Brenda & Rob's sci-fi, eco wedding with a Tardis

As someone who often puts together these bride profiles while watching marathons of Doctor Who, this "geek week" wedding really made me happy. Also it's a first costumed wedding cat that I know of! -Megan

The offbeat bride: Brenda, software trainer

Her offbeat partner: Rob, High School teacher

Location & date of wedding: Our home, Manchester, NH — 7/18/09

What made our wedding offbeat: From the get-go, our wedding was anything other than traditional. We chose a sci-fi themed wedding based on the the TV show Firefly and movie Serenity, that represented our love of sci-fi and a reason to be eco-friendly.

We did send paper save-the-dates and invites and had actual china and champagne glasses. But our wedding invites included a spinner game with easy character costumes. And our dishes were hunted/gathered from thrift stores. The chairs for our wedding were mostly free, salvaged from the side of the road.

For photos, we did hire a photographer, one of Rob's former students, but also created a photo site and asked guests to upload photos. It worked out beautifully as we got over 2000 fabulous photos.

For the ceremony, my husband built a life-sized Tardis (from Dr. Who) and we were married in front by his best bud dressed as Princess Leia. The ceremony was a quick ten minutes, constructed that morning and included a surprise addition of a Building 19 discounted Table Talk pie.

There were delicious food, all dishes from our favorite local restaurants and homemade beer.

Last but not least, I did change outfits three times, the last was a traditional white wedding dress to wear during BBQ time. The last dress was a surprise and my loving husband said "What the hell is that?" upon seeing me alight in it.

Did I mention we also managed to have an invite signed by Joss Whedon?

Our biggest challenge: Getting the theme across to people was tough. We found that many people grumbled about it, even though they wouldn't have bat an eye at a black-tie event. In the end the quick costume spinners made people more at ease and quite a few said they wished they'd watched the show/movie before coming to the wedding.

My favorite moment: It's completely geeky, but my favorite moment was during the ceremony when everyone responded in chant with "So say we all" (a reference to the new version of Battlestar Galatica series).

My offbeat advice: Have the wedding that feels right for you.

Yes, to some it may seem a little selfish to respectfully require guests to dress in theme, but we were hoping to share much about ourselves (our interests, our relationship, our food, and our home) with those we love. And for us, that was the point.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Main photog - Glenn Sweeney
• Ceremony dress - Faerie Hill Design (altered from the original design Shawna Trpcic)

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: