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The offbeat bride: Kristina, Insurance Maven
Her offbeat partner: Todd, Antique Clock Restoration Expert
Location & date of wedding: The Willows, Radnor, PA. 5-10-2008
What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was offbeat because we did it — from start to finish — our way.
My Aunt custom wrote our ceremony for us, and performed it. She calls herself an atheist minister. I wrote my own vows, I quoted Miss Piggy (the pig) and Pablo Neruda (the poet).
My husband works with antiques, so all the centerpieces were from his shop. I didn't want anything too matchy, and he actually sold a few pieces, which was cool.
I walked down the aisle to The Cure's Plainsong and we walked out to Cake's Love You Madly. Our bridal part walked in to What a Wonderful World performed by Joe Ramone. Our first dance was the Moldy Peaches' Anyone Else But You. Music was important.
Our ring bearer was a two year old dressed like a lady bug. His job was important. Our favor were custom fortune cookies packed in mini chinese take-out boxes with five different sayings. Including “Todd & Kristina are awesome.” His Dad wrote a poem about us meeting on the internet and getting married.
The girls wore butterflies that we bought from a floral supply store on-line and they all picked their own dresses. Is this too much? It was all special.
We just kept in mind that everyone has their own way of showing love.
Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge came with a melding of funds and big mixed families. His parents paid for a big portion, we paid for a lot, and my mom paid for some. It was hard to keep control in a polite way that was respectful of them helping us out. It got really difficult sometimes. His mother is hard to pin down on decisions and gets stressed and freaked out easily, and my mother doesn't like people and wanted to make no decisions, but made her feelings known when she disliked a decision that was made without her. We just kept in mind that everyone has their own way of showing love. AND I delegated a bridal party member to keep an eye on one family member.
My favorite moment: Definitely the wedding vows. My Aunt said to him, “Remember, this ring belongs to her.” And I said, “Yeah!” And pointed at him, which was an honest reaction, but it made everyone laugh and lightened the mood.
My offbeat advice: Let some things go. If your Mom wants to decide on the menu, let her. Concentrate and keep in your hands the few things that are really important to you. It will keep the day of less stressful and those details are what bring the two of you into the boilerplate wedding.
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
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I LUV your maids! All in navy but with individual styles and flowers, like a bridal superhero team!
Also, purple-haired bridesmaids always win.
Are there any pictures on the centerpieces? They sound awesome!
Looks like a good time was had by all!
No pictures of the centerpieces yet. The ones I have up are ones my brother took. We had some vases, scary green statues, clocks, candleabras, it was great.
Breathtaking! I am so adding this to my inspiration board.
I absolutely LOVE that you walked down the aisle to “Plainsong”!! The only thing I think I will miss by having a destination-cheapy-barebones wedding is the opportunity to have a kick ass grand entrance to that very song (I am a HUGE Cure fan, though I don’t dress the part anymore). Nice work! And you looked lovely and inky on your special day. 🙂
Thank you SO much. That song was huge to me.
Wooo! Your dress is hot!
(Have purchased the same one. 😉 )
i definitely dig yer wedding style. 1 day i hope to have a small budget punk rock inspired wedding too. i like how you didn’t make all the girls wear the same damn dress, that is pretty much the only thing i have had set in stone since i’ve been a bridesmaid many time. walking down the aisle to the cure-top notch! my boyfriend(of 11 years) wants me to walk down to the Imperial March(you Darth Vadar’s theme) which i willingly oblige to.
props for wedding with gusto!
wow up too late, bad spelling and grammar, you get the point tho. it’s 12:50 am here!!
I also loved the choices you made with music (cutting the cake to Cake is so cute.) I plan on choosing an offbeat soundtrack for my own wedding. I think navy was an excellent choice for bridesmaids and they really looked great. Thanks your sharing the details and advice!