A black and gold kitties & karaoke wedding (with a cat “bouquet” and cat ears!)

Offbeat partner: Chris, Medical billing

Offbeat partner: Ryan, Healthcare Analyst

Date and location of wedding: Troll Haven, Sequim, WA — August 12, 2017

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We are not traditional people in the slightest, so we went with black and gold as our colors, and cats as our theme. I was bummed that we weren't able to bring our three kitties with us, so we made a large cardboard cutout of them so I could at least see them! Our favors were 'cat toys' that people waved as we left the ceremony.

We aren't much for dancing either, so we decided we would have a "first song" instead and decided on karaoke rather than your typical DJ. It's one of the first things we did together when we started out six years ago, so we thought it just made sense.

All in all, there was a LOT of DIY elements to the day, including most of the food, centerpieces, event organization, and even my dress! The dress in particular was made by a friend in Tasmania and turned out great.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Our ceremony was fun. Since we were getting married on a farm, I thought I would just pick some wild flowers for my bouquet when I got there, but that never happened. Ryan surprised me by filling my, "Getting Ready Room" with a bunch of balloons including a few Pokemon characters and Samuel, the Cat Balloon. He had remembered me talk about Samuel from several months prior, and wanted to make sure I had at least one four-legged friend on my big day. I saw the cat balloon, and couldn't get over how cute he was! I immediately decided, "HE will be my bouquet!" I took him down the aisle with me, and he simply stole the show.

I didn't want there to be a ton of tiny screens in all our photos either, so we had asked people to get their pictures in as soon as we got up to the officiant. We decided we might as well get in on it too, so had our officiant take a selfie of our own; it was SO fun! The only screen left, was that of the iPad set up so Ryan's brother was able to watch our ceremony. His brother had emergency knee surgery the week prior and was unable to travel, so we Skyped him in so he could be a part of it. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when he did his speech at the reception!

Tell us about your reception:

I was lucky enough to find gold and black cat wine bottles from stores around the area, so we used those as part of our centerpieces, along with terrariums, Ferrero Rocher, cat photo holders, and handmade yarn balls. We didn't have to put up much decor at all, as Troll Haven is an amazing venue and looked largely how we wanted it as it was.

We love karaoke, so we had Baby Ketten Karaoke set up, and it was phenomenal. Ivan does such a great job and has such a huge selection! That being said, the most fun song of the night was the oh so typical wedding song "You Shook Me all Night Long" by AC/DC; everyone was up singing! It was intense.

As a fun addition, we had two jars with our names on them for people to vote for who will sing one of the following cliché love songs of doom: "At Last" by Etta James, "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, or "I will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. To my surprise, I "won" and everyone voted to have me sing Mrs. Dion, which… I think I nailed it…?

What was your most important lesson learned?

The most important lesson I learned was to stick to your guns. A lot of people had a lot of opinions on what we should do, (or not do) and you know what? Everything we wanted to do went off amazingly. No, it wasn't traditional… But, EVERYONE came up for weeks afterwards telling us that it was the best wedding they have ever been to. It was a party, and we just happened to be getting married. It was amazing. Staying true to yourself and not doing "supposed to's" or "usually's" or "traditionally's" made it us, and made it unforgettable for us.

Vendors

• Amazing Photographer: Jenny GG Photography
• Lovely Dress: Anna Ladymoon
• Baby Ketten Karaoke: Baby Ketten

Gallery

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