The offbeat bride: Emily, English Master's Student SIU
Her offbeat partner: Dustin, Undergraduate Student SIU
Location & date of wedding: Centenary Methodist and Hamilton's Catering Jacksonville IL. March 07, 2008
What made our wedding offbeat: For the wedding ceremony, we stuck with the tradition of a Christian church — but my brother Luke McQuillan, a local musician, played video game music including the Zelda Overland Theme for my bridal march. In addition I drew up a comic strip for the program. My friend Leslie Galloway made the dress which was a design we worked out together.
At the reception we used the theme of a 'show' as we met at a metal show and have spent much of our dating time at live music venues. I changed into jeans and a corset and wore black curly horns and peacock feathers in my hair.
We rocked out to the amazing metal bands FCF, Ol' Red Shed (country punk), UAT and Grim. Dustin played guitar with Skin thy Enemy during the reception.
Other quirky elements during the reception included cutting the wheat free cake with an axe, my skull design light brite, skull balloons, vegetarian sushi, and Dustin's grandma playing air drums!
Instead of a guest book we had a Starbucks coffee mug that could be signed and then baked to set the ink. Our reception was great because it included the normal family members and then friends with tattoos wearing Slayer shirts! Finally for favors we gave everyone a shot glass with a cute skull, our names and the date and a guitar pick with the same on a card that said "So Glad we Picked Each Other".
Our biggest challenge: We had three major challenges. First I am severely allergic to wheat and I wanted to throw a party that contained mountains of food that I could eat. Thankfully Hamilton's accommodated my wish to make my own food.
Secondly, we wanted to keep the cost under a tenth of the average wedding budget and we somehow succeeded thanks to friends and family helping out. We had no photographer, but we can thank friends and family and especially Crystal Gauges and Chris Balfour for helping us set up cool photo moments.
My favorite moment: My favorite moment besides creating a marriage with my best friend and love was watching Dustin play Tennessee Driver (originally by Hank III) with the guys in Skin thy Enemy. I fell in love with Dustin while he was in a band and supported that band and it was so good to see him perform again.
My offbeat advice: No matter what people say to you, don't question what you and your future spouse want — just do it. Have fun. Even if you think people will disapprove, you might be surprised like we were, with even the straightest family members telling us how much they enjoyed themselves.
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: MOST BRUTAL METAL WEDDING EVER!
