Posted byWell, that didn't take long! As seen on OBB yesterday, here's the full scoop on Sandy's colorful wedding and her Christmas ornament bouquet.
The offbeat bride: Sandy – high school secretary/craft maniac
Her offbeat partner: Josh – middle school social studies teacher/musician
Location & date of wedding: 3/15/08 at Butler's Courtyard in League City, TX
What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted the wedding to reflect us as a couple and be memorable, but we also didn't want to alienate any family members or make them feel uncomfortable along the way. We wanted to express ourselves while still making everyone feel welcome. We chose a rather traditional venue, but it still had enough character and history (we both majored in history) to make us fall in love with it. Also, the owners seemed to really be on board with any and all ideas we had, so that made it excellent.
The color scheme came about through my sheer indecision. I couldn't decide on one theme or one color combo that I wouldn't get bored with – I kept picturing ridiculous moments of breakdown over “OMG this is daffodil yellow, not lemon yellow!!!” and figured I didn't want to start hating yellow. Also, I have a theory that every color goes with every color in some way, so why not just put them all together?
Same thing with my gals' dresses and the different styles… Are they naked? No. Are they comfortable? Yes. Do the colors look rad together? Yes. Sweet.
I never really loved the idea of real flowers (especially for the bride's bouquet). It just didn't seem like an area we wanted to put a lot of money into, so I thought crazy paper flowers were the way to go. I wanted something sleeker for myself and got the bright idea to use Christmas ornaments. I kept the 93 flowers afterwards and I'm currently working on making them into a huge piece of wall art for the living room.
Josh actually composed the instrumental song I walked down the aisle to. That was incredibly meaningful for both of us and made me cry like a baby while walking out. We were also very into the creation of the reception playlist and made sure it had all our favorite happy, danceable songs. It included everything from The Smiths to Rick Astley to The Zombies. We also downloaded string versions of some of our favorite songs to be played before the ceremony as guests came in. Those who recognized the song loved it! Those who didn't never knew the difference… ha!
Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was trying to block out all the outside opinions and to trust that we'd know when to compromise and when to stand our ground.
My parents paid for the whole thing, so we were somewhat bound to their desires. However, it was very hard to ignore things like, “Josh is writing the song?? But people EXPECT you to walk in to ‘Here Comes the Bride!' It's not a wedding if you don't!” and “You want a purple dress?? But people EXPECT a bride to wear a wedding dress! It's not a wedding if you don't wear a wedding dress!”
Incidentally, I (obviously) caved on the white dress thing. And, although I dig my dress, I always wonder if I'd have been happier in purple.
…I'm glad we didn't cave on the song.
My favorite moment: Josh and his fellas did an impromptu “Young Guns”-style lip synch/skit/mime to Bon Jovi's “Blaze of Glory.” It was hysterical and we're dying to see the video! The pictures are excellent, though.
My offbeat advice: Try to keep as much of the offbeatness to yourselves as possible. We eventually found that if you remain tight-lipped, it's easier to ignore their suggestions. They'll love the end result. I promise!
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: You must, must MUST go spend some time with these 650 photos. You must check out the Martha Stewart pom-poms, the bride's sparkly blue shoes, the colorful cake, and of course the bride and groom's special buttons:
PS: If you're looking for even more info about Sandy's wedding, head on over to LiveJournal.
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.
Totally in love with the shoes!! Where are they from?
This is my absolute favorite wedding profile to date. The colors, bouquets, buttons, accessories and… well… everything is just BRILLIANT. Well done!
i looked at each and every one of your photos… they are all so beautiful!! way to do it your way! i am sure it was amazing!!
[…] Update: here’s the full profile! […]
I love so many things about this wedding I don’t know where to begin. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂 The Bride & Groom look soooo happy!
The shoes are actually from Payless Shoe Store, but they are no longer available. I know because I bought a pair on clearance a year ago.
It’s such a fun shoe!
This wedding looks so happy and colorful! I love the bride’s outfit.
Love it so much! All of it!
I love all the color! And we were already also planning to play the string versions of our fave songs, so it was fun to hear of someone else doing it.
Incidentally, if anyone on here is getting crap for not playing “Here Comes the Bride,” please note: I have been to my share of weddings, and never — not once — has the couple played that song. Not once — even at the very traditional Catholic wedding I went to a few years ago. I think it’s a myth perpetuated by movies or something.
Im being a bit different and having that piece of music done by a bag piper for when i walk down to meet my lovebug
SO PRETTY. Looooooveee the colors. Are instructions for “martha stewart” pom poms and paper flowers easy to find? I’m thinking of doing paper flowers, crochet flowers, or a mixture of both to save cost and because I like being crafty. I already know how to crochet but have no idea where to start on paper flowers.
Anyways. LOVE it. And the Christmas ornament bouquet is so original!!
Michelle, the instructions are linked from this very website. Check out the tag for pom-poms.
This is a gorgeous concept! The fact that she used a wide range of colors instead of the typical coordinated palette is very inspirational. I may not be getting married any time soon, but I will definitely take a lesson from this wedding for my future nuptuals. Continue posting great examples of unique weddings!
What a fun wedding! I love all the yummy emotions in the photos…makes me a little teary just looking at them!
I’ve been trying to figure out for the past month or so how to go about dying my crinoline!
Anyone have any ideas about how Sandy did it?
Dying crinoline is super duper easy! You can just google and find the instructions, or check out the “undergarments: crinoline” tag on LiveJournal’s wedding plans community.
http://community.livejournal.com/weddingplans/tag/undergarments:+crinoline
It really is just as easy as everyone says!
Awesome wedding!!!!! I love the colors and the dyed crinoline! Did you dye that yourself? Looks like the bouquet flowers were hard to do…folding required?
I agree with Eliza, i think this is my favourite profile so far! 😀
Oh duh. Thanks Ariel!!
LOVELOVELOVE this wedding! Just fabulous!
I absolutely love the wedding dress and shoes! I want to have a wedding similar to this in that I want it to be very colorful and fun.
Such a gorgeous wedding!
(And although it is not purple, I totally love the dress – super cute!)
Spectacularly beautiful! Congratulations to Sandy and her love . . . .
An aside FYI . . . “Here Comes the Bride” is not played (and is not permitted to be played) in many traditional religious ceremony sites. It’s not played in Catholic ceremonies b/c it’s not a sacred piece of music — it’s from an opera by Wagner. And it’s not typically played in Jewish ceremonies b/c Wagner was anti-Semitic. . . . Just in case any of y’all need reasons to argue (with more traditional family members or clergy or whoever) for using something more interesting!
Totally original – I love it all, esp. the paper flowers!
[…] also love this colorful, crafty wedding, which featured bright, spring colored bridesmaid dresses, bouquets made of paper flowers and […]
Maybe she would have been happier in purple, but I think that the white dress with the giant purple crinoline is SO much cooler than just a purple dress! It. is. gorgeous.
What a fresh and awesome concept I totally love your entire theme/wedding…and my god the SHOES! You have completely inspired me. Thanks for rocking!
i love this! i love the purple crinoline
I love the christmas ornaments bouquet, how was it made? And where do you learn to do paper flowers? Now I wish I had a ton of bright colors…
Just beautiful. Colors go great, you hit on a great mix putting this together. Were they your favorite colors, or chosen for any particular reason? 🙂
[…] will tell you it’s tacky to have portapotties at your wedding. Someone somewhere thinks sequined wedding shoes and button bouquets and Wai-Ching dresses are all […]
I took your theory in picking my bridesmaid dresses- I could not pick one color, so I picked 4! Now I am in ruby, and I have bridesmaids in purple, olive, copper, and orange!
As far as the flowers are concerned, I think I found the inspiration if not the source! Papersource! Look for their “Wild Magnolia” kit. Looks the same, huh?
thank you so much, i've been searching the webs looking for exactly what's on paper source, i saw these flowers somewhere else too and i just love them
[…] The Adventures of Josh and Sandy via Offbeat Bride […]
This wedding is so refreshing! Love the colors and seems like it was so much fun! Thanks for sharing!
First off, I love everything about your wedding!! I am planning something very colorful as well!! I dont want just 2 colors, i want at least 4! I just want everything to be really colorful and to match. Yours is perfect! I love the whole flower bouquet!! I wanted real flowers for me and my bridesmaids..but now since i seen yours ..i like your idea better!!! How did you make the bridesmaids bouquet and where did you get the supplies!! Thanks!! 🙂
Hi all! I just came back for a visit and figured I should probably answer a few questions…
The paper flowers were a kit from Paper Source. (Good eye, Caterina!) I got the Wild Magnolia kit and used some old and some new cardstock. It’s very easy to assemble but cutting out all the petals was a real pain in the ass (and hand!)
My bouquet was a craft risk that worked out… I bought Christmas ornaments, hot glued flower picks (stronger, sturdier toothpicks, really) in the neck and jammed them willy-nilly into one of those styrofoam bouquet handles they use for silk flowers.
I got the shoes at Payless like 2 years before the wedding, so I doubt you can find them anymore. 🙁
Thank you all so much for the kind words! It’s awesome to know that I wasn’t the only one who thought my wedding was fab! I’ve really enjoyed sharing it with all you awesome OBBs!
Oh my goodness, I loved everything about this wedding! What did your invitations look like?
I'm so extremely glad that I stumbled upon this website!!! I'm planning an April 2010 wedding which I also wanted to conduct in an off-beat style, but I keep hearing crap from family/friends who say the colors are ugly. . everyone uses rose bouquets . . etc. Your colorful dress theme is exactly what I had in mind (peach, blue, yellow) and thanks to you I plan on sticking with it. Oh, and the flowers were absolutely beautiful, I think I'll really tick everyone off and opt for paper flowers as well . Once again THANK YOU!
tHis wedding is so vibrant and alive!!! I love the colours – very bold!! You looked stunning!!
I want those buttons. It’d be perfect for us!
Walking down the isle to a song he composed: *sob*
I am totally in LOVE with all the colours. I totally agree with your opinion on that all colours go together in some way. Love that the bridesmaids have different dresses in different colours, still match with eachother and are probably very happy that the dresses match them personally.
I have a blue dress and often wonder if I should’ve gone with something lighter. Love the underskirt being purple, you look great.