Anna & Jon’s vegan, deco, gamer wedding

This week at Offbeat Bride is meat- and dairy-free — it's Vegan Week! Day 4 of Vegan Week brings us the full scoop on the Bioshock cupcake topper wedding. Anna & Jon had quick ceremony followed by a mini-reception featuring awesome vegan cupcakes!-Becca

The offbeat bride: Anna (Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Jon, film & tv editor

Location & date of wedding: Family backyard, Toronto, Ontario — May 22, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: After being engaged for almost three years, we decided on the backyard of Jon's aunt — a lovely, private space in the heart of the city.

Jon is an atheist, and I'm basically a new-agey type spiritualist, so we were thrilled to connect with the unitarian church in Toronto. Our lay-chaplain helped us design our own ceremony, which included a celtic wine ceremony.

We greeted our guests at the door and helped them find where to sit. Then we walked down the aisle together to “Strangers” by The Kinks.

Although the guest list was too small to have our friends stand for us, we each have one sister who held the rings and were witnesses for us.

Everyone stayed for wine and vegan treats.

There amazing cupcakes decorated to reflect the art deco aspects of our favorite video game, Bioshock. They had edible blue Morpho butterflies, a reference to the game and to our “proney” (pre-honey) moon to Costa Rica. Topping the tower of cupcakes were two figurines from the game.

Jon designed our programs to reflect the game and used pictures of the characters.

After the ceremony/mini-reception, everyone retired to the pub for drinks and some impromptu dancing. It wasn't planned, but our first dance was to “Baby You're a Rich Man.”

Tell us about the ceremony: I wish I could just copy and paste the entire ceremony in here. I loved it. We did a celtic wine ceremony, which included drinking once for our past, present and future and naming each other as our Anam Cara or soul friend.

We walked in to “Strangers” by The Kinks, played “Loving Cup” by the Rolling Stones while we signed the register, and walked out to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

Best of all, our ceremony was roughly fifteen minutes long!

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was committing to a date and location. Every time we sat down to plan something, the money scared the hell out of us so we abandoned the idea. Finally, we realized that it was going to cost some money, and there were going to have to be compromises, like a teeny tiny guest list.

My favorite moment: As part of a series of unfortunate events, I completely revamped the first part of the day. Instead of going to the ceremony location to get ready, my sister and I went back to my apartment alone. It was a moment to re-group and take some photos.

My parents came and picked us up in a cab, so the four of us had some time together. When we arrived at the ceremony site, I immediately found Jon and we greeted guests together. Totally unplanned, but completely us.

We had four short speeches that were all lovely, but my mother, who was asked to talk about me when I was little, was just amazing. She made everyone laugh and cry. She had a moment to shine, and no one can stop talking about it.

During downtime between the ceremony and the pub, Jon and I wandered around an area of Toronto called the annex/yorkville with our photographer and his wife. They are amazing people, and they gave us a moment to just BE together.

Our friends partied with us at the pub until roughly 4am in the morning. We simply have the best friends in the world.

My funniest moment: For our wine ceremony, whomever prepped the goblet didn't pour very much. In front of all the guests I had to throw my head back while I drank to get any wine. It looked like I chugged wine for each part of the ceremony.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? I assumed it was going to be a day that I just had to get through. My expectations for having a good time were very low. In fact, I had a great time!

My advice for offbeat brides: Read “Of Brides and Zillas” and read it often. I wish it has been posted before my wedding.

Try not to anticipate how other people are going to act and feel. They will often be/do the opposite and the unimagined result can be startling.

Be kind, especially to yourself and your partner.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Even though this is something you only do once – you can still learn about yourself, your partner, your family and friends. It can be stressful, even emotionally painful, but it's 100% worth it.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photographer: Markus Staley Photography We knew he was the right photographer for us when we learned that he uses digital AND film
• Cupcakes: The Sassy Lamb learned how to make vegan cupcakes just for us. They were so tasty and pretty:
• Bolero: Mary and Angelika
• Earrings: Gem Stone Gypsy
• Cupcake stand: Cupcakeology
• Rings: Erin Tracy Designs We love our rings SO much. Erin did my engagement ring and our wedding rings.
• Cake: Sweets from the Earth.
• Chaplain: First Unitarian Congregation in Toronto. They are so freaking cool:

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

@offbeatbride @offbeatwed

Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, the Offbeat Wed editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.