Brazilian, English, and Indian cultures blend at Tamar & Bruno’s crafty multicultural wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Tamar, 3D Designer

Her offbeat partner: Bruno, Apple Support

Date and location of wedding: House on the Hill, Austin Texas — July 22, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

Bruno and I met at college in Houston, TX. After graduation, I moved back to England, and we got engaged a year later. I wanted to move back to Texas and have the wedding there, but I had to do the planning from England. We have different ethnic backgrounds: he is Brazilian, and I am half English and half Indian. I wanted our wedding to reflect who we are as individuals and our families and cultures coming together.

My family and friends are crafty, and we enjoyed making things for the wedding (for the most part!). The biggest project we took on was the dress. After looking for a dress for myself and my bridesmaids and being rather uninspired, my mother offered to make them. We spent the year leading up to my move working on my wedding dress. The end product was far more stunning than I had envisioned at the beginning of the project. The lace jacket is made from a sari as a nod to my Indian heritage. After she was done with my dress, she made the bridesmaids' dresses and even found time to make a waistcoat for Bruno that matched my dress.

My other big project was making the fabric flowers for the bouquets — we made hundreds! The bridesmaids' jewelry was made by Sophia, one of my maids of honor. I'm lucky to have so many creative and talented people in my life.

Tell us about the ceremony:

I wanted to keep some of the traditional elements in for the family, so I used the vows from the Church of England's wedding service. Other than that, we didn't have any specific religious elements. I was sure to mention how pleased we were to have Bruno's grandparents with us from Brazil, which Bruno later told me was really special to him and them.

Instead of a unity candle, we chose to have our family and the wedding party place some of the homemade flowers around our feet in an infinity symbol. They all worked very hard helping us with the wedding and the planning, so I wanted to have them involved in the ceremony. The symbol represented the two of us joining but also our families and friends becoming closer through our union. We stood in the symbol for the rest of the ceremony.

I had some fun with the music. I walked down the aisle to an early instrumental version of a Skrillex song. It was just guitars, but I liked putting a nod to Bruno's love of dubstep into the wedding. After the ceremony, we walked back up the aisle to my favorite band, The Beatles.

I also loved seeing my parents in traditional Indian clothing. Many people didn't realize that was part of my heritage, and they looked fabulous.

Tell us about your reception:

The venue we chose was in the beautiful hill country of Austin, Texas. We had the ceremony outside and the reception inside. In keeping with our low budget theme, we asked guests to bring a dish to share for the reception instead of bringing a gift. I asked family and friends to bring their favourite dish or a dish that was part of their culture. My father made an Indian dish and one of my maids of honor made a Greek dish. We provided a build-your-own-burger bar, and I coordinated with the wedding party to ensure we had a decent amount of food. Guests brought far more food than I anticipated.

Another reason we chose to do our own food was to cater to dietary needs. We had several vegetarian guests, and I'm gluten- and dairy-free. I knew coordinating with a caterer would be a challenge. My bridesmaids helped me bake the wedding cupcakes. All were gluten- and dairy-free so everyone could enjoy them. I made cards so everyone could label the food they brought and draw attention to any ingredients that might be an issue for some.

My favourite part of the reception was probably the first dance. Bruno decided he wanted to learn to salsa for our first dance. Neither of us had any dance experience, and I was happy not to dance at all. We took dance lessons the two months leading up to the wedding and learned a routine for our wedding.

What was your most important lesson learned?

I learned that no matter how hard you try, people suck at RSVPs. I had everything online and easy to do and gave people plenty of notice, but I still had around 30 RSVPs on the day of the wedding, and I even had some people show up uninvited (others took it upon themselves to invite people). Luckily, we only planned on a small, casual wedding and didn't invite more people than the venue could handle, but fitting everyone around the tables at the reception was a bit of a squeeze.

I would also like to mention our wonderful photographer Alexandra. She made everyone feel comfortable, and it really shows in the photos. I wanted the photos to look natural, like we would on any other day, just a bit dressed up.

Vendors

• Photographer: ixi photography
• Venue: House On The Hill