Offbeat Bride | Katy & Drew's Afternoon in the Park/Art Gallery Wedding!

The offbeat bride: Katy, Autistic Support Teacher

Her offbeat partner: Drew, Artist and Graphic Designer

Location & date of wedding: Penn Treaty Park and Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, PA on August 16th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We were married by a former roommate. Who did get a cert online to be a reverend a marry us though it wasn't necessary as we got a Quaker marriage license (available in PA) which requires no ceremony.

The ceremony was in a local park and reception in a de-sanctified church from the 1800s connected to an art gallery that was open to the guests, a very affordable and unique space. Our dogs also were included in the ceremony as flower girl and ring bearer.

We spent as little money as possible. My dress was from Nordstrom's for $398. I wore all borrowed vintage jewelry and we used saved us sake bottles from my days as a waitress at a sushi restaurant as vases.

Our caterer did mostly veggie food as our request. He was amazing! My husband's mom made the Tasty Cake cake. Our photographer, Carina Romano, worked with our budget and took some of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen.

Our biggest challenge: Money. We started with a $5,000 budget. Unfortunately with my large family our guest list was not dipping below 100. We found an affordable caterer and though we went over the $5,000 budget we really did not spent too much after the food.

My favorite moment: The amazing food, which I tried to eat a lot of!
The families coming together and getting along so well was pretty great.

My offbeat advice: Etsy is an amazing resource for bridal posse gifts! It's also an awesome resource for anything else for your wedding.

Don't go to a bridal store for your wedding dress. Remember you can't make everyone happy but when it is all over and everyone sees how well it came together you will have made almost everyone happy!

Enough talk — show me that wedding porn: Katy & Drew's Afternoon in the Park/Art Gallery Wedding!

Other links to more photos greatness here and here!

Comments (22)

On December 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 AM
Shilo said

adore the last pic of you both and your dogs, just gorgeous

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 5:44 AM
Alex said

What a gorgeous set of photos! Looks like you had a wonderful day. Congratulations!

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 6:10 AM
What Liz Said said

I love their wedding!

It is so nice to see people enjoying a wedding and having something special in a big city like Philly without blowing $15,000. I had a friend of mine tell me that no wedding was worth its salt if you spent under $20k.

My fiance and I are having an amazing wedding in DC for only $2500. It's doable!

Oh, and their pooches! So cute!!!

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 AM
Allison said

Ooh so cute! I LOVE the last shot! Who was your photographer?

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 AM
Dena said

Do you mind sharing your caterer?

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 AM
susan said

Puppies!!!! All dressed up for the occasion, no less.

Amazing photos, and love the bride's dress and overall styling.

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 AM
gg said

YAY, a Philly offbeat bride. This makes me four times more excited about getting married in this marvelous city.

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 2:09 PM
Kate said

I wish I could have a budget like that….I LOVE Philly, but I wanted to get married in my hometown. Since it's not too far from NYC, eeeeverything is expensive, even low-ish key events like mine. Le sigh.

Beautiful pictures, though!

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 7:20 PM
Katy said

Our caterer was John Serock catering based out of the main line. AMAZING food!!
Our photographer was Carina Romano Photography. I couldn't imagine better pictures!

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 PM
kristin g said

i loved being at the wedding. boosh!

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On December 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 PM
Abigail newlin said

You guys are so damn cute!

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On December 3rd, 2008 at 5:14 AM
D. said

Would you mind sharing how much you paid for a permit for Penn Treaty Park? I wanted to get married there, but Fairmount Park Commission told me it would be more expensive than the Water Works Gazebo because it's not a "designated" wedding location, and so they require you to purchase something like a $1 million liabilty insurance policy.

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On December 3rd, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Suz said

I love the look and the style, something so satisfying about getting it so right without it costing a fortune!

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On December 3rd, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Katy said

D.
I am sure the well respected Philly cops have more important things to do than break up a wedding.
We did not set up chairs and had about 100 guests just standing around the park when we got there. We sort of led everyone over to our spot…followed by lots of interesting folks who frequent the park. No one bothered us but knowing we wanted a short ceremony we took the risk. The only thing I would warn you is to be sure not to pick a weekend when they have a crazy event in the park.

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On December 30th, 2008 at 1:24 PM
Amber said

Doyou mind sharing where you had your reception? We plan on doing the wedding in a park, but we want a cool place for our reception.

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On January 5th, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Tash said

Your photos look so great, I love the quirkiness – and having a short dress, very cool! Love the dogs being included, that's awesome. Looks like such an amazing wedding.

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On February 27th, 2009 at 3:51 PM
Catrina said

OMG! I love your dress…I have the same one! They only had size 12 left and bought it even though I'm a size six bc I was determined to have it. I also have two adorable dogs and plan to recreate your adorable shot on the couch.

Great Wedding!

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On June 25th, 2009 at 11:41 PM
rosebudrecords said

We are trying to plan our wedding (also Philly) without spending a fortune. I love your wedding pics. Was there any outside area at the Fleisher Memorial?

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On July 16th, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Robin said

We also looked at Fleisher; I thought it was a great, funky space. (My fiance, on the other hand, dubbed it "the crypt.") In the end, it was out of our price range, but I'm glad to see it work for other couples.

@rosebudrecords: there is a small park just outside the building. It's a very urban space, but would make an interesting background for pictures or an intimate ceremony.

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On October 15th, 2009 at 8:13 PM
Palak said

Thanks for the photographer reference. She's doing our wedding as well … your pics are beautiful!

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