The offbeat bride: Claire, Operations Manager at a non-profit

Her offbeat partner: Bobby, Comedian, Puppeteer and Giant

Location & date of wedding: Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA. July 12, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was subversively quirky. We both went back and forth about certain traditions and our families had some say in that. I was in a big pouffy white dress with a veil for the ceremony and the boys were in tuxes.

But! Our attitudes were not traditional, which made the whole day wonderful. I didn’t care about being a bridey-bride and just wanted everyone to have a blast. We chose to focus on the quirky funny details and on us starting a new partnership together.

To start, we had a 29 year old male flower girl. My wedding party walked down the aisle to Raider’s of the Lost Ark and we walked out to the Ghostbuster’s theme song.

My husband is a puppeteer and made each wedding party member a puppet to match them as our gifts to them. The wedding party entered the reception with their puppets, and our flower girl even slow danced with his at one point.

Our wedding was just so much fun, and so funny. My officiant (a friend with a one day license) started the ceremony with the marriage speech from The Princess Bride. We had silly vows mixed in with our serious ones. Like “I vow our secret vow” and “I vow to respect your opinions, even when they are dumb.” There was lots of laughter during our ceremony and during the reception.

Our tables were all table puns: End, Coffee, Unforget, Uns, Knights of the Round, Spoon, and our guests spent the whole night figuring them out and laughing at different times when they got it. There’s also a pants down shot of the groomsmen.

The other piece that made our wedding was amazing was that our vendors all had similar attitudes and could have fun with things. Tastings Caterers served Bobby a salad entirely made of meatballs. Nellie’s Wildflowers made each of my girls a different colored bouquet. And Gwyneth Colleen, our amazing photographer caught every special moment and thing in such unique ways that it all looks like art. I adored her. Involving friends (as the officiant, pianist and MC) was a great idea as well. We had an IPOD and doing our own playlist made for a great dance party with no chicken dance.

My husband and I combined our last names into a new name for both of us instead of hyphenating or me taking his name.

The things that meant the most though, were how seriously we took becoming equal partners. My husband and I combined our last names into a new name for both of us instead of hyphenating or me taking his name. During the ceremony, our officiant said “You may now kiss the groom”. Also, my husband smashed the cake in his own face instead of mine. I loved that it was so much more about us entering a partnership, in the best sense of the word.

Our biggest challenge: I have panic attacks so the months leading up the wedding were hard. I didn’t know if I would be capable of standing in front of a 100+ people without freaking out. Bobby was wonderful and supportive, but it did cause a bit of conflict because he is an Extrovert (note the capital E). I was still having attacks up to the morning of the rehearsal dinner.

But, the day of the wedding, I woke up and had never felt better or happier in my life. I spent the whole day completely calm. I was just too happy to worry about anything.

My favorite moment: Because of my panic attacks, I was most nervous about our first dance, when absolutely all eyes would be on us. It’s totally cheesy, but when we started dancing, I got lost in it. At one point we jokingly decided to sixth grade dance. It wasn’t until everyone started laughing that I realized I’d forgotten we weren’t alone. I know that sounds silly, but I was just so in love with him in that moment that nothing else mattered.

My offbeat advice: My advice is that a wedding is the perfect place for laughter, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We toed the line between making fun of the “wedding” as it’s traditionally done and having fun with it. Don’t be afraid to do that one thing that you thought would be really cool but that you think people might judge. If your friends and family know and love you, they will love anything that’s “you” about your wedding.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: I think I have a crush on the flower girl. To see all the pictures, click the gentlemen below.