Wai-Ching's wedding dresses are the stuff of legend here on offbeatwed.com — but what about Chrissy's OWN wedding, exactly a year ago today?


387477710 291a5fdd77 m alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
The offbeat bride: Chrissy Wai-Ching Fashion Designer/Fiber Artist

Her offbeat groom: Vasili Zolotov, Software Engineer

Location & date of wedding: The Gallery Inn, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, 12/31/06.

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was offbeat because I made and designed my own gown, the groom's outfit, my mother's dress, and my mother in law's dress! We had the wedding in the courtyard of an art hotel.


387478596 5fa62a7b05 m alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)The ceremony consisted of a statueing cupid robotically handing out noisemakers and chocolate coins, suspenseful lead up of the bridal march, a drunken pirate demanding a ransom for the bride's release, dispensing of the chocolate coins, deployment of the noisemakers, and a flamenco dancing bride.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was trying to plan the wedding in Puerto Rico from Seattle. Being half Puerto Rican, I knew that it might be a struggle to begin with, as Puerto Ricans work on island time. We have a lot of vegans and vegetarians in out group, so the menu was quite a challenge to coordinate.

387477977 9c8e76ab3d m alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)We arrived at the hotel the day before the ceremony not really knowing exactly what was going to happen for the wedding. We winged it the whole way. My uncle's quattro band that was to play at the reception got carjacked earlier that day so there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether we would have music at all. They pulled though, Boriquen soldiers that they are! Muchos Gracias!!!

387478774 6b1d406da0 m alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)My favorite moment: My favorite moment was dancing to the traditional Puerto Rican music after the feast.

My offbeat advice: If you want to minimize stress, have alternative plans lined up in case of unforeseen circumstances. Try not to control things to much and let them flow.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
Chrissy's wedding dress is only the beginning of the beauty …

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PS: Happy anniversary, Chrissy! Now, get back to work on those dresses!

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Comments on Chrissy Wai-Ching’s Puerto Rico wedding

  1. chrissy! my goodness… i am absolutely, positively over the moon for your wedding dress! you have such a beautiful talent.
    i recently got engaged and am tirelessly searching for wedding dresses for my july 2008 wedding.
    i’ve been to your website, and while many of your dresses appeal to me, i am seriously mad about the one you wore for your own wedding.

    i know that one is probably one-of-a-kind, as it’s yours
    but i’m wondering if there’s any way to talk with you about designing something similar.

    this may not be the best way to contact you, so i’ll go to your website and try from there, too!

    i have great admiration for you, and i look forward to possibly hearing from you! 🙂

  2. What a unique dress! You can see her personality shine through with her gown.

    I just ran across your site & I think it’s my new favorite!

  3. Crissy designed my friend Kate’s wedding dress this fall, it was SO cool! Kate found Crissy here on Off Beat Bride! I was lucky enough to join Kate for her final fitting. I love Crissy’s studio and it was so cool to see her work in person. I also got some great shots of her working away on Kate’s dress.

  4. […] dress.   Zolotova Dress: Apparently, the designer, Chrissy Wai-Ching, wore this dress to her own wedding. I love her signature stitching in the bodice and how she uses tufts of material to […]

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