Lani & Jamie's "kids in a candy store" wedding

The offbeat bride: Lani - High School Music Teacher (aka, LAMP on the OBT)

My offbeat partner: Jamie - Aerospace Ph.D Student (Rocket Scientist in training)

Location & date of wedding: Halifax, Nova Scotia - Halifax Marriott Harbourfront - August 9, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: I always knew that I wanted my wedding to be candy-themed. I have been a candyholic since I was a baby (I used to crawl onto the counter and eat straight out of the sugar jar) and my husband thought the candy idea was brilliant!

Our invitations were chocolate bars with the golden ticket inside, our centerpieces were candy jars with flowers (every table was a different candy), I had candy hair clips made from Murano glass candy for the ladies in the bridal party and oh yeah, there were some fake moustaches for the girls too.

The highlight of the evening was the HUGE candy buffet. We collected funky shaped jars for more than a year and a half and made several trips to the bulk candy store in order to fill them up. The candy buffet also included many quotes from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie and two candy topiary trees made by Jamie and I.

We wrote our entire ceremony including the music for the processional (we arranged Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral by Wagner) and made sure to add our own special touches throughout the day. The programs for the ceremony each had a tootsie pop tied with a ribbon - we wanted to make sure there was no question about the theme of the day! It should also be noted that my wonderful husband, Jamie, did everything with me. We planned everything together and really made it *our* day.

We had photos taken throughout Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were lucky to have some photos taken on Theodore the Tugboat, on an inflatable bouncy castle (I kicked all the kids off it so we could have some shots taken!), on a fake cow outside an ice cream shop and other beautiful spots in the city.

I bought fake moustaches for my bridesmaids and myself because…well…because it's funny. There really was no other reason for the moustaches except that what's funnier than four pretty girls wearing moustaches?

Instead of throwing a bouquet I threw a stuffed lobster. We didn't do the first dance (I don't like slow dancing) and no garters were tossed. We didn't do the kissing game (anyone who tried to tap their glass had to wear a goofy wiener hat).

Even though we bypassed many of the "traditional" routes of a wedding, no one seemed to notice. We focused on making the wedding a party for our friends and family. We made sure to have many fun things planned during the night including a prank we played on our Maid of Honour and Best Man. At the time of the registry signing we slipped in another document to be signed — a fake Bill for the wedding. We made sure to pull it out when we said our thank yous and told our guests to please thank the MOH and BM for paying for such a great party.

Our biggest challenge: The biggest challenge was convincing our families that candy was the theme, but it would still be quite classy. I'm pretty sure they trusted us, but sometimes I think they were worried our day might be more like a carnival than a wedding. In order to overcome this problem, we made sure to make mock ups of everything - from the invitations, to the flowers, to programs, to place cards. We would take photos of the mock ups and ask for yays or nays from our folks. We always got yays.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was when Jamie's brother, Sean, the best man made his speech. Jamie's last name is McDonald and in Canada there is a famous hockey player by the name of Lanny McDonald. I had already decided that I was sticking with my maiden name, Sommers, and that I did not wish to share my last name with this red-moustached hockey player. Sean thought it would be nice for me to have my own Calgary Flames Jersey and moustache just in case I changed my mind and wanted to become Lani McDonald. There are some great photos of me wearing my Flames Jersey and moustache throughout the evening.

My offbeat advice: Have fun planning your wedding, but always keep in mind that you want your guests to have a fun, memorable time. Make an effort to plan things that your guests will find entertaining and thoughtful. Yes it's YOUR day, but you have invited several of your close friends and family to share in your day. It's a party! Make it fun! We supplied our guests with fedoras, cowboy hats, glow necklaces, and feather boas for the dance. It got them on the dance floor and they got to take these items home with them at the end of the night as a reminder of the fun party they just attended.

Some of our vendors: Tim Oben took ALL the photos - his website is www.intrepidphoto.ca

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Who's got a sweet tooth?