A bluegrass 1920s speakeasy jail wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Hope, Art Director

Her offbeat partner: David, cinematographer

Date and location of wedding: A jail in the basement of a renovated government building from the 1920s, Winston-Salem, NC — September 19, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

The venue we found was a renovated government building from the 1920s, which served as a courthouse, post office, and a county jail. We had our theme lean into the general vibe of the building — we called it “Southern prohibition.”

Tell us about the ceremony:

Our wedding hashtag was #ashortwedding, and we definitely lived up to it with our ceremony. We wanted to hurry up and get married so we could celebrate, so our ceremony was about 10 minutes long. It was on the third floor in the beautiful main court room. David's dad officiated, and we had a guitar and fiddle for music. After we were done, we had the band play the song “I Wanna Sex You Up” in bluegrass style. Only a few people got the joke but it was worth it anyway.

Tell us about your reception:

The reception was in the basement of the government building that was originally was the county jail. There were even still the jail cells on the perimeter of the larger rooms that we used for card games and different drinks. Our bluegrass band was amazing, and it coupled very nicely with the southern home cooking (BBQ, green beans, corn on the cob, hush puppies, mac ‘n' cheese, sweet tea, etc.).

Our dance was a little bit of an inside joke between Dave and I, we danced to the song “Take My Breath Away.” We did not rehearse at all, and just sort of winged it. It became more of an interpretive dance.

We weren’t super into the tradition of the bouquet toss, but we knew our family members would miss it, so I threw a cat bouquet. This essentially meant whoever caught it is the next person who will get a cat.

My favorite part about the wedding was our secret moonshine speakeasy room. In the back of the basement, there was a large wooden door with an eye slit, and a hidden bar. We decided to have a moonshine bar that be a surprise in the middle of the ceremony. I told our wedding party a password: “jailbait,” and whoever had the password could get in.

My second favorite part was our getaway car, which was Dave’s groomsmen El Camino!

What was your most important lesson learned?

I live in NYC, and I tried to plan this NC wedding on a budget by myself from afar, all while my husband was working in Alaska. Once I got to a certain point, I realized I was in over my head. I needed someone with my aesthetic to help me on the ground. I found Jenny at Muse & Delphia. My advice is to ask for help early, you can’t do it all by yourself.