Amanda & Eric’s breakfast-for-dinner fun and games wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Amanda, Engineer

Her offbeat partner: Eric, Recruiter

Date and location of wedding: St. Anthony Main Event Centre in Minneapolis, MN — April 13, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We were fortunate not to have any external forces requiring us to do things a certain way. We basically just included a piece of everything we liked. We decided to serve breakfast-for-dinner, and to have donuts instead of wedding cake. Dinner started with a first course of French toast, followed by a bacon wrapped filet, potato croquettes, and a quiche. We also served Bloody Marys and Mimosas during the cocktail hour.

Eric is a huge comic book fan and we wanted to incorporate that into our wedding. All of the men in the wedding party were given DC Comics Converse to wear with different characters on them.

The centerpieces were simple pinwheels made with different types of paper. We used comic book pages, sheet music, scrapbook sheets, pages of a children's picture book. I made about 85 pinwheels and had three or so to a table. My sister made these fun table numbers that featured pictures of us at the age on each table.

I bought a bunch of Mad Libs and ripped out pages for the tables. I had seen the customized, leave-a-note-for-the-couple version, but I thought it would be more fun if everyone got to relive the good old days writing “boobs” for every plural noun!

Tell us about the ceremony: My brother-in-law played “A Penny for your Thoughts” from Waiting for Guffman on an acoustic guitar for the processional. The kids walked down in sunglasses, holding briefcases, while “The Imperial March” from Star Wars was played. I walked down to “Once Upon a Time… Storybook Love” by Mark Knopfler.

We had a very simple, short ceremony, which featured a single reading. My brother, Mike, has Down syndrome and is a fantastic poet. He has written thousands of poems. During our ceremony, he read a poem that he wrote called “Ten ways of falling in love.” Eric and I met last January and were engaged eight months later, and married six months after that. We chose this poem for Mike to read because it really represented the whirlwind of awesomeness we experienced getting to our wedding ceremony.

Ten ways of falling in love
One, when I make funny faces make my girl laugh
Out loud and sweet, two, I loved seeing
Someone walking and falling tripping on their feet
Three, looking at her calmly and sexy

Four, when she talks on the phone nonstop action
She has a pleasant voice of hers
Five, I loved seeing my sweet loving girl dance and
Sings like an angel, six, when she cries she cries peacefully

Seven, after all she looks at the menu she ordered great meal
Eight, when we go to the park and places
Sitting together hearing the birds singing and ocean waves
Nine, when a young girl sleeps and watching her sleep

Ten, middle at night she loves walking on the beach seeing
White full moon and wonderful stars on the dark sky
Wearing light jacket, only ways of falling in love really cool
And easy moment together at last charming smiles along

Ten ways of falling in love truly romantic not like broken their
Hearts wisely love comes first like a flash of lightning
Striking down like a speedy bullet what was true love right there
It's a cool feeling about falling in love in the world

by Michael James Brindley

Our biggest challenge: We had intended to use an iPod for dinner music. We had used the same iPod for the ceremony and it worked fine, but when they went to use it for dinner, it didn't work. We had a DJ set up in another room, and he had an iPod on him that he filled with Rat Pack music. Crisis averted! It would have been nice to have played the mix we put together (songs from our favorite musicals), but in the end I'm just glad we didn't have silence.

My funniest moment: Kids have a tendency to be funny without trying. My nephew, Joey, who was a ring bearer, was the highlight of the night for most people, especially when he stripped down to his tank top and suspenders after getting sweaty from dancing. After he started getting some attention he commented to his mom, “People are very interested in me… they keep making circles for me to dance inside.”

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I didn't think I would care about photography and didn't budget much money towards it. We lucked out by finding an amazing photographer, and we were her first wedding. She did such a fabulous job and I have looked through the pictures hundreds of times. I am so glad I got a photographer, and would recommend making photos a priority. The day went by so so fast and the pictures are my way of reliving it over and over again.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Amanda Maunu Photography
• Bridesmaid's dresses: Anthropologie
• Headband: Lexi Couture
• Flowers: Christine's Floral Touch
• Venue: St. Anthony Main Event Centre

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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