Khera & Sean’s handmade, old-fashioned, love-in wedding

Happy Valentine's Day! Each of us here at Offbeat Bride want to know: Will you be mine? I'm hoping this beautiful, Valentine's Day wedding will encourage you to say “Yes!” -Becca

The offbeat bride: Khera, Yoof worker (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Sean, Architect

Location & date of wedding: St. Cuthberts, Withington and The Castlefield Rooms, Manchester, UK — February 14, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat:I proposed to Sean in Vegas on my thirtieth birthday and even had a ring surreptitiously made for him.

I took Offbeat Bride's advice and stopped reading wedding magazines and Martha Stewart as I'd always be hopelessly unglamourous next to them!

We paid for pretty much everything ourselves. It was really important that we make stuff ourselves and that our wedding wasn't just another big fat white satin overkill day. We wanted it to feel as if we had put ourselves into everything, not just thrown money buying “stuff.”

I'm a Catholic (liberal, I suppose) and I wouldn't have felt married without Mass, but I wanted everyone to feel part of it. So we did stuff like walk down the aisle to “One Day Like This” by Elbow and back down to “Higher and Higher.”

We gave out hearts at the beginning and asked people to write down the names of people they loved and were thinking about on the hearts. We collected them up and put them right at the front with the gifts.

Our biggest challenge: Getting everything done in time was our biggest challenge. I'm pretty good at planning, but even I was still doing stuff the day before! We have a phrase among my youth worker friends, “idealism versus realism” — you have to find the balance.

My favorite moment: One favorite moment is that, because my girls were so nervous, I had to speak to them all before we entered church to calm them down. There's a shot of me standing at the end of the aisle saying to Dad, “Are you ready?” Very funny.

I think walking back from the venue and leaving everyone partying was awesome. We didn't want to be the center of attention — we wanted EVERYONE to have a great day, fall in love with their partner, eat sausage and mash, dance, and the whole lot. It worked.

My funniest moment: Our final dance of the night to “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room” by Flight of the Conchords was also funny as heck. There was a roar from everyone when Sean “did his moves, he did his dance moves.” 🙂

My advice for offbeat brides: Don't compare yourself to anyone else or bad things will happen! If you have a vision, you can do it no matter what your budget. You just need to see who you can rope into it, see what you can make etc. Ideas come from anywhere — our stationery had swallows on, which was inspired by my Pa's tattoos!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: Dan Johnson
• Dress: Blue by Enzoani
• Veil: Margaret at Dream Veils
• Flowers: Red Door Design
• Hand embroidered hankies for our mums: Emily Knits
• Bridesmaids' necklaces: Luxe Deluxe

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

About the Author: Offbeat Weditors

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