Mysi & Craig's antiquarian librarian meets Tom Collins wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Mysi, Fledgling Photographer (and OBT member "mysi anne")

Her Offbeat Partner: Craig, Photographer, Journalist, Historian, Constant Student

Location & date of wedding: Lake Summerset Lodge, on Lake Summerset in Davis, Illinois. My parents have a summer house there and we wanted to honor their favorite place. — 7.11.09

What made our wedding offbeat: Our whole wedding was planned with this in mind: we'd each been to ONE wedding in our lives. We wrote our ceremony and during the vows, we each asked each other: "Will you navigate the Great Material Continuum with me?" (We fell in love watching seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).

My bridesmaids were ten year olds — my sister, Cassidy (also my *Maiden* of Honor), and her best friends. My *Maid* of Honor was my best friend, Lauren. Lauren wore a girly version of the newsboy style the groomsmen wore.

Our ceremony music was a cello and guitar playing Beatles and Zeppelin. We had a ring warming ceremony, which I highly recommend. I designed the little newspaper programs. Annnd, I put Craig's ring on the wrong hand and it got stuck. But it was his fault.

We went handmade and vintage (and Etsy) with everything. I wore my mom's dress and veil.

My mother and I spent fifty-four hours (not exaggerating) making recycled-paper-pomanders and favors (including dark chocolate re-sleeved with old book pages.) We filled the lodge with trinkets and loads of books. The dessert plates and tea/coffee cups were all thrift shops/garage sales/attics.

My favorite bit was our cupcake tower… which was an unruly stack of books with cupcakes piled on it.

Since we're both meatless, everything was vegetarian (mmmm vegan lemon cupcakes!) and organic from local farms. The flowers were locally grown as well.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was keeping it in wedding form.

We had to remind ourselves that in order for it to be a wedding, it had to be… a wedding. As in, a recognizable ceremony should probably occur. Or it wouldn't mean anything to the family and friends who were there to witness a union. We dealt with it by researching the bare minimum of what people normally have in ceremonies. Then we played it up and spun it around, with the help of our officiant, who drew it all together.

So we ended up NOT having a frog release ritual that would have made absolutely no sense, not even poetically. And we ended up HAVING a ring warming ritual, so everyone could be involved and hold/bless/kiss/talk to our rings.

"In my life… I hope I lie
and tell everyone you were a good wife
and I hope you die.
I hope we both die!"
-The Mountain Goats

My favorite moment: Our first dance song was "No Children" by the Mountain Goats, and it was PERFECT. I was afraid at first because, like most weddings, we had older relatives there. However, I said fuck it. This is about us. I recommend looking the song up. It's amazing.

We danced freely and I completely lost myself in him. You can see it in the pictures. We're jubilant.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Micromanagement.

You cannot have it all and it's inevitable that things will be left out. (For example… the chess/checkers/dominos that you forgot to set out on the deck for people who don't dance.) No one ever knew it was supposed to be there, so don't worry. It's okay. Just have chess/checkers/dominos at every other party you ever have. But don't fret about it during (or after) your wedding day.

Also, use an alternative registry. We got some freaking awesome handmade/secondhand/random stuff.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?: Of course! I'm so grateful to everyone who helped us. It's insane.

• Our invitations (printed on handkerchiefs!) were by HeatherJeany on Etsy.
• My dress was revamped by Dame Couture in Chicago.
• Our ceremony music was husband and wife duo Moeller Music.
• Our DJ was Kristin of Toast & Jam DJs. (She camped with us afterwards!!!!)
• Our WONDERFUL officiant was Cecilia Pohs from Madison, who added some Klingon wisdom to our ceremony. she does not have a website.
• Our vintagey pinbacks were custom made by Amy of ButtonEmpire.
• We had seed paper made by Claudia's Creations.
• Our catering was Sweet Sophie's in Milwaukee.
• After a few months of overload, we obtained an awesome wedding consultant named Angela from Top Shelf Weddings.
• Our beautiful wedding photographer was Amanda from Type A Images.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!: