Lauren & Jordan’s Highland gothic seaside wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Lauren, Audio/Video Post-Production Specialist

Her offbeat partner: Jordan, Customer Service Specialist for a software company

Date and location of wedding: Stone Crest Cellars, Newport, OR — May 18, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We both wanted to honor our Scottish heritage, so we had to have a bagpiper, and kilts were a no-brainer. As luck would have it, Jordan's family's tartan matched my dream wedding flowers perfectly. Jordan and I are both old school goth kids so we wanted to incorporate as much of that style as we could while still keeping everything classy and romantic. Although, our centerpieces for the reception tables were actually Halloween decorations!

We're both known for living in Dr. Martens, so we decided the boots were a must. The blue ribbons were actually an afterthought as I was wracking my brains looking for “something blue.” They turned out to be one of my favorite details.

Tell us about the ceremony: We wanted a pagan ceremony, and it was really important for me to be married by a woman. My wonderful friend Eli agreed to get ordained especially for our wedding. She went the extra mile and also wrote us a stunning custom ceremony.

We decided on an oathing stone ceremony which is traditionally Scottish. The bride and groom say their vows while touching a stone. The guests are also given a small river rock at the beginning of the wedding, and are asked to hold it and think of a little prayer or blessing for the new couple. The stones are then given back to the couple to place in their garden.

Jordan and I are both huge Venture Bros. fans, so we had to sneak a couple of inside jokes into our vows. I promised to “never be the screen door on his submarine” and he promised to “always be my king butterfly.”

Our biggest challenge: The majority of our friends are tattooed, rivet head Burners and/or have varying sexual orientations. We were really nervous about our friends and family being in one place together, since both our families come from pretty small, conservative towns. Gratefully, everyone got along better than we could have imagined.

My favorite moment: Both of our dads gave total tear-jerker speeches. We didn't really expect either one of them to give a speech at all. The fact that they were unexpected made them all the more special.

During the reception, “Ohne Dich” by Rammstein played and we slow danced together. It was one of those moments that meant so much to us but no once else in the crowd really noticed, or just wondered why we were dancing to this depressing song.

My funniest moment: I became kind of immune to all of the camera and iPhones pointed at us all day. Eventually I just stopped seeing them. Jordan, however, is not one for getting his picture taken. When we were standing up front for the toasts, Jordan greeted the sea of shutterbugs by pulling out his own phone and snapping everyone's picture while yelling, “Yeah! How do you like it?” The whole place roared with laughter and they ended up being some of my favorite photos.

Another great moment was when another one of my favorite Rammstein songs, “Du Riechst So Gut,” came on during the reception, and created some great shots of our friends getting some headbanging in. The family looked a tad confused. I didn't even remember it was on the playlist.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Crimson and Clover Photography
• Venue, food, flowers, decor, cake: Stone Crest Cellars. Judy and her staff do just about everything for you. I'm the third of my friends to get married there and all three weddings have been unique and beautiful.
• Fascinator/veil: IceGreenEyes
• Bagpiper: Eric Albert

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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