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The Offbeat Bride: Angela, medical secretary
Her offbeat partner: Patrick, tech support
Date and location of wedding: Mishler Theater, Altoona, PA — October 29, 2011
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We had almost ten years together behind us and we wanted to make sure this was a wedding worth waiting for. I decided on a royal blue dress after Patrick had pointed out that it was an old Irish tradition. We both come from Irish families, so it seemed fitting. Patrick wanted the groomsmen and himself to wear traditional garb as well. For our venue, I turned to my favorite film, Moulin Rouge, for inspiration. When I found out we could get married in a local theater, I jumped at the chance. Just like Christian and Satine.
We also happened to have a very good friend in the wedding that also knew how to play the bagpipes.
We had some personal details like our cake topper which was handmade to look just like us, and our personalized Jones Soda bottles for our wedding party. Collecting Jones Sodas was the first thing we had in common as a couple.
Tell us about the ceremony: We both wrote our own vows and based them off of traditional Irish readings.
Our biggest challenge: We struggled to get people to accept new ideas at first, such as the blue dress and theater venue. But once they realized how happy it would make us, they accepted it.
My favorite moment: I'll never forget our ceremony or our first kiss as husband and wife. I kept thinking we'd both end up being shy and blowing the moment, but I couldn't have been more wrong. It was definitely a kiss that sent me into another world.
We'll also cherish the amazing speech that our Best Man gave at our reception, and the night of fun and dancing that followed.
My funniest moment: There are two funny moments that stick out to us. One was at our ceremony when everyone took their seats after I had walked down the aisle to meet my husband on stage. The theater is quite old and the seats were rather squeaky. Hearing that many squeaks at one time in a supposedly haunted theater kind of takes you off guard. Needless to say I jumped a bit.
The other moment I remember is when I tossed my bouquet. A young daughter of a family friend caught it. She was about eight or nine. The DJ had to think quickly and change up the garter placement song. The song I had chosen, Jay-Z's “Big Pimpin',” wasn't quite appropriate anymore. He ended up switching it to the Barney's “I Love You” and made it a “bracelet” instead of a garter.
I'd also like to add that I cannot cut a cake to save my life. At least Patrick was there to save the day.
My advice for Offbeat Brides: Don't be afraid to be yourself. It's definitely worth it in the end. It will be the memories that stay with you forever, so make sure they're your memories and not for someone else. And don't forget that this day is about the beginning of forever with the person you love. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Dress: Wedding Dress Fantasy
- Kilts: Scottish Kilt Rental
- Cake topper: Etsy seller Mudcards
- Cake: Lisa Becker Bakery
- Custom sodas: Jones Soda
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
dresses: Wedding Dress Fantasy
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Gorgeous wedding, and as a actor can I just say getting married in a theatre would be amazaballs?
What flowers did you use for your bouquet?? They match your dress perfectly, and as a fellow lover of all things blue, I must know what you used!! 🙂
Well the white flowers are calla lilies and the rest were different shades of blue hydrangeas. There are a few blue like baby breath sorta flowers mixed in to. I used the same hydrangeas for the bridesmaids too. I happened to find a lady at a local craft store that made awesome flowers at a decent price too 🙂
This is one out-of-this-world beautiful wedding. 🙂
I am madly in love with that blue dress! Stunning! Good for you for sticking with your dream.
ADORE the dress!!
wow – beautiful – traditional yet unexpected because the traditions are original and not WIC.
<3 this wedding!
Love love love that Moulin Rouge inspired the wedding. My fiance and I love that movie and sing along to the soundtrack all the time. I also think your blue wedding dress is amazing! And hooray for the bagpipes! Congratulations!
Oh PLEASE tell me where your gorgeous veil came from!!
I had both my dress and veil made by the lovely ladies at weddingdressfantasy.com. It’s just a traditional style mantilla veil that matched the lace of my dress 🙂
This looks fantastic! The dress and venue are both to die for!
(Whoops! No Moulin Rouge spoiler pun intended there! 😉 )
The greatest thing! You’ll ever learn! Is just to love! and Be loved! In return!
I’m one of there proud aunts….it was an amazing day. Very beautiful day 🙂
This is so beautiful! Love the venue, dress and everything! Great to see a local offbeat wedding – I live about two hours away. This gives me hope that I can find locales that will work with our theme too.
I am honored to have been able to attend this beautiful wedding!It truely was an amazing day for such a deserving couple.
That is the most gorgeous dress! The color and the details are beyond beautiful!
I love your dress. I’ve looked at Wedding Dress Fantasy before, but I gave up because it seemed like all their dresses had very full, poofy skirts. (Which are gorgeous, but not the sort of thing a tomboy like me can pull off wearing.) I’ll have to go back now that I know they do some A-line dresses.
PS: If anyone from WDF is reading, I would LOVE it if your site was organized by silhouette as well as color.
Can I just say that the last minute switch of song from Big Pimpin’ to Barney’s I Love You made me smile a lot.
What a stunning wedding! i love that it took place on stage – and in a haunted theatre! Your dress is absolutely beautiful, and kudos to you and your man for deciding to take a traditional idea and do away with the WIC ‘traditions’!
WoW what a fabulous dress and stunning location.
Hello blue wedding dress sister.
FAB
Ahh, how perfect I saw this post! Fiance and I considered doing a local theater, but weren’t sure how the reception would work– where did you guys have the reception at the theater?
P.S. GREAT pictures. Congrats!
Love your wedding venue, your color, and that candy buffet! Everything looks beautiful. Especially your dress, you looked amazing!
Congrats!
The combination of Chuck Taylors / Converse with the bridesmaids dresses and the guys in kilts was just great. Good for you!!!
Hey everyone. Thank you for all the lovely comments on the wedding 🙂 I thought I’d post this here for anyone that is possibly interested. I’m actually selling my wedding dress at the moment. The link below is the auction 🙂
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200913892836?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649