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The Offbeat Bride: Ande, Manager of Education Programs American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame (and OBT member “aNdE pArLoW“)
The Offbeat Groom: Parlow, Musician-Part Time Server
Location & date of wedding: American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in Amarillo, TX — March 28, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: First off, it snowed over a foot and a half the day before my wedding and we had to change the venue because of the weather. Snow in the Texas Panhandle in late March! It was crazy.
My wedding was totally a DIY venture. I got to teach my kids to embroider and we made our felt and button bouquets together. We tried early on to come up with a theme (even though I didn't really want to) and the more we talked about it, we decided to use my favorite color, lime green.
I got a nifty idea to paint the table runners and add song lyrics to them, and it became Brandon and Ande's musical extravaganza shortly thereafter. We melted really cheesy inspirational records to make the centerpieces, we baked mint brownies for our “mint-to-be favors.” We added a bit of ribbon to Brandon's small drum kit to make it a good stand for the cupcakes. We used a wedding ceremony that we found on the internet that was Elvis themed and we added our own stuff to it. My girls read the “Love Medley” from Moulin Rouge as our reading. They almost burst into song! I called my man “a hunka hunka burning love” while we exchanged rings.
Our officiant was one of our best friends who shares a last name with the one and only Elvis — that's right, he is the right Reverend Brandon Presley. He even wore the gold glasses!
I made my youngest daughter's flowergirl dress and it only cost me like 12 bucks. We ended up giving away all of the favors, the decorations (well not the drum kit) and the only thing that we threw away was the cheap plastic tablecloths. I loved that our guests took a part of the ceremony home with them and are using it in their house as we speak.
We rode Quarter Ponies and danced the night away. It was great and I wasn't even so sad that we had to use our backup venue because of the snow. Just getting married was enough and I could not be more excited about how everything worked out. And we even got to throw snowballs the day before. If rain on a wedding day is lucky… my God we must be rolling in it!
Our biggest challenge: THE SNOW! Tons of it. The forecast didn't even call for it until two days before. I got lucky and my boss felt sorry for me and let me book the museum classroom where I work at the last minute. We still used the restaurant where the wedding was supposed to be for our food, but we moved the whole ceremony to our indoor option.
My favorite moment: My five year old flowergirl/ring bearer had a bit of a time getting the rings out of her purse she was carrying and we all tried to help her out and with a resounding voice for someone so tiny she exclaimed, “I can do it!” She did and we had a little high five moment.
My advice for other offbeat brides: Be yourselves. Share who you are. I am most pleased that people took home the table runners which are like mini paintings of mine. I like that I could give them that. We didn't want to be like everyone else, but we didn't want to go crazy either — we were still a bit afraid that my groom's grandma might pass out. This being his first wedding but my second, he still needed a bit of the tradition for some reason and I had to be willing to give up on a few things that he just didn't like. I am proud that we were able to compromise and to share ourselves with our friends and family.
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
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Ooooh…so pretty! I love the dress, the color, the lyrical table runners, and oh, everything!
The porn isn't showing!
Kristen, looks just fine to me on both my computers!
LOVE LOVE LOVE the table runners!!!! My fiance and I are doing musical themed centerpieces on our tables too, but those are so awesome!
Looks like everyone still had a great time even though things had to change due to weather. But you did a great job on decorations and getting things together requardless. Love the lime green color too !! Congrats to you as well !!
I love how you turned the snow into a positive! You are right, that's some solid luck right there 😀 Congratulations!
This is really a big disappointment that the weather forced to change the venue.were you guys satisfied at the new venue?
Yeah we were. I think it came down to the fact that we were just ready to get married. We could have done it in the back yard and it would have been a good thing. We had such a good time. I could not have asked for more!
Loves it!!
I added this advice to my offbeat tribe page: "…I am proud that we were able to compromise and to share ourselves with our friends and family."
Your ringbearer/flowergirl's dress was 12 to sew? IT"S SO CUTE!!!!!
Yep 12 bucks!!!! Our whole wedding cost around 2000 and that included our rings. We jsut did things our way and out of materials that people normally would overlook. The table runners were cut up drop cloth. That dress was easy to make and I have gotten tons of comments on it and she dances in the back yard in her "fancy dress!" Oh the memories!
This is awesome. totally simple and cool