Cath & Iain’s colorful and geeky garden hootenanny

The offbeat bride: Cath

Her offbeat partner: Iain, General Geek

Location & date of wedding: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, UK — May 8, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Neither our parents, or us, are religious, which relieved much of the pressure to do things a certain way. So we were free to focus on things that were fun, would bring a smile to friends and family's faces and express our personalities, without any worry of disappointing, shocking or upsetting anyone.

No one cared (or noticed!) that the wedsite, invitations, programmes, flowers (paper and fresh) and cake were all different styles and colours. This was great as it meant we spent our planning time saying “Oooh, cool stuff! Let's do that!” rather than “Oh, but it doesn't come in the right colour!

Our cake was a Legend of Zelda cupcake tower, with the CUTEST little Link and Zelda on top.

My bouquet and the boys' boutonnieres were paper flowers made by Bookworm Eats Flower. They were so awesome – everyone loved them!

I wore a bright blue corset and skirt, with matching blue Irregular Choice shoes (someone said I looked like a cartoon – hurrah!) and my best woman wore a super sparkly black dress.

The favours were really fun to put together. I handmade little origami boxes and cranes, and Iain contributed custom dice from Chessex and a name card that guests can use in his game ‘Revenge of the B-Movie' to make up comedy B-movie titles featuring their own name (which they did the following day in the pub!).

All stationery, including the B-Movie cards, were designed by Paul at The Rendering Engine, to match artwork he had already created for Iain's games.

Tell us about your ceremony: We kept our ceremony short and simple. Although I can't for the life of me tell you how long it took – my perception of time was not so great that day. 🙂

We had two readings, the first was The Lovely Love Story, by Edward Monkton, read by my brother (and Head Usher aka Ushimus Prime). We chose this because we loved it and David was definitely the best person to read it for us. The second reading was The Apache Marriage Blessing, read and chosen by Iain's Mum Heather. It is short, simple and beautiful.

We didn't include any ceremonies like the unity candle or say our own vows. We were declared husband and wife in front of our friends and family. That was enough for us.

To end the ceremony, as we were signing the schedule, Iain's cousin Colin (accompanied by his friend Mair on the Welsh Harp) sang The Secret Life of Roses by Rosanne Cash.

Our biggest challenge: I guess what we needed to deal with mostly was our own nerves. As we started to count down from months, to weeks, to days, Iain began to panic about the fact that there was nothing to panic about, thinking that we must have missed something important, and I started to get VERY nervous and got upset about the silliest things. But, we just talked to each other and reassured each other, and all the little, silly things were either dealt with, or completely forgotten because they were silly and little!
My favorite moment: Walking back to the drinks reception after the ceremony. Thinking that we were married started to sink in and my joy started to spill out.

I have been experiencing increasingly severe bouts of joy since meeting Iain, to the point that now it has to be expressed under controlled circumstances for fear of doing harm to others.

My advice for offbeat brides: Continuing to talk to each other (not just AT each other) was very important for us. It means together you can create a day that belongs to you both. If your partner suggests something that they have a real enthusiasm about, listen and discuss how to fit it in. Themes and colour schemes are not all important (although they can be lots of fun!). Your relationship is a wonderful mosaic of everything that makes each of you unique, and this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate that.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photographer: Liisa Hilden-Parsons. Really generous with her time and enthusiasm. She made us camera-shy people feel good about ourselves!
• Dress: Joyce Paton in South Queensferry. Really friendly and lovely. Lots of fun!
• Paper flowers: Bookworm Eats Flower. Lauren agreed at short notice to do this for us, and did a fantastic job – so many people commented on the flowers.
• Fresh flowers (giant martini glass table centres): Irene's Florist in Jenners, Edinburgh
• Cake: Celebration Stations, Perth
• Venue: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
• Artwork for stationery: Designed by Paul at The Rendering Engine to tie in with designs he made for Iain's games.

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!