Tracy Ducasse's bee-friendly backyard nuptials
Real Weddings: Northeast US
By
on March 07, 2007
4 Responses
The offbeat bride: Tracy Ducasse, Registered Nurse (and Offbeat Bride lab rat!)
My offbeat groom: Thomas Ducasse, Oil Burner Technician
Location & date of wedding: In my grandparent's backyard in Oakham, MA … in 1987!
What made our wedding offbeat: We got married outside, no religious affiliations. Our ceremony was in front of the huge birch tree, at my grandparents house, and had our pictures taken by friends and family — no photographers, except amateur ones. We paid for the wedding ourselves. My girlfriend made my wedding bouquet, and gave it to me as a gift. This year marks our 20th anniversary, so it seem frugal is the way to go for a lasting marriage.
Our biggest challenge: During the ceremony, our justice of the peace give me the "hurry up" hand signal while I was waiting for my music to cue me. My father and I stood our ground. and politely ignored her until it was time to walk in.
My favorite moment: My favorite moment was realized in hindsight. I was watching my guests eye me warily as they leaned in for a congratulatory kiss, only to discover after-the-fact my babies breath crown was attracting bees. I was unaware, due to the fact they were behind me, loving my flower headdress.
My offbeat advice: Plan a budget, do it yourself, and remember the wedding is about you and your groom, not your parents or in laws wants and needs.
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Check out Tracy's offbeat '80s wedding gallery.
About Ariel Meadow Stallings
Author of Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, Ariel acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives, loves, and dorks out hard in Seattle, WA.
Dolores said
I love that. I think your wedding story is romantic. In all honesty sounds a bit silly to 20k for one day that ultimately, the bride doesn't even get to enjoy… Kudos to you. I always wanted to get married on the beach in flip flops! HA!
Bethany said
Sounds lovely! I am thinking about getting married in my grandparents back yard under an apple tree that I have played on since I was a little girl. Perhaps during the spring time when it is in bloom
I love these simple, elegant, no fuss weddings!
Katie said
What a lovely story! It makes me think of my parents' wedding story.
My mom and dad got married for a few hundred bucks in 1979 on a friend's riverside property. The invitations were hand written in sharpie and photocopied. My mom wore a simple cotton dress and my dad wore jeans. My mom's bouquet consisted of whatever flowers were growing in my grandmother's yard (shrimp flowers!). Guests were asked to bring a covered dish and an instrument as there would be a jam session after the ceremony (my dad is a musician). My parents celebrated 30 years of marriage last year and say their friends still talk about how much fun they had at their wedding.
While my own wedding will probably be a little more elaborate than that of my parents, I have definitely taken the "expense does not a lasting marriage make" lesson to heart.
Congrats on your many years together.
RubyAlison said
This is sweet. I like seeing older weddings that have lasted. Also a reinforcement that I am so glad we kept our wedding as minimal as we did.
I wish there was a series on this site of marriage advice from couples that have lasted a very long time, accompanied with cute old wedding pictures of course.