Posted byYou might remember Devin and Stephen as the couple who officiated their wedding with the Offbeat Bride book. Well now you can get the entire scoop on their wedding.
The offbeat bride: Devin, makeup artist
Her offbeat partner: Stephen, Navy veteran, retail slave, and soon-to-be college student
Location & date of wedding: Austin's By The River in downtown Monroe, LA — 5/16/2009
What made our wedding offbeat: Our “theme” was centered around a tattoo that Stephen shares with his closest friends, a sugar skull with ‘family' underneath it.
Stephen spent time in the Navy stationed in Jacksonville, FL and made friends for life. Our wedding was the first time all of these people had been together in almost a year and a half.
His friend Will was ordained to marry us, even though (we found out later) in Louisiana all you have to do to perform a ceremony is register at the courthouse! And we paid for everything ourselves, except for the few liquor store trips my dad made the day of, and the food our moms cooked.
My dad walked me down the aisle, but there was no mention of “giving” anyone away. We are not religious people, so there was no mention of any god in our one minute and twenty-eight second ceremony. My vows consisted of “I guess!”. We have so much love for each other, but I didn't want to broadcast that in front of 100+ people. We keep that private.
We kept everything very true to us. Our reception consisted of food, open bar, and Rock Band!! Our favors were jolly ranchers and cute little notepads with sugar skulls printed on them.
Our biggest challenge: Probably the fact that it was the night before the wedding and we still had 230 cupcakes to bake.
Getting everything done was a big challenge because I'm a control freak and didn't want anyone to help me; because if they did it wrong I didn't want to be angry with them. So I locked myself in a closet at the venue, cried for two hours, delegated tasks, and everything was finished. Maybe not on time, since our photographer was in the kitchen snapping pictures of our officiant Will up to his elbows in frosting three hours before the ceremony!
My favorite moment: Waving at all my friends from the top of the staircase. When the bride is screaming down the stairs and throwing her arms in the air to get her guests' attention before the ceremony starts, it's pretty obvious that it's not going to be your average wedding.
My advice for offbeat brides: Utilize DIY resources/websites. Even if you aren't the crafty type, you may see something you love that you can purchase from someone who IS crafty — therefore helping your fellow brides in this awful economy.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links:
- Invites and bar menus by Lori Ming, a fellow OBB
- Stephen's ring by MnMWoodworks
- Fabulous photography by Cheryl Mauldin
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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.
I saw this was in Monroe, my hometown, and I nearly passed out. 😀
Everything looks so beautiful! The cake toppers are absolutely adorable.
Big Woot for Monroe!!!! Also my hometown! Everything looked fantastic. Congratulations!
So awesome. This actually sounds very much like what I envision our weddintypething will be (complete with my control freakishness and the inevitable chaos). Everything is so beautiful and ” We have so much love for each other, but I didn’t want to broadcast that in front of 100+ people. We keep that private.” is totally how we/I feel about our mushy love stuff. We have a super quick tongue in cheek ceremony too. I am SO glad I’m not the only one. I’m bookmarking this for reference for people who ask/question ours. Thanks for sharing and congratulations!!!!
So.Much. Awesome! Congratualtions on your fantastic and beautiful day! (Ps. How did you make that cake?! I wants!)
Thanks so much! My mom made it! It’s a margarita cheesecake, complete with salt rim 🙂 She’s currently cruising through the Caribbean without me, but I will definitely get the recipe when she returns. I have it somewhere, but findng it could be a challenge.
Are those toybreaker ties (cyberoptix tielab) ? I love those!
Yes, but we had awful problems with her :\ You can get the details on my OBT blog.. she seems to be really good at the color schemes she features, but any deviation from that sucked.
I love your dress! Where did you get it?
A black sash and Etsy brooch added to a David’s Bridal dress! Shocker, right? 🙂 Thanks!
OMG, I LOL’ed at the “I guess” part of your vows. Brilliant!
Where did you get that awesome cake topper?? We found something similar, but the skull bride and groom are tonguing each other, which I’m not so sure I like. haha