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The Offbeat Bride: Christa, Photographer
Her offbeat partner: Dan, Administrative Assistant
Date and location of wedding: Camp Kiwanee, Hanson, MA — October 27, 2012
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We decided to base the wedding off of my British heritage and our bond over Doctor Who. It started with just a blue and silver theme, but then we found our awesome and laid-back venue, Camp Kiwanee, and we were able to embrace our inner geek even more.
The bathroom attendants were Cyberman and Dalek cardboard cut-outs, all of our music was British, and there was a Tardis cookie jar on the mantle with photos of our family and friends on their own wedding days.
Our table numbers were photos of the doctors with River Song and Sarah Jane to fill in for tables 12 and 13. The boutonnieres had each of the guys' favorite chibi doctors on covered buttons.
The grandest dorkdom feature of them all was our very own Tardis, which was a gift built by my dad for our wedding. The best part was keeping it a secret from Dan for over a year while it was hidden away in the garage.
Tell us about the ceremony: While Dan grew up Catholic, I grew up with Sunday cartoons, so a church wedding wasn't going to happen. Dan understood this, but he still wanted some Christianity in the ceremony, so we opted to have a reading of the Lord's Prayer. We also threw in a few goofy moments, but my favorite was when we had to hold hands during the Justice of the Peace's long speech. We ended up having a thumb war!
Our biggest challenge: The biggest challenge was letting go of control. I wouldn't say I'm a control freak, but I'm used to getting things done myself. I definitely had a couple of crying meltdowns because of the stress and Dan would comfort me and make me ask for help.
My favorite moment: The wonderful, heartfelt speeches from our Best Man and Maid of Honor and our first dance to “Heroes” by David Bowie. Our venue was also perfect for us since Dan is an Eagle Scout and I was a Girl Scout, so an old Campfire Girls lodge felt like a perfect setting.
My funniest moment: Our cake cutting theme was “Married Life” from the movie Up. Dan was taking too long cutting his piece and I whispered to him, “Hurry up, the sad part is coming!” We both fumbled with the cake and made a bunch of awful faces trying to get it over with so we wouldn't hear it.
Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? I really wanted to have a photo booth of some kind, but we ran out of time to get it going. Thankfully, the Tardis my father made fit the bill perfectly. Everyone wanted a photo in it. It ended up becoming an impromptu photo booth with everyone and their own cameras. We loved seeing the Tardis photos roll in on Facebook.
My advice for Offbeat Brides: I think the thing that helped us was agreeing on a theme and sticking to it. It might not work for everyone, but our Whovian/British idea helped reel us in a lot when we wanted to do things that would have been neat but not necessary to have a great wedding. We both have a lot of interests, so if we had tried to put every bit of ourselves in the decor it would have been overwhelming. I did, however, put an acorn button in my bouquet to represent Peter Pan's “kiss” and found silver metal leaf necklaces with blue rhinestones that made hidden Mickey Mouses for my girls.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I learned to go with the flow on the day of the wedding. I decided that if anything went wrong once I was at the venue, I was just going to go with the flow. A good example was when I forgot my guest book. I just decided to have guests sign our wooden card box instead. It became one of our favorite wedding souvenirs.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Venue: Camp Kiwanee
- Justice of the Peace: Richard Cunio
- Photographer: Judith Stephens
- Catering: Fasanos
- DJ: White Label DJs
- Cake: Sugar Plum Bakery
- Hoop skirt: Angel's Bridal
- Dress: Happily Ever After Pleated Swing Dress from Unique Vintage
- Bridesmaid dresses and blue crinoline: Unique Vintage
- Headpieces: Shine Trim
- Tissue paper: Uline
- Doctor Who fabric (for buttons): Green Couch Studio on Spoonflower
- Doctor Who cut-outs and candy buffet: Oriental Trading
- Centerpiece filler: Water Pearls
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
dresses: Unique Vintage
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.
I cannot tell you how much I love everything about this wedding. I’ve never seen Doctor Who — much to my sister’s dismay — but Christa and Dan, everything looks amazing. And so joyous!
Thanks so much ^_^
Most elegant show of “Who”-love I’ve seen yet! And I just adore those chibi-Doctor boutonnieres. Thank you for sharing your day. ^_^
This is amazing and perfect.
THis is amazing, YAYYYYY to your Dad for making a real life tardis. ‘Heroes’ is one of my favourite Bowie tunes too
This is awesome! Love all the Doctor themed details. Did you use a specific tutorial for the button boutonnieres? I’m thinking about making something like that, but I don’t quite know where to start.
i love everything about this wedding. being a fellow whovian, i also plan to incorporate some of the doctor in my wedding. the tardis is such a great idea. perfect photobooth!
This is a perfect example of how a wedding can be personal, fun & quirky and still absolutely gorgeous! Love it. Congrats!
I went to art school with Dan…great to see his wedding up here 🙂
I hope that she asked for pockets in her dress.
As someone getting married in the Northeast US with a Whovian-themed wedding. I just got really excited because I thought I could rent a TARDIS for my wedding.
Immediate Sad Panda when I realized it was a home-made special.
We’re getting married this year with a Dr Who theme (our wedding rings are Tardis themed) and we actually found a TARDIS to rent for the day (it can be a photo booth but we opted for just the TARDIS and people can take their own pics. We are going to make some props with our 3D printers and laser cutter!