Prepare to lose your shit over Dor & Josh’s movie-themed wedding with epic movie posters and a Romy & Michelle first dance

The Offbeat Bride: Dor, Social Media Consultant

Her offbeat partner: Josh, Filmmaker

Date and location of wedding: Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria Queens, New York — April 20, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

Josh and I met at a film festival after following each other for a few months on Twitter. We are total movie freaks, and he's a filmmaker, so it only made sense that we had a movie-themed wedding on a movie theater stage inside a movie museum.

My favorite details:

• The whole thing was positioned as a movie premiere for a film called Dial M for Marriage, from the save the date (parody of a Daily Variety article) to the invitation (which imitated a movie premiere ticket) to the red carpet and paparazzi positioned at the entrance
• Centerpieces featured one of 16 fake posters designed by our friends such as The Bourne Matrimony, Dor Interrupted, Apocalypse Vow, Being Josh Johnson, Dor & Josh's Excellent Adventure, etc.
• We showed a short film during the reception which was made by a friend of Josh's called “Josh Johnson Meets the Devil Ant”
• The back of our wedding program featured a mock-up home video advertisement for the VHS of Dial M for Marriage

Tell us about the ceremony:

Both of us were walked down the aisle by both of our parents. Our friends did readings from our favorite movies, Muriel's Wedding and 8 1/2

My mom and her friend sang a movie song, “Sunrise, Sunset,” while childhood photos showed on the screen.

There were no rings. We don't wear 'em, so why spend the money? We exchanged VHS copies of the movie The Ring (one original Japanese version, one remake) with vows like, “I promise to stay by your side until I am dead, which will hopefully be in more than seven days.”

We made a short film which was a parody “pre-show entertainment” – a hosted pre-show with several segments including:

• A “Behind the Scenes” documentary with family and friends
• A fake reality show about how people in Minnesota play Duck Duck Grey Duck instead of Duck Duck Goose
• A professionally produced trailer

Our officiant was the actor Zach Galligan who was the star of Gremlins 1 and 2 — the latter being one of Josh's favorite films of all time.

Tell us about your reception:

We had only one speech, from me, thanking my folks and my in-laws for going with the flow on the super non-traditional wedding, despite being conservative Midwestern Lutherans who people might have expected to push back on some of our wilder stuff. I also thanked my exes for teaching me how to be a good partner (100 percent of my exes were there).

Our first dance was a recreation of the Time after Time dance from Romy & Michele's High School Reunion which we'd choreographed (with our good friend as the third dancer) in secret.

Dor + Josh's first dance, Romy and Michele style.

Guests were able to browse the entire musuem before and after the ceremony as well, which at the time included a special Mad Men exhibit timed with the end of the series.

What was your most important lesson learned?

We wanted a wedding people would feel special for having attended — one where they felt entertained more than anything else and one where they felt included at every step of the way. We wanted there to be inside jokes for every different group that was represented. We wanted them to see themselves (literally) on the screen or see versions of us that they knew. We didn't want anyone to feel that disconnected sensation you get when you're watching someone's best man give a speech about their college years, and it occurs to you, “Man, I don't really know these people at all.” We wanted everyone to see the us they knew represented, even if they had only known us a few months or even if they hadn't seen us in years.

Our biggest lesson would be choosing battles: what to push back on and what to just go with, regarding stakeholders. Josh's dad is a minister and wanted to marry us, but it didn't fit the theme, so we had him do so five minutes before we took the stage. My mom had many wants, but the biggest was that she wanted to sing. So we added that in.

Here's a Storify of the day!

Vendors

• Photographer: Bernadette Pollard
• Venue: Museum of the Moving Image
• Food: Noodles & Company
• Primary Graphic Design: Audrey Nieh
• Choreographer: Ameenah Kaplan
• Movie Trailer Director/Writer/Editor: Efrain Schunior
• DJ & Editor/ Cinematographer of all Non-Trailer Footage: Christopher Palmer
• Dancer & Production Designer: David Anderson
• Hair and Makeup: Angela Calisti Salon
• Actual wedding dress: MZ2 by Mark Zunino
• Red Dress for Cocktail Reception: Alex Evenings
• White Dancing Dress: Ralph Lauren
• Alterations: AMadden Tailoring