Grab a plate of BBQ and check out this music festival backwoods wedding with a "tent city" • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

Offbeat partner: Rosie, Event Coordinator

Offbeat partner: Geoff, hospitality professional

Date and location of wedding: My husband's family home in Lake County, Florida — March 11, 2017

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We used our love of music festivals as inspiration for our music festival backwoods wedding. We had food stalls instead of traditional catering, a couple of local bands, lots of tents, and an overall casual feel to the whole day.

Tell us about the ceremony:

I walked down the aisle to Umphrey's McGee song “Glory.” We had lots of rustic details including hay bales covered in thrifted blankets as seating and a macrame backdrop and runner. Our mutual best friend was our officiant.

Tell us about your reception:

Our food was a combination of BBQ, Tex-Mex, and Southern comfort food like sliders, chicken and waffles, quesadillas, and grilled cheese. We also had festival-style food passed as hors d'oevres and at food stations. A folk band played for cocktail hour and dinner then a funk/soul band played for dancing into the late night.

We hung hundreds of feet of string lights and accented the space with hand-painted signs and quirky little details like gnomes and mini VW buses. Guests were encouraged to camp out so there was a little tent city on the property.

What was your most important lesson learned?

Relax and let the day go where it will. Being in the event industry, I worried my type-A personality would take over, but the day of I released the whole project to my coordinator and friends and just enjoyed being surrounded by my love ones.