Kids, musicians, and a red dress makes Michelle & Sean’s Winter wedding shine

The Offbeat Bride: Michelle, Artist, medical office manager, mom, baker, DIY Queen, Pinterest Addict

Her offbeat partner: Sean, Salon owner, stylist, musician

Date and location of wedding: Sodo Pop, Seattle, WA — 01/04/2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

All of our kids were part of the wedding which was super important to us. My daughter was maid of honor, Sean's was a junior bridesmaid, and our son was ring bearer. This was a blended family and a second wedding for both of us.

Tell us about the ceremony:

I wanted to keep it very simple and very fast because we had the wild card of a toddler who could decide to melt down at any moment. We did our vows very off-the-cuff and got a lot of laughs from the crowd. Sean read to me a letter that he had sent to my parents that morning, and it made us all cry. It was beautiful.

Our biggest challenge:

We were worried that there might be a playoff game on the Sunday of the wedding. Since Sodo Pop is so close to the stadium, there would have been no parking. We were all set to bus people in, but luckily, we won the games we needed to and our Sunday was a bye day, so parking was not an issue.

My favorite moment:

Since the bulk of our friends are Seattle musicians, and my husband sings in a popular wedding band called CFO, instead of a bunch of speeches, each of our friends got up and sang different cover songs for us. We were pretty much choked up all night.

I had my parents attend via Facetime since my dad lives out of the country and my mom is in Alaska. Thanks to modern technology, our whole family got to attend!

Given the proximity of right after Christmas, everything was on clearance, so the whole event costs us less than $1500 including the venue rental. The venue is where a lot of bands we know rehearse, so it added that extra little something to make it part of our musical world. They don't usually do wedding there because sometimes the bands practicing can bleed through, but we didn't have any disruptions. It was very rock ‘n' roll and very us!

My funniest moment:

The wedding itself was funny because we decided to walk down the aisle together with our two-year-old. I had my parents each on a cell phone, so when I stepped out I had to ask someone to “hold my parents while I walked down the aisle,” so our friend Kathy carried my parents and followed us down the aisle. Then I asked the crowd to all say hello to my mom and dad.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?

You don't have to follow traditions that don't resonate with you. You will be happiest if you do what you want. For me that meant wearing the red dress, walking my husband down the aisle, and laughing through the whole thing.

Vendors

• Photography: Cindy Apple
• Red dress: Unique Vintage on clearance for $50!