Kris & Alex’s crafty sophistigeek wedding

The offbeat bride: Kris, Graphic Designer (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Alex, Server

Date and location of wedding: Long Lake Regional Lake in New Brighton, MN — October 1, 2011

What made our wedding offbeat: Our goal was for our wedding to be about us. We're fun, crazy, laid back, geeky people. So we had Alex's best friend get ordained and officiate, we didn't have a wedding party other than our two best friends who signed the marriage certificate, we wrote our own ceremony (complete with funny voices and tons of laughter), we had amazing picnic-style food served with canned Coors Light and boxed wine, and we didn't have any toasts or dancing or glass clinking. (Well, there was one glass clink.)

I became a DIY queen. I'm a graphic designer, so being crafty is in my nature, but I never thought I'd take things as far as I did. I made my cocktail hat/birdcage veil, as well as my witness'. I made my bouquet out of ivory felt and my centerpiece flowers out of peach felt and dictionary pages.

I designed and printed our wedding invitations and save-the-dates. I made every single wedding favor, which were scrabble tile key chains.

Tell us about the ceremony: The entire ceremony was both hilarious and touching at the same time. We started off with the introduction from the ceremony in The Princess Bride, which was then followed by our wonderful friend Trista, who is an art teacher, reading “A Lovely Love Story” by Edward Monkton. She read it just like she would have to an elementary school class, and even showed the pictures in the book to our guests as she read.

Our vows were short and sweet, and read by Dave in the most ridiculous of voices:

I loved you yesterday
I love you still
I always have
And I always will

Our vows were followed by a reading from my Aunt, who chose to read a poem Neil Gaiman had written to two of his friends:

This for you, for both of you,
a small poem of happiness
filled with small glories and little triumphs
a fragile, short cheerful song
filled with hope and all sorts of futures
Because at weddings we imagine the future
Because it's all about “what happened next?”
all the work and negotiation and building and talk
that makes even the tiniest happily ever after
something to be proud of for a wee forever
This is a small thought for both of you
like a feather or a prayer,
a wish of trust and love and hope
and fine brave hearts and true.
Like a tower, or a house made all of bones and dreams
and tomorrows and tomorrows and tomorrows

We ended the ceremony with a Love Letter Ceremony, which is traditionally done with a bottle of wine. However, we chose a bottle of whiskey. We put the whiskey, two rocks glasses with zombies etched on them, and sealed love letters we wrote to each other in a box and sealed it with nails. We can only open the box if we encounter hardship in our marriage and need to be reminded of why we fell in love, or on our fifth wedding anniversary.

Our biggest challenge: We really had to take a stand when it came to what we wanted for our wedding. Surprisingly, it was my dad who ended up being the most opinionated. Luckily, he finally came to terms with the fact that we were going to do what we wanted. It was way more important for us to be able to invite everyone we loved than it was to have some fancy-shmancy wedding with a plated dinner and first dance. It took a lot of arguing, but my dad finally understood and told us to do things the way we wanted.

My favorite moment: Can I just say all of it? Honestly, it was the best day of my life. Seeing Alex's face when he saw me for the first time at the house, looking into his eyes while Dave read the ceremony, watching how our family and friends came together to help us make the day perfect. It was all meaningful. Every single second of it.

My funniest moment: The ceremony. Hands down. I wanted the Princess Bride ceremony as the introduction, but I didn't know he was going to break out the big guns and do it voice and all. I was rolling. He also did voices for our vows, which cracked everyone up.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? We had planned on having additional music and some dancing at the park after we ate. I even made a separate playlist and everything. I was SO worried that no one would dance. Well, no one did because we never played that playlist. After we ate, everyone started leaving and most of our friends were planning to go home and nap so they could meet up with us later at a bar called The Mermaid for our after party. So, even though no one danced, more people were able to come to out and drink until the bar closed down.

My advice for offbeat brides: Don't be afraid if things start turning less “offbeat.” Early in my wedding planning, I had grand plans with crazy offbeat ideas. As our wedding took shape, I realized that I only wanted those crazy offbeat things because I wanted to be different. Even though our wedding ended up being more on the Offbeat Lite side, it was way more true to us than it was in the beginning.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I learned how to relax. I can be so incredibly high-strung and am known to be quite the control freak, but I let it all go for the wedding. I was able to delegate tasks to trusted friends and family and had an “I don't care” attitude for most of the day. Honestly, I surprised myself, but I'm glad I was able to let go and just have an amazing day.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress: David's Bridal
• Bride's necklace and bracelet: Etsy seller FlowerLeaf
• Bride's earrings: Etsy seller Tifthapeach
• Flower pin: Etsy seller DinkybirdBoutique
• Fingerless gloves: Etsy seller ZenAndCoffee
• Wedding rings: Etsy seller DragonsBreath
• Favor supplies: Etsy seller HDSupplies
• Zombie glasses: Etsy seller BreadandBadger
• Love letter box: Etsy seller vonderberry77
• Flasks: Etsy seller whimsyandink

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