The offbeat bride: Emily, Community Outreach Coordinator at a local Humane Society and Part-time Radio Jock (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Wil, Student and Part-Time Best Buy Employee

Location & date of wedding: My Dad's historical re-enactment site, Russiaville, IN — August 15, 2009


What made our wedding offbeat: We took everything we loved and rolled it into one crazy night. We picked our favorite colors, our favorite foods and drinks, our love of the outdoors and our friends and family and made it ours. We had an outdoor Garden Party, ceremony, reception and after party all in the same place. We had Mead, candy, cakes and a full catered meal, three tents with seating for over 200 people, a movie screen to show old silent films on, a stage for a live band during the Garden Party, fancy Port-o-pots, paper lanterns, lights and Asian accents everywhere. I wore a red dress, he wore a tan vintage suit, we encouraged guests to dress “Garden Party Chic” and people wore hats.

Dinosaur!

Our mutual best friend Seth got ordained so he could marry us, we wrote the secular ceremony together. We had our Best Man and Maid of Honor read from an Edward Monkton book, and our flower girl carried a sucker. I guess she was more of a candy girl? We wrote our own vows and read them to eachother without even crying (totally didn't think I'd get through that).

Hidden Peep

We LOVE Marshmallow Peeps, so they were part of the eccentric theme. Peeps were hidden in the bouquet and were the inspiration for our giant Peep cake. We had a candy buffet for guests, a photobooth and our food was both vegan and omnivore friendly — grilled onsite and served Russian style. It really was a reflection of us!

CANDY

Our biggest challenge: Wil and I were childhood friends. Like so many, we lost touch after high school. Five years later, we met again and realized that our years of friendship and mutual shared interests left us with a very solid foundation for a relationship. After the first night of catching up, we just knew. We were inseparable after a week, and decided to make our lives together. We made a lifetime commitment to one another, but as the black sheep of conservative families, we felt serious pressure to get married. We agreed that since we were already committed to our relationship, this would be the best way to show respect.

Getting Married

Unfortunately, not everyone was happy for us, and it made wedding planning very difficult. There was opposition to our secular ceremony and some serious family drama. However, we are both so grateful to the OBT for their continued support and responses to my blogging. Without them, we would not have felt the support to see this through!

Decorated

On a lighter note… we had a hilarious issue with Wil's suit. We ordered a $400 custom-made Dr. Who replica suit three months in advance, which had still not arrived the Tuesday before the wedding. I had a minor freak out, and we spend HOURS the Thursday before looking at shops for a suit. I had almost given up when Seth, our BFF and officiant, sent us links to a vintage clothing store. There we found the PERFECT suit for $12… and he looked so handsome!

My favorite moment: Honestly the day went by so quickly… but it would still be hard to pick just one moment. I had friends come from all over the US just for this, I was jumping up and down every time I saw one of them, some of them I hadn't seen for three years!

At night

However, I will never forget standing on the bridge, looking at the crowd and holding hands with Wil, and looking at Seth conducting the ceremony and facing the crowd. Our Seth, sarcastic, quick witted and always confident, was doing his usual, amazing job. And then I noticed his hands. They were holding the book he had paper-clipped his wedding notes in, hilariously titled “Discipline,” which was, of course, befitting of his personality. He was clutching the book so hard that where they met the pages, his fingertips were white from his grip, and his hands were shaking. It was then that I realized the weight of this, the commitment we were making in front of all of those people, and just how much it meant to Seth and us to get it right.

Giant Peep Cake
Giant Peep cake
Cutting our giant Peep cake

My offbeat advice: Forget the “theme” wedding. You'll drive yourself nuts and go overboard. Instead take everything you love, everything that represents you and your mate as a couple, and make that day YOURS.

My friends came from all over!

We had Asian accents representing my two years living with my friends in China, a movie screen and old silent movies representing Wil's obsession with film, an outdoor wedding on the farm where I grew up, Mead from the winery based in my college town, our favorite candy, all of our friends, and were even married by our best friend Seth, who now refers to himself as “The Reverend”. It was so “us,” and it was amazing! Focus on the things important to you, and you'll definitely have a great time. And so will your guests!

Our rings!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

  • I LOVE my photographer, we found him on OBB! Jamie Owens, J. Scott Photography — he even set up a photobooth for us, and takes photos in a journalistic style. He's AMAZING.
  • Our invitations were by hand made recycled paper from Twisted Limb Paper of Bloomington, IN. They even put flower seeds in the paper, so guests could plant their invitations!
  • Our caterer is the owner of a local restaurant in Kokomo, IN. He was so great — he'd never even heard of quinoa but was so willing to try something new. He even brought most of the candy for the candy buffet! He grilled meat and veggies on site, brought cases of Mead, made a quinoa side-dish, and even made that AMAZING Peeps cake! Tom Trine, Owner, The Windmill Grill, Kokomo, IN.
  • My florist, Karen Peelle, is also a friend and board member at my workplace. She did a beautiful job- but unfortunately she doesn't have a web site.
  • All fascinators were made by Jade of Sweet Grass Mill on Etsy.com.
  • Wil's ring is a titanium alloy with a blue adonmized center, and custom engraved with “You're my favorite everything.” From ZoeAndDoyle.etsy.com
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Comments on Emily & Wil’s eccentric, candy-coated, outdoorsy celebration of love and Peeps!

  1. ACK! I was wondering why there weren’t any comments on this AMAZING wedding, and then I realized that comments had been closed for some reason! Sorry!

  2. (whew. I was trying to comment- I thought it was me.)

    I wanted to say, “YAY Freckled Bride!!” You look lovely! 🙂

  3. Soooooo cool! I love the hiddden peeps, the colours and esp the veery spunky vintage suit/ red dress combo.
    And can I just say- what a BEAUTIFUL bride. So, so fresh-faced, happy and stunning.
    If I were to do my day over again I would definitely take a few pointers from this wedding.

  4. I love red and turquoise together! I love outdoor weddings! Wow, what a beautiful, beautiful day you had. Congrats, guys 🙂

  5. Hey Em! Your wedding looks lovely and I’m glad you and your other half managed to get past the drama with your family! I saw some of the wedding porn on your OBB site and it looked fab so it’s super shiney to see you finally realising it all! Enough of the blathering, congrats to the both of you and good luck with married life!

  6. oo! the whole wedding is so bright and beautiful! AH I LOVE IT! makes me wanna eat more candy!

  7. Thanks for all the comments….we’re almost at 8 months and absurdly happy. So glad to share this with everyone! Thanks to Ariel and the OBT for the support!

  8. This is so whimsical and cool! And the flower girl dress is the most darling thing I’ve seen– I might have to try something like that at my own wedding!

  9. You both look amazing – love the red dress and the little peeps in the flowers

    All the best!!

  10. Where did you get that gorgeous dress??? You two looked so sweet.

    • Hey Kristen-
      I got it at Demetrios in Indianapolis, the brand is Jordan and it is a bridesmaid dress! $195 ….so SCORE!

  11. Stumbled upon this site and this story and the first photo I saw was the bride with the parasol…. Absolutely the EMBODIMENT of sacred feminine! Stunning wedding and brightest blessings to you both!!!

  12. Wow! Beautiful. You look gorgeous and all of the details are amazing.

    Love the photo of the two tents with the lanterns blowing in the wind. Epic.

  13. Oh my. I just wanted to comment that your wedding day just looks so perfect. So, totally fitted for you, nothing cookie cutter. I think that you offer some excellent advice in taking what makes you, YOU and using that to make your day. Perfect! You both looked fantastic!

  14. So..do you know of anyone else that is ordained in the Kokomo area? We’re getting married in June and I’m getting close to giving in to the man and hiring a reverend. Any help/suggestions would be so helpful!

  15. Andrea-
    Wil and I believed that the person who should marry us is someone who knew us best as a couple. For some people that is a pastor, but for us, it was our mutual best friend, Seth. If you have someone like that, I highly recommend asking them to do the ceremony. Ordinations done online are valid and legal here in Indiana, and it made our day so much more amazing. Anyone can get ordained at the Universal Life Church, do a search and it will bring up a site. I hope that helps!

  16. Everything looks absolutely amazing! I’ve been inspired! I want my man to have a very similar get up, mind me asking what the link was to the vintage store?

  17. I love the bright red wedding dress as well as the blue accent of the bridesmaids’ dresses. And how can you go wrong with a giant peep wedding cake. Awesome!

  18. Love it all!!
    I’m dying to know where you ended up finding his suit at the last minute! We’re having a hard time find a vintage suit for the FH.

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