I wanted here, so we ordered the fabric from New York Fashion Center Fabrics. Here is the link: http://www.nyfashioncenterfabrics.com/sidufa.html
They have an awesome selection of colors, were great to work with, and you can order swatches to make sure the colors are right! I highly recommend them!
they are the mother of all maid outfits, love love love them!
Maggie your hair looked FABULOUS! where did you find the talented hairdresser???
Your wedding was soo much fun. Can we do it again???
Thank you! My talented hairdresser was actually one of my friends who is a licensed beautician. She did such a great job!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THE DRESS!
Beautiful dress!
You are all so adorable!!! I love the photos, you can definitely feel the joy and love from everyone there! So awesome, congrats 🙂