This pop culture wedding wins all with a Pac-Man suit, Mario Kart, and a Delorean(!)

The Offbeat Bride: Andrea, Marketing Maven

Her offbeat partner: Tom, Restaurant Manager

Date and location of wedding: Jim Henson Studios, Hollywood, CA — November 12, 2016

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

When Tom and I got engaged and started talking about weddings, we were overwhelmed by the traditional weddings: seas of white dresses and seafoam bridesmaids. We decided we wanted our wedding to be us throwing a party our way.

It ended up being a big celebration of our favorite things. We had video games, dinosaurs, a caricature artist — we even had a Delorean! We're big movie and TV buffs and snuck in a ton of Easter eggs to our favorite things in the world.

We skipped the dance floor because we don't go dancing (we're not the clubbing type; more Netflix and chill), we skipped a DJ (because Spotify exists), and we skipped flowers (because it hurts my soul to watch money wilt). We did everything ourselves and with the help of our friends.

All of the staff were people we love in our life — a friend of Tom's was our chef, our friends were servers/assistants, our wedding coordinator Niloufar is a close friend of mine. Dr. Leilani Hall, who officiated, is actually the person who set us up. She assigned us to write to each other for a semester five years ago in college. Everything was very purposefully kept "in the family." The whole thing was us, throwing a circus on a budget with our best friends.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Prior to the ceremony, we had a working Delorean parked in the parking lot. Guests parked and then got to go up to the Delorean, take pictures with the hoverboard, and have a full pop culture meltdown. We had movie overtures (mostly John Williams) playing leading up to the actual ceremony.

Our ceremony began with our best man and maid of honor walking down the aisle to The Muppets theme song handcuffed to a briefcase. When they got to the end of the aisle, our officiant un-handcuffed them and they sat down. The theme song to Jurassic Park started, and as the music swelled, the red curtain opened and my father and I walked down the aisle.

Tom and I made up our vows on the spot. We meant to write them beforehand but in true fashion, we ended up winging it. After his vows, I took the mic and said "thank you" to break the tension. It was silly, lovey, and very much telling of how we work together.

Our rings are both engraved with "BAD MOTHER FUCKER" to really tie in all the Pulp Fiction references.

Tell us about your reception:

Our cocktail hour was right at sunset and we listened to Postmodern Jukebox under the glow of the giant Kermit wall fixture. There was a wall of scratch-off cards with all our guests's names. They had to scratch off to see at which table they were having dinner.

During dinner, we played The Lonely Island, Bo Burnham, and lot of other comedy music. Each table had a different board game at it (Hungry Hungry Hippos was the hot table of the night).

After dinner, our reception kicked off with a floating magician, a caricature artist (who used to work on The Simpsons and Rugrats), Mario Kart projected on a wall, a photo booth, candy station, and a temporary tattoo station. The temporary tattoos were designed by the maid of honor, Anna. We had a screening room open that played "Everything Wrong With" YouTube videos complete with a popcorn machine.

The big hit of the night was the magician, Dean Apple, the caricature artist, and the tattoo station. We had a lot of very risqué tattoos being placed.

What was your most important lesson learned?

My biggest lesson was balling on a budget. Amazing weddings do NOT need to be expensive. Everything was about $17K all in, and half of that was the location and the photographer/videographer. We utilized a lot of our friends' talents to make this night happen. We used Google Drive to share contracts and spreadsheets to track spending and timelines which was extremely helpful.

One thing I did that was super helpful was I went dress shopping at David's Bridal to get a sense of what I liked, then bought a no-name brand dress on eBay for about $80. I loved my dress and I loved that I didn't break the bank buying it.

I also hate heels so I skipped them and wore Birkenstocks.

Tom and I were very resistant to the more basic pieces so we were excited to put things together that really spoke to who we are as individuals and as a couple. Tom wore a Pac-Man suit, and I had my hair down and my tattoos out. My bridal party gifts were custom Disney ears and our favors were cupcake candles, all from our new friends at Etsy.

Vendors

• Photographer: Stephanie De La Riva
• Venue: Jim Henson Studios
• Wedding Planner: Niloufar Gibson
• Magician: Dean Apple
• Caricature Artist: Sue Bielenberg
• Photobooth: West Side Photobooth
• Suit: Opposuits
• Disney Ears: The Avengears
• Cupcake Candle Favors: Candlelit Desserts

Gallery

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