Melissa & Joshua's Brisbane cocktail party wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Melissa, Administration Officer (and OBT member!)

Her Offbeat Partner: Joshua, Carpenter

Location & date of wedding: Brisbane Registry Office, Australia, — Saturday, March 21 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: First of all, we married interstate and planned everything online and made about 80% of our purchases and decisions online.

We got up early and picked up our own flowers direct from the market florist where Josh said he enjoyed talking to the owner who was walking around making bouquets. We also got ready together and made sure the day itself was about us we could spend our time with everybody else later.

My sisters and neice were late as they got lost walking around the city, just as I had asked my friend to be my witness instead, they arrived. Then we had a short and sweet ceremony, no ring exchange only vows and a kiss with no music.

We had all our personal photos taken before the ceremony, much to the shock to some people, but allowed more time later for photos of everyone else. We rented an 1880s house near the city where we got ready together had some photos. And then went to the Brisbane Powerhouse Museum for some offbeat photos.

We then married inner city at the Brisbane Registry Office and our reception venue was a five minute stroll down the street. It was here where we had a cocktail party with a bar tab that includeded selected spirits, cocktails, wine and beer and cocktail food.

Our biggest challenge: We had a few challenges yet everything turned out great…

• We had to change reception venues with less than two weeks to go, due to the original venue changing the plans on us and saying they "have the right," blah blah blah. We forfeited our deposit and chose another venue rather than being disgruntled.

I heart balloons at weddings.

• Organizing our entire wedding online from interstate with only one trip to Brisbane, to confirm things in our own minds, about five months prior.
• Getting a dress was my worst nightmare in a small city, but I dolled up all right in the end and found a great dress on ebay from the US.
• Our car was over half an hour late, the driver didn't play our requested music and didn't put the air on, which in turn made our photos rushed later in the day. The good side to that was I had some great shots when I was upset!
• Realising the night before the wedding that Josh's suit was way too big for him and him having to rush to the store pleading for a swap, which fortunately they were more than happy to do!

Hugs for Nanna!

• We purchased my wedding band online and found out it was fake. We put in a complaint to ebay and got our money back. The good side was the exchange rate was in our favour!

My favorite moment: A couple of moments will stick out for me forever and they are; picking up our flowers together from the markets that morning and finding $50 in the middle of the road; driving there at seven in the morning; having my 95 year-old Nanna travel thousands of kms to our wedding and having a great time.

I also had a blast running around taking Polaroid photos of all our guests. Also hearing a couple of people saying they loved the fact we had selected spirits and cocktails on our bar tab. Best part was of course marrying the man of my dreams and wearing my Nanna's pearls from the 1950s.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Fork out the money for a great photographer! It's money well spent and its the one thing you get to keep forever from the day (besides your man!).

Don't regret a thing, and try and let any slip-ups and comments go over your head.

Try on suits etc at least a week beforehand and prior to spending money on dry cleaning!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Photos: Raemond Photography
• Cake: Cake That!
• Hair and Makeup: Suzina Melina
• Flowers: Brisbane Market Flowers
• House we rented: City Cottage
• Reception venue: The Exchange Hotel
• Brisbane Powerhouse Museum

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: