Kerry & Jeremy’s leopard and hot pink, waterfront wedding and dance party

You might recognize this couple from a few photos in a monday montage featuring awesomely adorable couples, and their super hot, hot pink bridesmaids. Now you can read more on Kerry & Jeremy's HOT HOT pink and leopard, waterfront wedding! -Coco

The offbeat bride: Kerry, Administrative Assistant

Her offbeat partner: Jeremy, Automotive Parts

Location & date of wedding: Celebrations at the Bay in Pasadena, Maryland — May 22, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Jeremy and I always knew we wanted our wedding to be more of a party, so we kept it relaxed, fun and full of surprises. We had a very short non-religious ceremony on the waterfront of our venue.

Our guests sipped customized Jones Soda in our signature colors of pink and orange. A friend is a professional piano player and arranged some favorite songs by The Clash and The Pogues for our ceremony music.

My overall theme was leopard, all the way down to my wedding ring, decorations, and our signature cocktail. We DIY'd our table numbers using CD cover art! Mostly from my Blondie collection. My linen choices were hot pink and orange, and they were set off by orchids floating in water in tall trumpet vases- this saved a ton of money on centerpieces. We had a fabulous hot pink candy buffet, and as a special treat to our guests, I rented an ice cream cart with our favorite treats- including the Pink Panther.

My BFF is a graphic designer so she customized a hot pink and leopard seating chart. Total cost was MAYBE FORTY dollars. We saved a huge amount by not using tiny place cards and now we have a permanent piece of art from our special day.

I also designed my wedding dresses and had them sewn by a dressmaker. I changed into a black dress to dance in, complete with leopard trim!

Tell us about the ceremony: Our ceremony was brief, light, and upbeat. Our reading was from Andrew Boyd's Daily Afflictions, Loving The Wrong Person. I am a huge fan of Paul Newman, so we used the same vows as when he married Joanne Woodward.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was communicating to family that our wedding was going to be different from traditional weddings but we would still keep everything elegant and tasteful. We chose not to be married in a church, we skipped some details such as having a head table, doing a garter toss, etc. We did not “partner” up ushers and bridesmaids, and I did not ask any of my bridesmaids to cover their tattoos or have their hair and makeup done in a specific way.

My favorite moment: Jeremy wrote me a poem and read it to me during our ceremony — I had no idea he was going to do that.

While my Dad was escorting me in, I stopped to give my Mom and hug and kiss. I did not plan on it but I wanted to take a moment with her.

My funniest moment: The funniest moment of our wedding was just seeing all of our guests cut loose and enjoy the surprises we picked out for them. The drinks were flowing, and after the dance party began, the venue rolled out the candy buffet and set up our ice cream cart. It was priceless to see everyone enjoying themselves.

My advice for offbeat brides: You can certainly customize any aspect of your wedding to make it “yours,” but it is important to remember to keep your guests in mind. Jeremy and I would have loved to hear only 80s punk and new wave music. That's what we want to hear when we go out dancing, but we had to remind ourselves that is not a sentiment shared by 125 of our guests. I told my deejay not to play silly stuff like the Cupid Shuffle, but it was requested so we went with it.

Also, do not be afraid to embrace tradition, even if you pride yourself on being unique. I wore a long, conservative dress and a veil because that is just how I have always envisioned myself as a bride. A lot of people expected me to arrive in a hot pink dress with huge hair. I felt elegant keeping it simple with just a “wink” of pink and leopard. After the ceremony I put on a black dress, the hair went up, the jewelry came off, and my glasses went on!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Jones Soda: Customized from My Jones, it was a huge hit.
• Candy: Our pink buffet candy was all purchased from Candy Warehouse
• Paper lanterns were an absolute must for decorating our reception, my florist ordered them from Luna Bazaar
• Bridesmaids dresses: I picked the style and let each maid choose her shade of pink from Aria Dress
• Rhinestone shoeclips ordered from Absolutely Laundry

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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