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The offbeat couple: Katie, high school English teacher & Kellan, university student
Date and location of wedding: The Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, Poughkeepsie, NY — May 1, 2011
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: The thing that brought us together originally was Dragon*Con, a weekend long geek and pop culture convention in Atlanta, GA, and specifically our love for the show Firefly. We decided to theme our wedding around the show, with lots of other nods to our favorite sci-fi shows and movies.
Everything started with the idea that our groomsmen should wear Jayne hats and the bridesmaids should carry Kaylee parasols. It just snowballed from there. Our colors were purple and green (the colors of many DC comic book villains) because we're big comic book readers.
We also had paper lanterns and 1000 purple and green origami cranes Kellan and I folded over many evenings watching horror movies. We named the tables after planets in the Firefly universe. Our table numbers, which were watercolor paintings by my mother, were held in place by toy dinosaurs (a nod to Wash, the pilot on the show).
Our cake was covered in purple cherry blossoms, and my father made the cake toppers: wooden Princess Leia and Han Solo dolls. I also put together our program, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to Katie and Kellan's Wedding,” explaining a lot of our details to our families, who are a bit less geeky than we are.
Our favors were chinese takeout boxes filled with gummy bears and Raisinets, mine and Kellan's favorite candies.
Tell us about the ceremony: Our ceremony was non-religious, since neither of us are practicing anything (except maybe Jedi?). We wrote our own vows, which we tried to make both funny and meaningful. I promised to help support him through his World of Warcraft dungeons, and he promised to love me through all the evil uprisings that happens in sci-fi.
One of my bridesmaids plays cello in a string ensemble and played the music at our ceremony. I walked down the aisle to “Fools Rush In” by Elvis and we walked back out to “Beauty and the Beast,” in honor of my becoming “Mrs. Potts.”
Our biggest challenge: Working with our venue-mandated wedding coordinator was probably our biggest challenge. We got married and had our reception at a hotel, and she was used to dealing with really traditional weddings. She fought us every step of the way when we wanted to do things differently from how she expected them to be. Example: We wanted a sweetheart table and when she showed us the layout of the ballroom, there was a half round table in front of the sweetheart table that was intended to be the cake table. I'm short. I don't want my three layer cake in front of my table. No one will be able to see me and vice versa! It was a real struggle to get the table moved because “that's just how they do it,” but we did in the end.
My favorite moment: Our first dance was great. We took dance lessons and chose to dance to “Ohne Dich” by Rammstein. We were both nervous, but when the music started, there was really no one else in that ballroom but us and we just Foxtrotted our way around the floor like we'd been doing it for years.
Having Kellan's family fly up from Tennessee to be there was also great. Kellan was convinced none of his family except his mom and brother would come up for the wedding. His family isn't terribly close. We invited everyone anyway and several came, much to his shock. It's helped to mend some bad feelings, and we're more in touch with all of them now.
While it was sweet at the time, Kellan's brother's best man speech has become much more meaningful to us since he passed away a month after our wedding. The photos and memories we have of him from the wedding (which was the last time we saw him) are much more dear to us now that he is gone, and we're glad the last time we saw him was such a happy occasion.
My funniest moment: The best man leaping into the groom's arms (trying to do the lift move from Dirty Dancing) and ripping his pants was hilarious. Thank goodness Kellan had another pair of trousers in Matt's size!
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: Cheryl Bolton-Reuter
- Dress: Town Shop Bridal
- Hair and makeup: Styles Hair Studio
- Cake: The Pastry Garden
- Necklace: Etsy seller Damselle
- Officiant: Jeanne Stark
- Flowers: Toad Lily at the Burgevin
Still hankering for more geeky wedding silliness? Check out some of these posts:
- Don't Panic! Make sure you have your Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy programs!
- Katamari Damacy, Star Trek, Lego, and Dungeons and Dragons wedding cakes and more in the nerdy cake roundup.
- Check out the perfect candles for your Star Wars geek wedding.
- R2-D2 ring bearer, a bearded Leia, cave duels, and ritual sacrifice of delicious Jabba the Hutt. The force is strong with this wedding.
- Have you ever wondered what Rydia from Final Fantasy IV would wear on her wedding day? Wonder no more.
- When Star Wars, Doctor Who & cosplayers collide at a Las Vegas wedding, this is the AMAZING result.
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I LOVE THIS!!!!!! YAY for Firefly!!!!! What an awesome idea!
I adore the Jayne hats! So awesome!
Those hats were one of my DIY projects for the wedding. It was so nice to zen-out from the wedding stress while knitting the hats.
I love so many things about this wedding! Jayne hats! Parasols! The string ensemble and the chinese take-out boxes!
I know it’s been said but… JAYNE HATS!!! Firefly is such a great show… I love so many of your ideas! May have to steal some! >.>
Steal away! If you want to know how to make anything, just ask! We did a ton of DIY for the wedding.
OMG! I’m thinking about using “Beauty and the Beast” for my wedding too! It was one of my favorite Disney movies when I was little. (Not to mention my man is so big and muscular like the Beast. LOL 🙂 ) We’re going to do a slideshow right before the ceremony and the song will be playing in the background. The only thing is that we have in mind the Celine Dion version that plays during the movie’s credits as opposed to the Angela Landsbury one.
Anywhoo, congrats on becoming “Mrs. Potts”!
If my husband had been as obsessed with Disney before the wedding as he is now (we went to Disney for our honeymoon), I would have pushed for a Beauty and the Beast wedding. I even considered the Belle dress from Alfred Angelo.
Holy beautiful Batman! This is what I call geek chic–love everything from the hats to the cake to those kickass colours!
Oh my goodness the Jayne hats and Kaylee parasols just make me squee!! (Also the Grape Soda Pin!!) Everything looks beautiful. Thanks for sharing. :3
so so cute! love geek/nerd weddings! all the details are so much fun! it must be in the water style me pretty california has one too! congrats to the beautiful couple!
Love the Jayne hats! I knit one for my fiance a few years ago.
Jayne hats FTW!! I’m doing sci fi hodge podge (heavy on Dr. Who) and I’m a tad worried. You did it beautifully and it gives me hope! I keep getting slack for all my non-traditions…but I’m sticking to my guns!!!
Thank you!
We both said we wanted a wedding that was “us” and geek is us. 🙂 We also really wanted an elegant wedding. As we were planning, we started calling our style elegant geek. If it’s other people who are giving you slack (not your fiance), then do your best to ignore them. If you love what you did for the wedding, then it will be one that everyone remembers fondly.
Eeee we danced to Ohne Dich too!!
What a cool wedding I’m glad you got your way over the event coordinator!
This is super cute:) It’s difficult with venue wedding planners sometimes. The venue I was at gave us 2 different ladies leading up to it. One was really cool and said that they’d had a batman wedding in the caves, so they were used to non-traditional weddings. The other denied that story completely and made a point that mine would be the most unusual wedding they ever had there and on the wedding day took disgust with my Jabba wedding cake, insulting it in front of my dad who brought it there. Why do planners care? It’s not their weddings, sheesh!
We were convinced that when we would leave her office after meetings, she would run into the next door office and start making fun of us. You’re right, why do they care? We’re paying them!
Why does this article keep popping up on the RSS feed? :\
We’ve reported the bug to Feedblitz, our RSS provider. Not sure what’s going on, but sorry for the hassle.
At least it’s a truly awesome wedding. That makes seeing it over & over again a little less painful! (I’ve lost count of how many times it’s popped up now…)
Thank you! Sorry about having to see it so many times.
So its not just mine then?!! I thought google reader had just taken a particular liking to this wedding and felt the need to keep sharing! Its turned up at least 7 times so far!
Same with me! I think it’s on my RSS at least 4 times!
Just came to see if anyone has had this problem. I’ve seen it at least 8 times now, maybe more.
Yep. Again: we’ve reported the issue to our RSS service provider and it’ll hopefully be resolved soon. Not sure what else to say. :/
yep. the Offbeat Empire’s RSS provider really, really likes this wedding. 🙂
Issue should be resolved now. Thanks for your patience, y’all.
Ooo so so beautiful and awesome! and QUESTION!
Can I ask about the stones that have things written on them? Did your guests do that? We are thinking about having a blessing stone ceremony – but I kinda like the writing on the stones too…
The stones were in place of a ring warming ceremony.
We had a stone on each seat when the guest came in. Our officiant asked the guests to hold the stones during the ceremony and think good thoughts. At the end of the ceremony, she instructed the guests to go to a table set up in the back of the room and write one word of encouragement on one side and their name on the other. Even the little kids did it. It was a lot of fun to read them the next day and see what people said. We have them in a big vase in our hallway where we see them every day.
I’m not short and I wouldn’t want a three foot cake in front of me either. Can’t believe the coordinator put up a fuss on a simple thing like moving the table but good for you for not giving in. Maybe the next time somebody asks to re-position the cake table, before she says no, she’ll stop and think, “Oh wait I do remember how to move a table.”
Dig the purple hair.
I had my one and only “I’m the bride” moment over this. When we told her we didn’t want the cake table there, she said “well that’s how we do it.” I looked right at her and said “not at my wedding.” We actually had to go down to the ballroom and find a place to put it that wasn’t in the back corner behind the vendor table.
Shiny! The hubby to be is now super jealous of the jayne hats. Congrats to you both, this all looks like it was super amazing.
Do you know how to knit? They are super easy! Plus, knitting is great way to de-stress from the wedding planning.
This is a fantastic wedding!! Gorgeous. Just amazing. I go to Dragon*Con every year too, I wonder if I’ve seen you around! GO GEEKS!!!
Small world! My husband is usually Jayne Cobb or Jason Voorhees. Last year, he was Jason with a free hugs sign. We always stay at the Marriott.
We’re at the Hyatt this year. I usually go as Beverly Crusher (Star trek TNG), Luna Lovegood (harry potter), and Eowyn (lord of the rings). If I see you this year I’ll be sure to wave!
I’m going as Kaylee, a TOS Star Trek nurse (supposed to be Nurse Chapel, but a long story) and a student from Battle Royale. I also have a Camp Crystal Lake counselor costume to go with Kellan. Kellan’s doing Jason again and Michael Myers. I’ll look for you.
The Jayne hats are just perfect, I love everything about this. I had a girl ask to use one of my Train Job posters as a centerpiece for one of her reception tables, and I thought that was pretty cool, but this is just all out.
You do Train Job posters? Is there a link to where I can see them?
LOVED THIS WEDDING! I came to this link via Quantum Mechanix. I noticed the groomsmen had a Star Trek pin like the ones they sell! My husband’s groomsemen did that too! Maybe we were inspiration for this wedding . . .
Oh, my goodness! We’re on QMx? I love that store! My husband really wanted his groomsmen to have something that meant something to him and he loves Star Trek. The guys were really proud to wear them.
I literally went “SQUEEEEEEEEE” when I saw the Jayne hats….so loud, in fact, that I scared the cat. That’s how hard I love it.
I eep’d and squeaked excitedly over so many details of this fantastic wedding! The Jayne hats are my absolute favorites, though. Also, that Trek robe and purple hair, how infinitely cute are you?! And the Up pins! Gah, everything here just made me happy. Congratulations, you fabulous geeks, you! 😀
AHHH! JAYNE HATS! WASH’S DINOSAURS! So much love! <3
Beautiful wedding! It looked like so much fun, and there were so many interesting things! The dinosaurs were my favorite part, I think. Also, props to the artists in your family!
I am sorry to hear about your brother, I am glad you got to have such a great memory of him.
Awww, this is both sweet *and* absolutely wonderful. I adore all of your little geeky touches, they warm my geeky heart. I am very sorry to hear about your best man, that’s so sad.
Well I love all the little Firefly touches but the thing that had me running to message our best man (and ring bearer) IS THAT AN ARC OF THE COVENANT RING BOX! (marrying an Archaeologist) Love it!