Catherine & Jeffery's Dia de los Muertos festival wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Catherine

Her Offbeat Partner: Jeffrey

Location & date of wedding: Georgetown Ballroom, Seattle WA — 11/01/08

What made our wedding offbeat: We chose the Day of the Dead as our date so that we could include our passed relatives and friends. We had a reserved setting area for framed photos of them during the ceremony and a large Offerenda on the stage so they could enjoy the reception after. I also had three living bridesmaids and one deceased one, who was represented in the ceremony by a memorial picture I tied into my hat.

We decorated every table with paper picado and paper flowers, as well as over fifty handmade sugar skulls. The cake was also covered in sugar skulls and the topper was a glittery skeleton couple.

My outfit was based on the José Guadalupe Posada print of "Calavera de la Catrina," the skeleton lady in the fancy hat. The hat itself was covered in Mexican corn husk flowers, lace and four huge red plumes. I had three ribbons in the back of the hat for tying in memorial tokens — a picture of my deceased bridesmaid, my Grandmother's wedding ring and a string of pearls that my Mother gave me.

Our biggest challenge: I think our biggest challenge was finding the location. We wanted something with lots of character and color. Something that would really complement our theme rather than work against it. It took us a long time, but we finally found a wonderful place at a do-able price.

My advice is, don't settle – you will find it!

My favorite moment: We had set up the tables and decorations the previous evening. When we walked in on our wedding day and saw everything put together and perfect, I was blown away. I was really happy.

My advice to other offbeat brides: Create something memorable, but don't over-stress yourself. Crafty folks will certainly want to add a handmade touch to the ceremony, but remember there are a lot of talented people who can help make your wedding unique.

We made a lot of stuff by hand; sugar skulls, favors, accessories. But I outsourced a lot too; my hat, my dress, the cake.

Everything turned out fabulous, and I still got to remain fairly sane.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!: