Maria & Luke’s Hispano-Hipster dance party wedding!

The offbeat bride: Maria, Success Coach

Her offbeat partner: Luke, Fraud Specialist

Location & date of wedding: Rotture in Portland, OR- August 31st, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was concert-themed, meaning we got married on stage, to music, in a show venue, distributed tickets, handbills, etc. So many things made this wedding *us*. From our garb (giant red dress & powder blue vintage tux) to the venue (an old warehouse converted into a show venue), to the homemade cupcakes and home-arranged flowers, we managed to get everything we wanted, for dirt cheap, and still made it all look relatively good.

We got so much assistance just by asking. We had 3 DJs, 2 photographers, the baker, flowers, hair and makeup all for free.

We did a lot ourselves, particularly everything that needed to be designed & printed. It was a lot of DIY work, but it was completely worth the effort.

Our biggest challenge: There were two main issues:

1) Accommodating my giant Mexican-Catholic family and my young, liberal, urban-chic friends

and

2) Wrangling 20 different themes/ideas/desires into one cohesive design.

When tackling the cultural issue, I fretted mostly about the music. I thought my family would be uncomfortable if there wasn't some cumbia, salsa, or SOMETHING included. I knew they would already be out of their element. When approaching the DJ's about it, they wanted to be accommodating as well, but they were clearly not comfortable with the idea for stylistic purposes.

About 2 hours before the wedding, I decided not to mix in some Spanish music. I thought it might seem awkward in the context of everything else. My family was up and dancing anyway, despite the few requests for some music from the homeland. They were truly just happy to be there for us. In the long run, they all had a great time, and even stayed until the final moments when the house lights went up and the sound off.

As far as wrangling the ideas in – that was tough. However, that is why we have wedding pallets :). They really do help stylistically bring everything together. If you have a theme, run with it, and don't look back.

My favorite moment: As with many other brides, I have too many favorites! Exchanging our vows was incredible. (They were made entirely of song lyrics that really ran the gamut – there was some Salt ‘n' Pepa mixed with Meatloaf mixed with Randy Travis mixed with The Turtles… the list goes on)

Kissing my darling outside after the wedding underneath a rainbow. Looking into Luke's eyes during the ceremony and seeing nothing but love and joy.

My offbeat advice: If you are going the DIY route, delegate early. Instead of putting people in charge of smaller tasks close to the wedding day, put them in charge of whole projects much earlier in advance. You will have less to stress about assuming you have reliable people assisting you. Also, it is absolutely possible to have a 10K wedding for under 4k. It takes a lot of patience, research, more patience, and reading. But it is definitely doable.

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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