The offbeat bride: Lisa Marie Grillos, Photographer (and Offbeat Bride lab rat!)

My offbeat groom: Stephen Grillos, poker player

Location & date of wedding: August 6, 2005; Ceremony: Pulgas Water Temple in Woodside, CA; Reception: My in-law’s backyard in Atherton, CA

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was a fun backyard bbq with all our closest family and friends there. We didn’t think that spending a ridiculous amount of money on a wedding would make us any more married than if we spent less, so we saved a lot by doing DIY projects — invitations, programs, favors.

We saved a lot of money on the venue by having the reception at a private residence. I also ordered single 8″ cakes for each table rather than a traditional tiered wedding cake which saved us $1k, and everyone liked having their own cake to cut. We wrote our ceremony to be short and sweet, and it ended with everyone making the most amount of noise they could, to send us off into our newly married lives.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was figuring out how to avoid offending people when writing our ceremony, when I know our personal views are deemed offensive by certain family members. It’s hard for me to shut my mouth sometimes. How did I deal with it? I just censored myself to the point where I was still happy with the outcome while not causing any huge upheaval.

Our biggest challenge was figuring out how to avoid offending people when writing our ceremony, when I know our personal views are deemed offensive by certain family members. It’s hard for me to shut my mouth sometimes.

My favorite moment: My dad’s speech in which he summed up our two families coming together by quoting the Borg from Star Trek: “Resistance is futile!”

Also, dancing with my husband and friends to the bluegrass band we hired.

My offbeat advice: Do what you want, but know where to compromise.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Check out almost 150 fabulous photos of this California wedding.

Tell me all about your offbeat wedding!