The offbeat bride: Kristina, Insurance Maven

Her offbeat partner: Todd, Antique Clock Restoration Expert

Location & date of wedding: The Willows, Radnor, PA. 5-10-2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was off-beat because we did it from start to finish our way. My husband works with antiques, so all the centerpieces were from his shop. I didn’t want anything too matchy, and he actually sold a few pieces, which was cool. My Aunt custom wrote our ceremony for us, and performed it. She calls herself an atheist minister. I wrote my own vows, I quoted Miss Piggy (the pig) and Pablo Neruda (the poet).

I walked down the aisle to The Cure, “Plainsong” and we walked out to Cake “love you madly”. Our bridal part walked in to “What a Wonderful World” performed by Joe Ramone. Our first dance was the Moldy Peaches, “Anyone else but you”. Music was important.

Our ring bearer was a 2 year old dressed like a lady bug. His job was important. Our favor were custom fortune cookies packed in mini chinese take-out boxes with 5 different sayings. Including “Todd & Kristina are awesome.” His Dad wrote a poem about us meeting on the internet and getting married. The girls wore butterflies that we bought from a floral supply store on-line and they all picked their own dresses. Is this too much? It was all special.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge came with a melding of funds & big mixed families. His parents paid for a big portion, we paid for a lot, and my mom paid for some. It was hard to keep control in a polite way that was respectful of them helping us out. It got really difficult sometimes. His mother is hard to pin down on decisions and gets stressed and freaked out easily, and my mother doesn’t like people and wanted to make no decisions, but made her feelings known when she disliked a decision that was made without her. We just kept in mind that everyone has their own way of showing love. And…I delegated a family member to each of the bridal party.

My favorite moment: Definitely the wedding vows. My Aunt said to him, “Remember, this ring belongs to her.” And I said, “Yeah!” And pointed at him, which was an honest reaction, but it made everyone laugh and lightened the mood.

My offbeat advice: Let some things go. If your Mom wants to decide on the menu, let her. Concentrate and keep in your hands the few things that are really important to you. It will keep the day of less stressful and those details are what bring the two of you into the boilerplate wedding.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Kristina’s got some gorgeous ink on display in her wedding photos!