The offbeat bride: Angi, Social Worker
Her offbeat partner: Erik, Machinist
Date and location of wedding: Holy Hill Art Farm, Hubertus, WI — June 24, 2012
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: After being together and committed for over seven years, we finally started seriously thinking about marriage. When we got engaged in March of this year, we decided that we were going to go for it, and that it didn’t make sense to wait anymore. The result is that we ended up planning a wedding in about three months!
Not only did we have a short time frame, but we also didn’t want to blow our savings, so we decided to keep things small. We picked a small venue, an Art Farm in a beautiful part of Wisconsin that fit our small group.
We enlisted friends and family to help plan and create all of our decorations ourselves. It also allowed us to use eco-friendly options, like use mismatched dishes and seed bombs!
Erik made our rings. Mine has three stones: a ruby, an emerald, and a sapphire. Erik chose those colors as they are the colors that make up a prism. He also made his ring, which is reminiscent of a bolt.
Tell us about the ceremony: Our officiant was Erik’s father, we had family members do opening and closing prayers, and friends do readings for us. Both Erik and I consider ourselves spiritual, so we wanted to include a ring warming to give our friends and family a way to participate in a blessing.
We picked all of our own music and had my sister learn to play Modest Mouse’s “Interlude (Milo)” on the accordion for my walk down the aisle. She also managed to learn Zelda’s Theme for our walk back down the aisle.
My favorite moment: My dress was made from my mother’s old wedding dress, which both she and my aunt wore. Granted, I had some major alterations done by Amanda Rose (plus an awesome sash!), but we had the photo of the original dress at the wedding to honor my mother’s and aunt’s wedding.
Amanda Rose also made my mixed-media bouquet to match my dress. It is made of fabric, lace, and vintage pins.
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Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Neither of us are big into dancing, so we asked guests to bring outdoor games to play instead of dancing. We had a few games on hand, but not enough for everyone, so we were really counting on people bringing them. I was afraid that our guests would not get into it, but I was amazed — we had people bringing badminton equipment and setting up nets. It sparked some friendly competition between family members and friends.
My advice for Offbeat Brides: Don’t get caught up in the hype. I was amazed that once I started planning a wedding, I started to get sucked into all sorts of strange articles about the “best flowers decorations” or “bridal bootcamp,” things I never would have been interested in before. Even though I still thought the articles were silly, I began thinking that simple flowers would be “tacky” or maybe I need to buff up for my wedding pictures. Even my caterer gave me some slack for using mismatched china. Forget it! You don’t need to change who you are or your style to get married. Rock whatever you want.
What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I couldn’t imagine planning a wedding alone. We had so much fun making terrariums, wedding banners, and doing it all together. As part of that, we both needed to let some things go. Like, no matter how much he wanted, I was not going to ride a tractor down an aisle and he was going to have no part in doing a choreographed dance. Either way, we found the perfect balance for both of us.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: Carolyn Ann Barry
- Dress: Amanda Rose Bridal
- Cupcakes: Honey Pie Cafe
- Flowers: Groth’s Country Gardens
