Stefanie & Aaron’s Renaissance Fantasy Church Wedding

The offbeat bride: Stefanie, Accountant/Opera Singer

Her offbeat partner: Aaron, Web Designer

Location & date of wedding: First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco in San Fransisco, CA on December 13th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: The wedding was very detailed, complete with Renaissance music, vows rolled in parchment scrolls, a feather quill pen to sign the guest book, and custom head wreaths, ending in a Medieval feast.

I sang two pieces during the ceremony to express my love and devotion to Aaron. This was the last wedding our minister will perform until marriage is legal for all. We took a moment during the ceremony to acknowledge those who do not have this right. We also had him call the four directions and end the ceremony with “Blessed Be”.

I wore a custom-made Renaissance dress, called the Velvet Celtic Accolade Gown, in frosted silver velvet with hundreds of hand-sewn Swarovski crystals and silver embroidered detail. Our first dance was a traditional Renaissance dance and the band was a violin/recorder duo.

The reception hall was lit with white Christmas lights and candles, and all the flower and table arrangements had a touch of the holidays. The guests exclaimed that it was the best wedding ever! It truly was right out of a fairy tale. And they lived happily ever after…

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge happened a few months before the ceremony. The day itself went off without a hitch. The issue we had was getting our rings engraved. The first engraver told us he could do what we asked in the Old English font that we wanted. Two months went by (One month after he told us they'd be done) before we finally had to call him.

He said they were done, but when we looked at them there were words missing. He denied it but said he would re-do them. Again, we had to call him and this time there were mostly scratches on my ring and he said he couldn't do it. We then kindly told him to screw off and took them somewhere else to be cleaned, then finally found a laser engraver. I was at my wit's end by that point so when they were finally done we celebrated with some martinis.

My favorite moment: My favourite moment was just after I sang my aria to Aaron towards the end of the ceremony. He was crying, and I looked over and saw that his brother was crying, too. I did it, the most difficult and nerve-wracking performance of my life, and it was actually pretty effortless! I was in the moment and so very glad that I was able to really express how I feel, which is all that really matters.

My offbeat advice: Do as much as you can ahead of time and try to stay as organized as possible! This saved me, and because of it I was able to just let go of all of my stresses, worries and nervousness on the big day and just be in the moment. Do whatever you can beforehand and then just let it all go the day of… It will pay off and then you can really enjoy yourself!

Some of my vendors:

• Dress from Arcane Lore

• Coronet from Crafty Fox Artworks

• Rings by Goldspeed

• Reception music by Flutes of Fancy

• Flowers by Freya

• Photos by David Brantley

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Click the photo below for more romantic pics from Stefanie & Aaron's Renaissance Fairytale wedding!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

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