Rachelle & Josh’s pink & black rockabilly wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Rachelle, Executive Assistant

Her Offbeat Partner: Joshua, Eggo Waffle Warehouse Man

Location & date of wedding: Corinthian Event Center, San Jose, CA — November 15, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Josh and I are tattooed rockabilly nuts, but our parents are rather traditional. We decided to compromise a bit and shot for a very elegant and lavish vintage inspired winter night wedding. We went all out and my event planning experience really paid off while planning our big day. Every little detail displayed our style and made our wedding the most-memorable.

I LOVE vintage reproduction dresses and me and the girls ordered custom dresses through a company called Whirling Turban. The bridesmaids wore pink and black polka dot dresses and I wore a white tea-length silk organza dress with satin accents and rhinestones embellishments. It was absolutely stunning! The men wore black tuxedos with pink accents and pink argyle socks with black and white wingtip shoes! They looked so cute.

We had none other than Texas Rockabilly legend, Kim Lenz perform our ceremony and the best rockin' DJ spin rockabilly, doowop, and jump blues. The cake was adorable, white with pink vertical stripes, accented with white pearl garnishes and the most adorable vintage cake topper I found on ebay.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest problem was my mom HATES our tattoos. So, I had Whirling Turban create custom bolero jackets to hide our tattoos for the photos. After the reception started, and my mom got a few cocktails in her, the boleros came off and the tattoos were the topic of many conversations! But, mom didn't seem to mind and enjoyed herself. I think she accepted the fact that I am who I am and appreciated that I wore a bolero in the photos to compromise for her.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was standing in front of 200 of our closest friends and family to say our vows while Kim Lenz married us! All three of us were trying not to laugh and it was really one of the most wonderful moments of my life. Kim forgot to have everyone sit so they stood through the entire ceremony but luckily it was fast, and I was too busy smiling and looking at Josh to notice.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Allow yourself enough time to plan out every detail of the wedding. Make sure you compromise with your husband and your families — it is important to make them feel their input is important to you. Also, when dealing with vendors, the most expensive is not always the best. Shop around, interview them, and compare them. References are GOLD, so do your homework.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Bride & Bridesmaids Dresses – Whirling Turban
• Bride's Shoes – Nina Shoes
• Bride's Hair & Makeup – Rebecca Schillinger
• Photography – James Mueller
• Videography – HD Video Memories
• Venue – Corinthian Event Center