Jan & Bobby's bikin' boozin' beach wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Jan, Domestic Goodess or Housekeeper/lady of leisure, depending on what end of the country we are on

My Offbeat Partner: Bobby, Union Millwright, traveling from state to state, job to job.

Location & date of wedding: June 28, 2008 on Tybee Island, Ga. The Wedding itself was on the beach at the end of the island. The reception was a laid back Low Country Boil in our home and backyard.

I am originally from Atlanta Georgia and met Bobby when I came down to Tybee for vacation with an old boyfriend. That boyfriend gone, Bobby and I dated for years long distance and I finally made the move to Tybee to be with him. Since then I have traveled all over the country with him while he works.

Ten years later having the wedding on the island that we love so much and have so many great friends, family and memories was so very very "us" and very special!

What made our wedding offbeat: This was Bobby's fourth wedding, and my second. After ten years together and five weddings already between us we knew that we didn't want anything too big, too extravagant, or too sappy. My daughter has been obsessed with weddings since she was very young and it was a no-brainer to go to her for help. She is the devoted Offbeat Bride addict. In the end she planned virtually the whole wedding in a little over a month while Bobby and I were in New Jersey. Probably 90% of the wedding was either Shannon's idea or her interpretation of my idea.

Everyone spontaneously gathered in the gazebo before the ceremony and after much socializing we gathered all the guests down to the beach. We knew we wanted our children and grandchildren to stand up with us. My son gave me away, my daughter, Bobby's son, and two grandchildren were our attendants, and my 18 month old granddaughter was our flower girl. We wanted someone very special to perform the ceremony so a very dear friend Julia ordained herself online and did a fabulous job!

We saved a ton of money. We decided early on that is was important to us to be frugal but still include as many of our friends and family as we possibly could. All together we spent only about $1500 for drinks, food and entertainment for 60 plus people and in the end it was fabulous.

My daughter did all of the decorating, including the tables, flowers, and the wedding site. We bought paper balls for 3 dollars a dozen on orientaltrading.com, we made custom lanterns out of the plain ones we bought at the thrift store, we decoupaged Bobby's mother's mason jars and hung them all around the porch. All of the bamboo was found in friend's backyards or on the side of the street. My brother baked his famous chocolate pound cakes for the groom's cake. Tons of friends pitched in by bringing appetizers and other great food. Bobby's friends and son were in charge of the Low country boil and my great friends Steve and Carrie came from Atlanta and took all of our photography.

Generally everyone pitched in and that is what made it such a great day!

The bridal party on bikes!

Our biggest challenge: Planning the whole thing in a about a month and Staying in our budget! Including the people closest to us, and keeping in check the list of people you start to think you "should" invite.

My favorite moment: It's a toss up (no pun intended) Steven my photography took a couple pictures of everyone that attended. The very last picture he told everyone to throw whatever they had in their hands in the air, and someone yelled loudly "Don't throw the baby!"

That, or… Bobby and I love to shag (the dance) and have enjoyed years of dancing with our favorite local musician Randy the Hatman. I knew instantly that I wanted to see if he was available for the wedding, the only hard part was keeping it from Bobby. I succeeded and Bobby didn't know about it until the moment he walked onto the porch, My favorite moment was the look on Bobby's face when he first saw "Hatman" set up and playing on the porch of our home. Keeping that secret was murder!

My advice for other offbeat brides: Don't be afraid to accept help! Everyone kept asking me how they could help and I kept saying "no thanks." but when I finally started accepting help is when everything started coming together, and in the end that is what made the whole event so wonderful and so very, very memorable. I will always look at pictures and remember with love who did what.

Enough talk — here's the wedding porn:
Click on the photo below or we'll throw a baby at you.