Patricia & Christiaan's Intimate Outdoor Family Fun-Day Wedding

The offbeat bride: Patricia, journalist

Her offbeat partner: Christiaan, assistant bank manager

Location & date of wedding: The Thatchery in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 12th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Firstly, the wedding budget was pretty low. Originally, I thought the most offbeat aspects were the fact that we were barefoot and I was wearing wings.

But I've discovered what was REALLY offbeat, is that we tried to keep it small and stress free. Which it was. I certainly didn't become a Bridezilla, thank god. And everyone's comments were that is was a FUN wedding. Drama free!

Our biggest challenge: The dress! I had a certain dress in mind and hadn't realised that with my inadvertent weight gain, it wasn't going to look at great as I thought it would. So I asked the seamstress to redo it, a little more love-handle friendly. Which meant I only got my dress the day before the wedding. Eek!

How we solved it? We bought a back up dress. Just a plain white summer dress, which would match since it was a more informal wedding. I sometimes catch myself wishing I wore that one instead…

My favorite moment: At the reception, when we all decided to dance around like idiots (the embarrassing first dance being over with), we were singing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody".

At the part where the song gets all rock-ish ("So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye…") Christiaan and a friend decided to spray us all with beer. It was actually pretty epic. There's a photo of it! Oh, and the part where I got to photobomb.

A few of my vendors:
* Venue: www.thatchery.co.za
* Personalised fortune cookies: www.catatac.co.za
* DJ: www.djconnect.co.za
* Wings: www.fairies.co.za

Please note, these are all South African vendors.

My offbeat advice: These nuggets probably go for all brides, offbeat and on.

Tell the dressmaker that your wedding is two weeks earlier than it is! This will save you many tears.
Make sure your dress is COMFORTABLE! It's not easy doing the Time Warp if you fear your breasts are going to release themselves any second.

Listen to the advice of others (but don't necessarily take it), most people are a lot cooler and more creative than their wedding pictures show. You might get some great ideas. And don't be afraid of being the first offbeat one in a batch, you may inspire others to get married THEIR WAY.

If you can't afford it, elope. A small wedding is preferable to a marriage started in debt. The honeymoon is more important than the wedding anyway!

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Click the kissin' cuties below for some rad family-fun wedding pics!