Simone & Daryl's Australian garden wedding
Posted by Offbeat Elves · Real Weddings: Global

The offbeat bride: Simone, Customer Service (and OBT member "Monie")

Her offbeat partner: Daryl Child Care Worker

Location & date of wedding: Foxglove Spires Garden, Tilba Tilba N.S.W Australia — October 31st 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband and I were married on Halloween this year, much to everyones surprise I wore white (everyone was expecting me to wear black so I guess that's offbeat for me in itself). There were Converse chucks, a lolly buffet, Polaroid guest book and transformers cuff links; little touches that although have been used many times before, really reflected the personality and feel of our bridal party.

Our ceremony was totally us, we walked down the aisle together, we wrote our own vows and our celebrant wrote a fantastic introduction of the history of our relationship which got a lot of laughs and some surprising (almost) tears from guests.

It was a kid free night (bar my husbands two little nephews), We didn't have a traditional dance but later rocked out to "Welcome to the Jungle" with our guests and we only had one real speech. We had so many remarks about how fantastically laid back and fun the night was for all our guests (I've never seen so many adults on sugar rushes in my life.)

Polaroid guest book fun.

Cutting out most of the BS enabled me to hang out with our guests and see people we hadn't seen in years and also gave my gorgeous husband and I some much needed time to take it all in.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge would have had to be organizing everything from our lounge room in a tiny country town. We had flower drama and wedding car drama (our drivers pulled out the week before the wedding) amongst other things. I had to travel seven hours on public transport to get my dress and almost all of our planning and purchases were made online (I love you eBay) so it wasn't until the day before that we were able to see if our ideas were going to come together. But, at the same time, I didn't have to deal with pushy sales people so I guess it evens out.

My favorite moment: My first favourite moment was when my gorgeous husband was reciting his vows and he began to cry. It was amazing to see how much love he was feeling.

My second favourite moment was at the reception after dinner my mother came and sat next to me and said, "I can honestly say I've never been to a wedding before where all the guests are singing 'Walk' by Pantera together, fantastic!"

My offbeat advice: Don't take "no" for an answer — you can always find what you're looking for and exhaust every option you have. Also it's never too early to start investigating. Things aren't going to play out on the day like they do in your head, so clear your mind and let whatever happens happen. In the first five minutes of wearing my insanely expensive dress I ripped the front of it. At the garden it was covered in duck poo. But I took it in my stride and my day was better for it, besides you'll be too happy to even care if anything goes wrong.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photographer – Robeccer Mclean
• Wedding gown – Karen Willis Holmes

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: