Lauren & Nick's Lego-filled, "nerdfest hootenanny" wedding

The moment I saw their Lego cake topper and their card box constructed out of legos, I knew I had to profile them on "geek week!" So Lego nerds, check it out… -Megan

The offbeat bride: Lauren, computer nerd for a museum in Houston (and an OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Nick, TSA Officer

Location & date of wedding: The War Memorial, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI — 8/28/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: From top to bottom, everything about our wedding bucked tradition. Somethings were out of our control, so we tossed out tradition. Lauren's whole family was unable to attend the wedding, so her father-in-law walked her in. But somethings… the lego cake topper, the moissanite ring (no diamond here!), and the knee high striped socks, well… we did it our way.

We met online years ago, so our relationship was viewed as non-traditional from the start. We stuck with what made us comfortable and happy, in our relationship and the wedding, and it worked out. So what if our best man was blind? So what if we only had one side of the family there? These unique opportunities, while challenging, just gave us a chance to make the wedding our own. We interjected our personality into every part of the wedding, and our friends and family embraced it.

I AM still surprised we got away with walking out to The Throne Room from Star Wars.

Our biggest challenge: Working out a budget with each other. I help do event planning for work, so I kind of had the basics of 'throw a big party' down. I knew what we needed and what the cost was like. Dear Nicholas had no idea. The boy had some serious sticker shock.

Strawberry filled centerpieces with the charitable donation info.

We helped tackle it by arranging a "Money Meeting" every Saturday morning at 10am. We'd sit down and be totally honest about money. Wedding related items were always the first topic of discussion, but we started having open and honest conversation about our spending habits and what was really important to us. These meetings really helped us focus on what spending would be like for the wedding, and between the two of us from now on.

My favorite moment: My dress, borrowed from a friend, had a french bustle in the back. As any dressmaker can tell you, those things are a crazy maze of horrible ribbon. We couldn't figure out how to get my dress up and ribbonafied. So finally, my maid of honor just dives under there… then Nick… then MOH's boyfriend… then another bridesmaid… then a photographer. I had half the damn wedding party under my dress.

My offbeat advice: Focus on what's important to you. There's always a way to incorporate it into the wedding.

We support a lot of non-profits. The plan was instead of favors, each table could be a non-profit. We ended up narrowing it down to three for all tables. In the middle of the party, a server walks up to Nick and says she knows people who have worked with two of the organizations and she knows of the third and it's activities. It gave us the warm fuzzies, just like when we decided to do it.

You shouldn't do something just because everyone does it/it's normal/etc. The wedding is for you. If you spending it pleasing everyone else you'll never get to enjoy your big, awesome party.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• BrickLink.com - Custom Legos for the cake topper
• jmauerjewelry.com - moissanite rings. they're shiner than diamonds, but they're made in a lab in the USA, so it's greener, ethical, and uh …patriotic?
• SockDreams.com - my knee high socks came from here!

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: