The Offbeat Bride: Kristi, pre-school teacher at a German Immersion pre-school and a previous example of why rainy day weddings = gorgeous weddings!
My Offbeat Partner: John, IT guy at a middle school
Location & date of wedding: Columbia Manor, Minneapolis, Minnesota — May 10th, 2008
What made our wedding offbeat: We really tried to make our wedding "us" in every way that we could and also fun!
We had a very limited budget- which worked out okay because I'm all about DIY or getting someone to do it for you for cheap!
The girls with their hand-knit bouquets.
I love color, and green is my favorite, so I suckered my sister into knitting my green shrug and my knit flowers (both turned out AMAZING!), my aunt into making my green jewelry, and my other aunt into making our polka dot cake. (I have an amazingly generous family.) We also had slave labor from Austria (a friend visiting for the wedding) to help with the poufs, which were pretty much EVERYWHERE we could put them, to add color.
My husband is a huge movie freak. Instead of table numbers, we used movies that are special to us. We also rented a projector to play a movie that he had made for the wedding featuring multiple John and Kristi's in each scene with a voice over interview of us answering fun questions written by the other (unfortunately we don't have it online to show off, but it was a big hit!). We then let the projector play visualizations and movie snippets (Temple of Doom, Back to the Future) for the rest of the night.
Our biggest challenge: Overall I think that the planning went pretty well. For the most part, our families let us do what we wanted. His mom really wanted us to get married in a church at first, but that wasn't going to happen, so we just tried to tell her respectfully that it went against what we wanted and compromised by letting her pick out a reading for the ceremony. She ended up picking a Bob Dylan lyric!
Projected kiss.
Other than that, having a limited budget was also challenging. As I mentioned before, we did most things DIY. Thank God for Craftster.org!! I made my veil and hair pieces. A friend did my hair and makeup. My sister knit and felted our bouquets and the bouts for the guys (who needs real flowers???). We rented sound equipment and set it up ourselves with a computer. My aunt made our cake. My brother in law and a friend took pictures. There was really only two things that we had to use "professionals" for — the officiant and catering.
Adorable looks during the ceremony. Ah, love.
My favorite moment: I love remembering our hand ceremony. It was similar to hand fasting, but without the whole fasting part (just holding).
Just looking into my husband's eyes and listening to what the judge was saying was amazing. Everything else disappeared and we just goofily grinned at each other.
My advice for other offbeat brides: Stick to your guns. Sometimes it's tough to hear that what you are doing isn't how someone else would do it (easy when it's just a stranger, not so easy when it's your mom, sister, best friend, mother in law, etc.).
Fun with scrap booking!
Stay focused on your vision for the day and only change it if you want to.
Have some entertainment for your friends and family. We had a scrap booking area where people could dress up and take funny pictures. Everyone LOVED it! They were doing that all night instead of dancing!
Lastly — don't fear rain!! If it's raining, go out and enjoy it! It makes for super cute pictures!
Enough talk — here's the wedding porn:
Click the photo below to see all the shots from this wedding:
Comments on "Kristi & John's Crafty Rainy Day Wedding"
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Sandy
March 26th, 2009 · 5:19 AM · #
I remember this wedding! I think you guys commented on my Flickr account many moons ago… Anyway, I'm so glad to see you featured on OBB! You both are so adorable and I just love all the little details of color and whimsy! And the dress, shrug, and umbrella combo are to die for!
Carissa
March 26th, 2009 · 6:20 AM · #
OK… my keyboard is going to start smoking, because I'm DROOLING. The knitted flowers? The projected kiss? The movie theme? That polka dotted umbrella? That you got lost in each other during the ceremony? And those POOFS! I don't know which part I loved the most ~ but your wedding looks freakin awesome! Congratulations
Jen Janusz
March 26th, 2009 · 6:55 AM · #
I love this! We're doing an outdoor wedding as well and love the umbrellas (I'll need to pick up some spares myself!). Also, that shrug!!! I LOVE it! I am always cold and my dress has thin little straps, so I was afriad of freezing all day. When your photo was posted months back it showed me an chic alternative to wearing a shawl. Thank you for sharing your day and ideas.
This a very beautiful wedding! Congratulations! All the Best to both of you!!!
Heidi
March 26th, 2009 · 7:27 AM · #
Lots of fun details! Love how they personalized the tables with their fav movies. Great conversation starters…
Kate
March 26th, 2009 · 7:34 AM · #
What a beautiful wedding!!! I was so excited to see this because my fiance and I are also huge movie lovers and have been talking for the last month about incorporating movies into our theme. Can I ask where you got the pictures for the place cards at each table? Did you just print them yourselves? Congrats on a gorgeous wedding!!!
Jessica
March 26th, 2009 · 8:44 AM · #
I would love to know how the bouquet's were made! That is such a neat alternative for flowers–Fake/silk ones just don't do it for me.
Thanks!
island_monkey
March 26th, 2009 · 8:45 AM · #
That shrug is so amazing.
Lauren
March 26th, 2009 · 9:13 AM · #
I love your flowers! I am also going to have to steal your dress up/photograph idea–that sounds like so much fun. Congrats!
Natalie
March 26th, 2009 · 9:35 AM · #
This bride's umbrella pictures have been in my inspiration file for months! I'm so glad to finally see her wedding profiled. Yay!
Kristin
March 26th, 2009 · 10:03 AM · #
This wedding sounds like it was a blast.
Tips on veil making? That's my current project…
Tracy
March 26th, 2009 · 10:30 AM · #
I remember when this bride was featured for her awesome green shrug, her amazing fascinator and THAT UMBRELLA!! it totally inspired me– in fact, I literally just bought a polka-dotted umbrella just like hers! I'm praying it rains on w-day so we can get some adorable umbrella shots like they did!
love it, thanks for posting
One Barefoot Bride
March 26th, 2009 · 12:28 PM · #
Such a pretty, easy going wedding! LOVE the green shrug! Great inspiration and encouragement here… thanks for helping keep me grounded. btw, I gave you a Lemonade Award the other day over at my blog.
Em
March 26th, 2009 · 3:47 PM · #
Sweet! I remember seeing this wedding on Craftster and thinking it was soooo OBB. I'm glad everyone here gets a chance to enjoy it now too! Looooove that green shrug!
Kristi
March 26th, 2009 · 6:11 PM · #
Thanks for all the comments ladies!! This was a surprise to see this today, as I typed it up in July!
It's great to get such wonderful feedback from everyone though!
Kate- We just took stills from movies and printed them off ourselves. Then my husband typed the titles using our wedding colors. Then I put them onto cardstock.
Jessica- The flowers are knit and then felted (a process of putting them in the dryer to shrink them). My sister made them for me using the tulip pattern from Pick Up Sticks.
Kristin- Hmm, veil making. Check out this thread http://kvetch.indiebride.com/index.php?t=msg&th=21752&start=80&rid=0&S=827e96d41c1c4c60639e4f6e3e411186
Thanks again for all the great comments- it made my day!
Lucy Elliott
March 27th, 2009 · 4:39 AM · #
Wow just discovered this blog and absolutely LOVE IT. Anything that advocates investing in the marriage rather than the wedding day is a winner with me. Kristi – loved your wedding day pics – such a colourful, original and uniquely personal day.
jen
March 27th, 2009 · 8:26 AM · #
this is the cutest wedding ever!
kristi – where did you find those big hanging green starburst decorations??
Kristi
March 27th, 2009 · 6:13 PM · #
Jen- I got them at Michael's. They are Martha Stewart. Here's a link on how to make them yourself!
http://www.marthastewartcrafts.com/?v=msc_proj_fancypaperflowers
Malyss
March 27th, 2009 · 6:41 PM · #
I also like the table names. My fiance' and I are hoping to put together a beach wedding in NJ. Maybe we'll borrow the idea and have the tables named for various NJ beaches or shore towns.
Ilze
March 28th, 2009 · 1:28 AM · #
The first thing I did when I saw that picture of this beautiful bride with a lovely polka-dotted umbrella, was buying the same umbrella! Coz now there will be no disappointment when it rains. Thanks for your inspiration!!
maylea
March 28th, 2009 · 4:03 AM · #
Thie is quaint and lovely wedding. I really love the flowers and the umbrella. I like the flowers' vibrant colors and of course the umbrella's polka dots..
The bride herself is very pretty.
Meghan
March 28th, 2009 · 11:21 AM · #
Oh man, I got so inspired by the umbrella shots that when dear boyfriend and I went to a charity formal last night and it was wet and rainy out I insisted to take pictures outside anyways knowing how well they'd turn out thanks to OBB!
colleen
March 28th, 2009 · 6:11 PM · #
inspirational! features like this are getting me ready to start my own planning and DIY-ing.
everything about the bride is quite beautiful. love the birdcage veil!
Kimmie
March 28th, 2009 · 9:55 PM · #
Is there any chance that your sister would want to make my bouquet???
Eliza
March 31st, 2009 · 11:46 AM · #
Hey Kristi,
Looks like a really positive, loving, incredible event! I'm wondering if you can give me some advise on speakers and scrapbooks…
We're planning to do speaker rentals with an ipod or computer and aren't exactly sure what we'll need.
We also want to set up a polaroid guest book – but polaroid film is so expensive now! From your picture, it looks like you discovered some kind of alternative…
Any suggestions for either topic?
Many Thanks, and Congratulations!
Eliza
Kristi
March 31st, 2009 · 6:21 PM · #
Kimmie- I can ask- but I know she was pretty tired out after making them for mine. It was very labor intensive!!
Eliza- My husband took care of all the speaker/sound things. I would suggest calling up a rental place and they should be able to tell you what you will need. Sorry I couldn't help more!
Our scrapbook was actually set up through a company. I was so excited when I found it because we had actually wanted to do something like that anyway. They brought in two little picture printers and would stop after 5 or so pictures to print them off. I almost think that polaroid film might be cheaper than buying a printer! It is nice to have digital cameras though, just in case you take a bad picture. Sorry again, I feel like I haven't helped too much!!
Eliza
March 31st, 2009 · 7:03 PM · #
Hey Kristi –
Totally helpful information. You've given me some thoughts on next steps – and confirmed that there probably isn't a simpler/cheaper way to do an instant scrapbook than polaroid… we're not going to hire a company or mess around with printers, so it looks like polaroid is it!
Thanks so much for answering! And Congratulations again!
Meg
April 2nd, 2009 · 10:59 AM · #
LOVE the dress, and the little green shrug!
Christine
April 4th, 2009 · 6:17 PM · #
Your wedding was so gorgeous! Love all the creativity!! Do you know where I can find the pattern for that adorable shrug?
Kristi
April 5th, 2009 · 4:27 PM · #
Christine- There isn't a pattern for it! My sister found the lace in a book of hers and then we found an edging to go around it from that same book. It's just a rectangle with the ends sewed up to make "sleeves". Easy!
jungrrl
April 10th, 2009 · 4:04 PM · #
I'm so glad Craftster was able to help make your day awesome!
Emily
May 28th, 2009 · 9:18 PM · #
Love the pictures. Where did you get that amazing dress? Who's is it?
Kristi
June 1st, 2009 · 7:22 PM · #
Thanks! I actually got the dress for $99 at a local store. It was being discontinued. Sorry!