Christine & Matthew's Good Vibes Anything Goes Wedding

The offbeat bride: Christine, Web Designer

Her offbeat partner: Matthew, Musician

Location & date of wedding: Golf course tent in Omaha, NE on September 13th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We set out to have a good time and didn't take the day too seriously. We figured if our guests saw that we were genuinely having fun then they would too.

I went wild with glee when it came to planning artsy stuff like the decorations, invitations and cake, but neither one of us wanted anything to do with the business end of the wedding. So, we just ignored it and refused to plan any further.

We sort of approached it like it was a big dinner party and the only vital detail of the night was getting everyone to arrive at the same time to the same place, one us us with a marriage license in hand.

Our wedding "theme" of sorts was inspired by things from yesteryear. We're a family of die hard Beatles fans so that was echoed throughout the evening. Our invitations and engagement photos were inspired by Beatles songs. We walked in to a violin and keyboard version of "All You Need Is Love," and we danced to, "Something."

Part of our centerpieces were little framed photos of The Beatles. I surprised Matt with a Yellow Submarine cutting cake. As part of our favors, we gave guests CDs we made of our favorite Beatles love songs. Chucks were represented by the guys and the bridesgals agreed on retro black cocktail dresses. My dress and whole getup was inspired by Audrey Hepburn.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was not being wasteful with our money and with the materials that we bought.

We didn't buy or wear (or force others to wear) anything that we wouldn't be caught dead with on a daily basis and we kept almost everything that wasn't rented. The centerpieces were made of stuff we already had and the stuff that we did buy, I either recycled into new decor around the house or I passed on to other people.

We bought ties and Chucks for our guys and cocktail dresses for our girls. We checked with them to make sure it was stuff they'd reuse before buying it. Matt's suit was gifted from his brother. My dress was a freaking dream that I will wear at every opportunity for as long as it zips. It was the one thing that I really splurged on but I was okay with it because it was hand made by a local costume designer.

Another part of not being wasteful was renting out one venue for the ceremony and reception and not making our guests travel to a second location. Gas prices were at an all time high in Nebraska and we wanted getting to the wedding to be as painless as possible for our guests.

We stayed focused on not going over budget and not going into debt for the wedding. If there was something we wanted that was out of budget, we either found a way to DIY it or we left it out if it was something we didn't really need. Once everything was totaled, we only spent about 75% of our wedding budget on the actual wedding. We used some of the extra money to take a week long honeymoon out to San Francisco.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was when we were announced as a married couple. It was such an amazing feeling. I couldn't stop smiling. I look like a complete shit-eater in all of our pictures from after the ceremony.

My offbeat advice: All you need is love! At the end of the day, the memory of the wedding is what you're going to treasure but the marriage is what's really important. Spend as much time planning for your marriage as you do your wedding. Communicate with your partner and don't let the day get bigger than the two of you.

Some of my vendors:

• Flowers
  
• Dress

• Ties
  
• Beatles cakes

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Click the photo below for golf course, Beatles-inspired pics of Christine & Matthew's retro wedding!