Kara & Adam’s 1930s-inspired aviation history wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Kara, Producer and Author

Her offbeat partner: Adam, Filmmaker

Date and location of wedding: MAPS Museum, North Canton, OH — September 22, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Aviation brought Adam and me together. We met to discuss making an aviation documentary and we have now made several together. We chose the site of our wedding ceremony and reception to be at MAPS Aviation Museum, since that was where we had our second date. Our first date we went flying, since Adam is a pilot.

The other thing that was important to me was our DIY projects. My friend made my wedding dress, another friend made my earrings and headband (plus my bridesmaids' matching earrings), and my bridesmaids helped me make all the decorations. We had our friend play music from an iTunes playlist that I had put together for the dancing and reception.

Adam and film crew co-workers/friends did all the lighting. We utilized the talents of our friends in the film industry to help us save some money.

Tell us about the ceremony: We had a short ceremony — about ten minutes long with no readings. I wrote my vows down, and Adam said he was going to “wing it,” as he does every time he has to give a speech. I worried he wasn't going to remember anything… and he didn't! He was only able to remember two things to say. [Editor's note: don't be caught unprepared if you're worried about forgetting!]

We had my nephews as ring bearers, and they carried our rings sealed in air mail envelopes. My three nieces were flower girls and threw little paper airplanes with stickers of flowers stuck on them. Maybe we should have called them “airplane girls” instead!

Our biggest challenge: Whittling the guest list down to 100 people was challenging. You start thinking about all the different groups of friends that you have, and if you invite one person, you have to invite this slew of other people. I would have loved to invite all those friends that we hang out with, but to keep costs down, we had to stop somewhere.

My favorite moment: After the ceremony, we were taking pictures inside a C-47 plane on the tarmac and it started to rain. We sent the wedding party back into the museum so they wouldn't get too wet. Our photographer ran in to get us umbrellas, leaving Adam and I alone in the plane. It was wonderful to have a moment to ourselves alone in the plane while it was raining. It was the first calm moment we had together as husband and wife to just talk.

My funniest moment: Since we had a friend cue the music for the ceremony, I made a very detailed list of what song to play when. At the end of the ceremony, when the reverend announced us as husband and wife, the song “A Few Hours After This” by The Cure was supposed to play.

Somewhere around the end of the ceremony, our friend accidentally hit the play button, so as the reverend was still talking, the music started blasting. There were about 100 sets of eyes that slowly turned to look at him. Then, he started to play it again before we were done. Then didn't play it when it was supposed to be played. I know most brides would stress about it, but Adam and I (and everyone else) thought it was pretty funny.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? I worried that it would rain, since we wanted to have our ceremony outside. We had the back up of having it inside the museum's hanger if it did. Luckily, it didn't rain until after the ceremony and most of our pictures were taken. Then it poured and cleared pretty quickly, giving us great photo opportunities with a cloudy, dark sky and reflections in the pavement.

My advice for Offbeat Brides: Think of fun things that go with your personalities, and use details of things that you did together as part of your ceremony or decorations. I made an “Adventure Book” scrapbook, and put photos of us together and all the different places we went and things we did, then had it next to our guest book so our guests could look through the photos at the reception.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress: Inda-Blatch Geib Designs
• Earrings: Amy Lauria
• Photography: Carrie Leonard
• Venue: MAPS Museum
• Cupcakes: Cleveland Cupcake Company
• Menu and invitation design: Leyna Haller

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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