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The Offbeat Bride: Michelle, Associate Creative Director
Her offbeat partner: Phil, QA Analyst
Date and location of wedding: Firehouse Chicago, IL — July 18, 2015
Our offbeat wedding at a glance:
We wanted our wedding to encapsulate everything that we love and especially the nerdy things that brought us together. I called our wedding theme “Sophisticated Sci-fi,” because the decorations were all white, gold, silver, and Star Wars/Star Trek-themed. It was like an Oscars in space.
I had always wanted an excuse to get an epic green evening gown, so I had a custom green and gold wedding dress made by the amazing Rachel Alvia of Avail and Company. A friend of mine made my father a tie out of the extra green fabric from my dress. Since I was the colorful one, the wedding party wore glitzy whites, silvers, and grey.
Tell us about the ceremony:
We hosted the ceremony and reception at a recently renovated 100-year old Chicago Firehouse. They kept the original fire pole (and yes, one drunken guest did eventually climb it). The wedding parties came in from the back to the orchestral theme from Star Trek (TNG).
Once they were all in place, the music faded, and the Throne Room music from the end of A New Hope began. Many of the guests turned to look, and the massive wooden doors in the front began to open, spraying sunlight across all the guests to reveal me standing outside with my father. It was an overwhelming moment for me.
My best friend’s father, JoeDad, officiated the ceremony in a white tuxedo, and Phil’s sister did a reading adapted from Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” quote. We wrote our own vows. I pretended to have time-traveled to ask Future Michelle if this was a good idea and Phil told me he loved me more than he loves the Packers.
When it came time to exchange the rings, JoeDad produced an engraved wooden spatula with the rings tied to it. Spatulas have been a symbol of our love since Phil made me watch the movie UHF with a faux commercial that proclaims “What better way to say ‘I love you' than with the gift of a spatula?.” The first time we said “I love you” it was written on a spatula and sneaked into my work bag
Tell us about the reception:
While wedding planning, we went to a comic convention together and bought tons of action figures that we used to build Star Wars and Star Trek snow globes for the tables. Now they all decorate our apartment! The base of my bouquet was Darth Vader’s lightsaber and Phil wore a Lt. Worf boutonnière.
Instead of a cake, we had a sweets table complete with Wookiee cookies and Death Star cake balls. We had themed drinks like “The Beverly Crusher” (which was an Irish Redhead) and “The Dark and Stormy Side.”
On the gifts table, we had a framed painting of us that Phil had commissioned for our anniversary. It depicts us together in the classic original Star Wars movie poster pose, complete with our cat as Darth Vader (we had to have her there somehow).
Vendors
- Photography: Mike L. Photography
- Dress: Avail and Company
- Venue: Firehouse Chicago
- Sweets table: Dream in Ruffles Events
Gallery
photography: Mike L. Photography
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
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that dress is gorgeous.
I lust the dress. *drool*
I am completely tickled by the spatula being incorporated, too.
SPATULA CITY!!! That story made my jaw literally – not figuratively – drop open while I drooled over your gorgeousness. AND THEN you made your own snowglobes! You are my hero! Please post a tutorial if you can. Love love the bride in color and the rest a tight metallic. I would kill to be a guest at that wedding. Brava!
Thank you so much!
I should definitely do a blog about the snow globes. It was a process!!
Source: http://www.nationalartcraft.com/subcategory.asp?gid=6&cid=37&scid=54
We bought just the glass domes and the simple silicone plugs. 18 domes and plugs were around $200. I wasted a ton of time looking for plastic or cheaper options and nothing else was gonna work. Had to go with the real deal glass domes. We wrapped ribbon around the base or painted bases instead of the expensive wooden bases.
The secret to getting the action figures to stick to the silicone bases was fly fishing glue! We tried silicone glue and that was a big bust.
In addition to the domes, plugs and glue, we had to get lots of distilled water, glycerine and GLITTER. I do wish we would have bought the actual (but expensive) real snow globe glitter instead of getting the Martha Stewart adorable glitter variety pack in different gold and silver shapes. The weight was just too wrong and all of them don’t float perfectly.
The reason none of the Star Trek figures were in snow globes—water refraction! Even though the globes themselves were big enough to accommodate their height (globes around 6″, ST figures around 5″), the water refracted and made it look like their heads were totally chopped off! So we just left those on wooden discs as stands (painted silver and gold) then filled all the snow globes with the Star Wars figures.
Also it was definitely a good chunk of work (painting, drying, gluing, drying) and I couldn’t have gotten it done without my super helpful friends and family. I’m sure they also wish I had started more than a week before the wedding. Ha!
Amazeballs! Which is what you should call yours. I love it! Thank you so much for the info too, and the glue tip! WUNDERBAR! I think if I were only making one or two I would spring for the wood base but you were very smart! I collect regular snow globes so being able to make custom ones is a dream! Congratulations on an amazing wedding and clearly a wonderful love! Karina~~~~~~~~~~~~~~karina’s webmail
This wedding is amazing!
I love that dress!!!! <3 <3 <3