Cindy & Lance’s 1980s wedding

Remember this, like, totally radical wedding? Hell yeah, you do. – Becca

The offbeat bride: Cindy, Regulatory Administrator for Pharmaceutical Research Company

Her offbeat partner: Lance, Assistant Chief Engineer at the Venetian/Palazzo

Date and location of wedding: Little Church of the West and the Las Vegas Country Saloon, Las Vegas, Nevada — March 5, 2011

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided to go all '80s — from parachute pants to teased bangs and stone-washed jeans! The '80s theme was taken to a new level when the band dressed up in fully '80s hair band gear and the DJ basically looked like something straight out of a Run DMC video. It was awesome! Not to mention the fact that not one song was played that hadn't been created before 1990.

Lance and I also made our own outfits for the reception. I found a dress at a thrift store and used it for the foundation of my skirt. My inspiration for my dress was a photoshoot I found of with Lindsay Lohan that paid tribute to Madonna‘s Like a Virgin album. I bought yards and yards of polka dot tulle and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning sewing the skirt with my mom. I even made a veil to match. I bought the corset from Fredrick's of Hollywood.

For all the necklaces and bracelets, I was at Claire's picking up some neon tights when I realized everything in there was totally inspired by the '80s. Score! I ended up getting all my accessories there (even my lace fingerless gloves!) to complete my outfit.

Lance wore zebra print leggings and a tuxedo t-shirt. We cut off the sleeves so you could see his tattoos and even added some slashes to the back and down the sides. He kept the red chucks on from the ceremony and added a red bandana and long-haired wig to, you know, keep with the '80s hair metal theme.

I have two children from my previous marriage, Haylie, eight, and Tyler, seven, and we made sure the kids had awesome outfits for the reception as well. Tyler's outfit was inspired by Run DMC and we even found him a thick gold chain. Haylie's outfit was 80's and had lots of pink in it.

Tell us about the ceremony: I just wanted to be married to Lance and would have been fine just going down the aisle of the courthouse. However, it was important for this day to be special for my kids, too. Lance, who is so thoughtful, wanted to show the kids that we were making a serious commitment to each other, so we decided to have the chapel wedding and included them in the ceremony by having them give us our rings. On the morning of the wedding, Lance surprised me with a silver heart Tiffany &Co. bracelet. He wrote the sweetest note on the stationary card, “Cindy, I just wanted to let you know how much I love you. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you and the kids. I love you, Lance.”

The ceremony was small and sweet in a quaint little chapel downtown. I loved it for its old feel and it was perfect to hold the little ceremony. We wanted to keep this part traditional. We wanted this moment to be serious, and share it with a small group of close family and friends.

I knew that I would only wear my wedding dress for a few hours and wanted to put most of the focus on my reception outfit. I ended up borrowing my friend's dress (David's Bridal) and it fit perfectly.

I wasn't even going to do flowers, but Lance is such a sweetheart, he surprised us with red rose bouquets for me and my bridesmaids at the chapel. 🙂

Our biggest challenge: The biggest challenge was finding a venue at which to have the reception within our budget. How we overcame it? We created concert-like tickets for our guests. We sent each person a ticket which admitted two and then an additional ticket that they could give to someone we may have forgotten or someone that they thought we should know.

With a 200+ guest list promised, we found an awesome place that was more than willing to work with us. We were allowed to hang banners and we added silver foil door streamers around all the tables and bar in order to make the party seem private, but they did not close the bar for a private party. Every guest that came for our party needed to have their ticket in hand and was given a stamp with our logo on it (in tattoo ink may I add) in order to receive the drink specials that were only given to people that were with our party. Keeping it a cash bar with the incentive of a large party made the venue completely free!

My favorite moment: I would say that the most meaningful moment was seeing the turn out of people that truly took our theme and ran with it! Right when we walked in the door onto the red carpet we were greeted by the roar of a crowd congratulating and welcoming us as a new family! We headed straight to the dance floor for our first dance, the band playing Chicago‘s “You're The Inspiration” in the back ground. It was during this moment looking around the room as our family and friends surrounded us that you could see how many people completely went all out in costume and were ready to celebrate in the only way that we know how — party!

My funniest moment: The amazing '80s gear that was rocked all night! We had a red carpet entry with our logo on it and right when the guests entered, they had their picture taken. Our friend that dressed in jeans, flannel shirt, and red sleeveless puffy vest jacket was especially funny. When asked about his choice of outfit he whipped out a picture of Michael J. Fox from “Back to the Future” wearing the same exact thing. He is actually holding up the picture in his red carpet picture! Awesome!

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Three days before the wedding both kids were sent home from school with the flu.

After a complete melt down on my part thinking that there was a possibility that the kids might be too sick to participate in the ceremony or the reception, Tyler's fever finally broke the night before the wedding. They both were in good spirits and well enough to be there for the ceremony and for a short period of the reception.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I learned that ridiculous outfits, amazing friends and family, '80s music, and liquor equals a good time!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Streamers: Party City
• Shoes: Zappos
• Band: The Down Strokes Band

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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