Stephanie & Chase's Gamer, Nerdabilly, Geek Chic Wedding

The offbeat bride: Stephanie - Screenprinter (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Chase (Frog) - Graphic Designer, Vocalist

Location & date of wedding: Artspace111, Fort Worth, Texas — July 18, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We DIY'd the hell out of our wedding. Almost everything decorative at our wedding was handmade by us, our fantastic friends, and family. We both have a love for old school video games, all things rockabilly, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Our main goal was to include everything we love and still be our classy selves.

We are that couple that gets overdressed for everything and this day was no different. My dress "alterations" (everything red), bouquets, tablecloths, centerpieces, bridesmaid's jewelry and fascinators and much more were all made by us. Our groomsmen were all decked out in 8-bit ties.

We used orchestrated music from The Legend of Zelda for our processional and recessional, which you can hear here. We entered our reception to the main theme from Star Wars under an arch of toy lightsabers and wands. Our wedding cakes were an 8-bit version of Link, Princess Zelda and a life heart.

Our ultimate goal was just to have a giant party to celebrate our love for each other, and I feel we accomplished our goal. We also decided not to get married in a church (against the wishes of MIL) because although we both consider ourselves to be Christians, we don't agree with the way most churches are run. Luckily, our minister was a family member and just as big of a Star Wars nerd so that definitely worked out in our favor!

Tell us about your ceremony: Our plan for our ceremony was to make it as short as possible so we could get to the partying. I personally didn't want to write our own vows due to the fact that Chase is fantastic with words and all I would come up with is "I love you…lots". We did a short, basic Christian ceremony because in our eyes there aren't words that could fully explain our love for each other.

Our biggest challenge: Well we were definitely on a very tight budget with both of our moms doing what they could to help, but the brunt of everything fell on us. We saved a lot of money by choosing the DIY route and skipping an out of town honeymoon. We "staycationed" and loved it. Another challenge for me personally was finding someone to give me away. I didn't count on my dad even attending so I chose the next best thing, my two older brothers. However, they kept telling me all the way down the aisle that they had the truck ready to go if I wanted to just run away…

My favorite moment: Every single part of it, especially seeing how much fun our guests were having with us! Everything we included in our wedding meant something to both of us no matter how dorky or odd it may have seemed. Chase even had his hightops specially made with our wedding date stitched in the side, it was the sweetest thing ever.

My funniest moment: That definitely happened during the ceremony as my two older brothers were trying to give me away. There is a set of train tracks directly behind the art gallery that gets used maybe three times a day, and of course just as we begin a train shows up. During every pause our minister took, the train just happened to honk its horn, I was laughing so hard I thought I wasn't going to make it through the ceremony, as was everyone else including the minister. It was like the conductor could hear everything that was happening and was honking his agreement!

My advice for offbeat brides: Don't do anything you feel uncomfortable with just because someone else wants you to. It's your day, your way! You don't want to be mad at yourself ten years from now because you look back and wish that you had followed through with something that was really important to you.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? To try and not let little imperfections drive you crazy. Nothing is ever perfect no matter how hard you try to force it to be. Compromising with my spouse. There were a few ideas of his that had to be vetoed due to expense or time limitations, but for the most part we worked together to include a lot of what each of us felt was important.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• 8 bit ties - Think Geek
• Rebel Alliance Cufflinks - Crimsonking
• Sugar Skull Earrings - Artistamuerta
• Cameos for hair pieces - Cathysjewels
• STD's, Invitations, Programs - CarolineCreates
• Photography - Fate Couture
• Our amazing DJ
• Dress - David's Bridal
• Centerpieces and tablecloths - SketchCustoms
• Veil and fascinator - Birdcage Veils
• Red high heels - Baby Girl Boutique
• Red and black dice purses - Ebay

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!