Swashbucklers and bibliophiles will dig this pirate wedding HARD

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys! Don yer swashbucklin' gear to witness the nuptials of these here fine land lubbers…

The Offbeat Bride: AJ, Mail carrier

Her offbeat partner: Joe, Insurance authorizer

Date and location of wedding: The Rockefeller Lodge, San Pablo CA — March 11, 2016

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We attend one or more Renaissance Faires and pirate festivals each year, so we chose a pirate wedding theme with gold and red as our colors. The whole wedding party was dressed as pirates, and guests were encouraged to do so as well. Each member of the wedding party had a unique outfit that they picked out. We used matching items (badges for the men and skirts for the women) to tie the individual looks together.

One large point of DIY and up-cycling was the skirt portion of my dress. The dress that became the skirt part was originally a late eighties/early nineties Alfred Angelo wedding gown I bought when I was 16 at Goodwill for $30 back in 2000, to be worn to the winter ball my sophomore year of high school, I wore it again on Halloween of 2002 and again on my wedding day.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Our ceremony was going to be outside, but Mother Nature decided otherwise with pouring rain and steady gale force winds. The music for the procession and recessional was from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie score. Our vows were personal and kept secret from one another; he graciously offered me 60% of the bed (with a 10% neutral zone for the dogs). I compared us to my favorite fictional couples:

“You are the Parzival to my Artemis;
The Doctor to my Donna;
The Sherlock to my Watson;
The Hermione to my Ron;
The Merry to my Pippin;”

And yes, he is the Hermione in our case.

Tell us about your reception:

We both are bibliophiles, so we had books with the pages folded to form the words “LOVE,” “READ,” and “JOY.” The base of our cake was detailed to look like one closed book and another one opened with a great and terrible Kraken bursting out of the pages to drag down a ship.

We also share the love of gardening, so we made terrariums using succulents gathered from friends’ and families’ gardens.

Amazing food, emotional speeches, great company and some really awkward, terrible dancing that was emotional (dancing with dad) and a blast (dancing with siblings). The kids had a blast dancing and playing in the photo booth. One of my favorite moments was “showing” my dress to my brother-in-law's girlfriend. Being blind, she felt all the different textures (satin, lace, taffeta and the golden fleeced brocade pattern) made me realize how tactile-ly awesome my dress was.

What was your most important lesson learned?

I recommend starting your wedding planning early — like a year before early. I know people may scoff at that, but by the time the wedding was two or three months away, we had done so much that it was almost stress free. Try to stay flexible and keep in mind, regardless of rain, sleet, snow, or a toppled three-tier cake in the back of your dad's station wagon (my sister’s wedding), at the end of the day you’ll be married to the person of your dreams. Cake is just cake.

Vendors

• Photographer: Lynds Photo
• Dress (blouse, coat, and corset): Damsel in this Dress
• Menswear: Natasha’s Attic
• Venue: Rockefeller Lodge, San Pablo, CA
• Cake: Leticia's Confections

Gallery

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