The offbeat bride: Ginevra, Six Apart-er

My offbeat groom: Alex, dj/student/tutor

Location & date of wedding: May 28, 2007 in a backyard … in Paia, Maui

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted to have a small wedding that reflected not just who we were as people and as a couple, but how much our family and friends meant to us by dragging them halfway across the world.

We decided on Hawaii because we both grew up in DC, lived in San Francisco for a long time, and have settled in Boston — there was no way everyone wasn’t going to have to travel someplace, so why not to paradise?

Plus, being a destination wedding kept what I call Drunk Aunt Edna incidents to a minimum. Everyone who attended was someone we wanted to be there.

Our biggest challenge: Logistics. Destination weddings seem to be set up to come as a pre-packaged deal even more than regular weddings, because you can’t really see what you’re in for. The location, minister, marriage license, and no booze.

My favorite moment: There were a lot of great moments, of course, which is why I could not. stop. smiling. I thought for sure I’d cry, but it was really just the happiest I’ve ever been.

Really, the best was repeating the vows while just looking into Alex’s eyes. After seven years, it felt wonderful just to declare everything I felt about him out loud. And with someone feeding me my lines, it was a lot easier.

I also really liked having me and Alex’s best friends sign our “souvenir” marriage license as witnesses. They were both so touched, and it makes it so much more than “just that piece of paper.”

We’re also friends with a ton of offbeat couples, marrying kind or no, so it was great to get all their different perspectives on the whole shindig.

My offbeat advice: RELAX. No, really. No, really really.

If you’re enlisting your friends to help you, remember that they’re you’re friends first and your caterers/party planners/altar builders a VERY distant second.

If you’re enlisting your friends to help you, remember that they’re you’re friends first and your caterers/party planners/altar builders a VERY distant second. I let myself get too stressed out and have apologized since profusely, but had I to do it all over again, I would be a lot more understanding. Your friends are there to support you, not to try to mess up on purpose. Video camera isn’t charged? That’s why it was FREE, dummy.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Bask in the Maui sun.

Tell me all about your offbeat wedding!