Melody & Matthew's 1950s pinup with a splash of mobster wedding

The offbeat bride: Melody, Civil Engineer

Her offbeat partner: Matthew, Civil Engineer

Location & date of wedding: French Creek Estates Snohomish, WA — July 18th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Being a non-traditionalist, having a traditional wedding was not an option for me. It took me awhile to come up with a theme, and one day while speaking to a co-working in her office, I notice a wedding picture of hers that looked like it was taken in the 1930s. The wedding just fell into place after that. We decided to do a 1950s theme.

One of the biggest things that made our wedding offbeat was the fact that I let my bridesmaids pick their own dresses and accessories. I gave them the theme and strongly encouraged polka dots. I really wanted them to have fun and they did a great job!

Another offbeat addition was making all of the bouquets and centerpieces. Our bouquets were inspired from Princess Lasertron's button flowers. We made them out of felt and buttons. We also made button stick centerpieces and our own flower balls. Some fake, some real. A lot of work was put into this effort and everything turned out really well and suited the color scheme perfectly.

But the absolute best offbeat thing we had was the cake buffet! We didn't want to spend $1,000 on a cake and decided to order regular cakes from our favorite bakeries instead. It was a huge hit!

Other offbeat things we had were having a great friend perform the ceremony, having a salsa band instead of a DJ, choosing not to have favors and having five flower girls instead of one.

Our biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was trying to find a red wedding dress. There aren't a lot of choices out there in the U.S., especially for a plus sized bride. I ended up having to get an ivory dress with a red sash accent. In the end, I loved it and it turned out perfectly. But I really wish there were more color options out there for non-traditional brides.

Another challenge we faced was dealing with the hidden fees from the ceremony/reception site and having to exclude some amenities we really wanted to have.

My favorite moment: Saying "I do." Well actually, I said "Hell yes!"

My offbeat advice: Do your homework and plan, plan, plan! Make sure you ask all the appropriate questions to all of your vendors so you don't get hit with hidden fees and you know what you're getting.

Don't be afraid to think outside of the box. Create a day that you want and try not to be influenced by others expectations.

Listen to advice. Even if someone had a completely different wedding than you envision, you could get some great advice from others.

My last advice is hire a good photographer and videographer.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?: Randy Lee Photography - very creative and the pictures turned out great!

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: