Mery & Kris’s blacklight, Beatles wedding

The offbeat bride: Mery, art student

Her offbeat partner: Kris, UPS supervisor

Location & date of wedding: Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa, OK — October 29, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Kris and I have been together for eight years. We have been busy with school and work and just never got around to getting married. But on Halloween of 2009, Kris had roses, candles, and a seventy-pound pumpkin carved with “Will you marry me?” waiting for me outside of my parents' front door when we arrived for their party. I said yes, of course.

I ended up choosing a black light theme that turned into a “Pepperland” (The Beatles‘ Yellow Submarine movie) theme. I made a lot of decorations that were UV reactive and had glow bracelets and necklaces. We had black lights set up all around to make the decor glow. We had little Yellow Submarine characters set up on the welcome table as well as the cakes table. I had a garter that was UV reactive and instead of me throwing my bouquet, I had Kris wear a matching garter as well and I threw that.

I am an art student, so I tried to use some of my skills in the planning. I ended up making everything, including my bouquet, the bridespeople's umbrellas and necklaces, the invitations, the feather hair clips, the centerpieces, various other decorations, and even our champagne glasses and the cake cutters. I also designed my dress and the cake.

I made the centerpieces by putting plaster guaze on a large balloon to make a ball, then I painted each ball with neon colors and filled them with white peacock feathers and sticks. The base is just posterboard that I cut.

I felted my bouquet and put battery powered lights in it, even though they aren't turned on in the pictures.

For the feathered hairpieces, I just got various feathers from the internet and designed each one to be unique for my bride's people, the groom's people, parents, and Kris.

I wanted a venue that was located downtown and was an old building, so I chose the historic Cain's Ballroom.

Before the ceremony, while everyone was coming in and being seated, I had the musical score from the movie Yellow Submarine playing. I made a video of childhood photos of Kris and I and also an art film short that we made. Both videos played on a large screen right before the ceremony.

The Bridespeople walked out with their pink spiraled UV umbrellas to Paul McCartney‘s “Junk.” I walked down the aisle with my dad and my illuminated bouquet to Paul's “Maybe I'm Amazed.” We walked out to the side room (everyone viewed the wedding from their tables that were set up for the reception) to The Beatles “All You Need is Love.”

We entered the reception (which was back in Cain's) to Jimi Hendrix‘s “Star Bangled Banner.”

My sister and I did the dance from Beetlejuice to the “Day-O” song. Kris and I danced to The Beatles “Real Love” and my dad and I danced to Billy Joel‘s “Lullaby.” We all danced to Thriller and Time Warp.

Tell us about the ceremony: Even though we flew in the pastor I had grown up with, we had a non-religious ceremony. The pastor is very open-minded and cool about things. We wrote our own vows, which were more about how we feel about each other than what we promise. I even included a line from Paul McCartney‘s song “She's My Baby:” “You're my baby, comin' out at night and takin' me by surprise.”

My advice for offbeat brides: Find your inner artist and be as creative as you want. Don't be afraid of color!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Venue: Cain's Ballroom
• Food: TW's-AFAB Catering
• Feathers: Pretty Plumes
• Decoration supplies: Save on Crafts
• Shoes: Iron Fist
• UV stuff: UV Gear
• Black light: Blacklight.com
• Necklace: Nervous System

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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