Carolyn & Pete’s burlesque wedding and zombie boat ride

The offbeat bride: Carolyn, Office Manager

Her offbeat partner: Pete, Director Piercing and Tattoo Studio

Location & date of wedding: Victoria Star Boat, Docklands, Melbourne, Australia — January 29, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted our wedding to be intimate, personal and non traditional so we choose to get married out on the water. Both the ceremony and sit down reception was held on the boat and we coincided the date of our wedding with a full moon so the views on the bay were awesome!

We handmade all our bits and pieces. We made our wedding invitations and the wishing well out of old vinyl records. And to keep with the theme we also made the name places out of Vinyl look CD's. As a simple bonbonniere we had old fashioned “Love Heart” lollies.

I was fortunate to have awesome friends and family that helped out in many ways also. My dear friend made my stunning red corset and fishtail skirt, which I wore with six in black Bordello heels. My mum made the bridesmaid dresses and our wedding cake, which was a three tiered mud cake adorned with a gorgeous zombie couple on top. My friend made my headpiece using ostrich and cock feathers with vintage veiling! I didn't want to go with the traditional flower bouquet so inspired by the burlesque look, I opted for a simple black fan with an artificial flower attached, as did my bridesmaids.

I walked up the aisle to the Pixies “La La Love You.” As we signed the wedding certificate Kenny and Dolly's “Islands In The Stream” played, which was our song! It was the best day; I didn't want it to end!

Tell us about your ceremony: Pete and I made up our own vows, which was really meaningful. Ending with “I Love Your GUTS!!”

I also included my son by saying some beautiful vows to him. Acknowledging our love and making sure he knew that even though I am getting married our love will never faulter or change. Pete also said a small vow to him asking him if it was ok that he becomes part of his family.

Our biggest challenge: A couple of issues arose, firstly choosing the guest list for the wedding. We only wanted a small and intimate wedding, so it was a great challenge to choose from our many dear and loved friends and family. In the end we choose fifty guests for the actual wedding and reception.

Then we decided to throw a wedding celebration party the next night. Little did I reaslise at the time, that now I would be practically organizing two weddings! But at least this way, we could see everyone that we would have liked at the actual wedding. Pete and I wore our wedding attire again as did the bridal party.

Another challenge was making our own invitations and name places. It was a great idea and the end results were awesome, but wow, it was a lot of work. At times I wished I bought standard invites and name places. We came up against some minor issues like how were we going to hole punch the middle of the cardboard that was going to be stuck onto the vinyl records and how we were going to display the name places.

My favorite moment: The whole ceremony was just perfect, the celebrant was a friend of ours and that made it even more special. One of my greatest moments was when I walking up the aisle, the look on Pete's face as I got closer to him was so precious, he had tears in his eyes. If you could bottle what love looked like – that was it right there.

Another memorable moment was when I was reading my vows to my son. The three of us joined hands as I read my vows to him confirming my love and stressed that our mother and son live can not and will never be broken. And that our little family will now become three. Tears flowed from all, it was so lovely and moving.

My advice for offbeat brides: At the end of the day it's your and your grooms wedding. People can put their two cents worth in, certainly take their advice and opinion into consideration but ultimately do what makes you happy. Budget is a hard issue; I found buying bits and pieces over time worked well as you didn't have to find a large amount of money at once. Enlist friends or family to give you a hand if they have a particular talent. For example, a friend of mine's sister is a florist, my mum made the cake and bridesmaids dresses etc. It makes it more special too when people you know have been a part of the process.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?At the end of the day – you are marrying the person you love with all your heart. That's the most important thing!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Boat: The Victoria Star boat. FANTASTIC! Great food, great people, greast atmosphere! Highly recommended.
• My makeup: Ellie Makeup
• Gorgeous cars: Dial Chevy
• Ideas for my corset/skirt: Fairy Goth Mother

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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