Meghann & Shasta's colorful butterflies-and-feathers garden wedding

Last but certainly not least, for the final day of Pride Week, we give you Meghann & Shasta. You might recognize them from the epic wedding porn of epicness post! I die. -Coco

The offbeat bride: Meghann - Social Worker and Freelance Author (and OBT Member)

Her offbeat partner: Shasta - Massage Therapist and Personal Trainer

Location & date of wedding: Blue Skies Inn, Manitou Springs CO — May 15, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: So much of our totally-not-legal lesbian wedding was DIY! I love to sew, and so I made my own bright yellow dress, Shasta's light blue suit, Shasta's best man's suit, my best man's suit, and Shasta's maid of honor's dress; my maid of honor made her own dress. We walked down the "aisle" (a steep garden path) to Beyoncé, and exited to Michael Bublé; and we posed with umbrellas for several of our photos since it started raining halfway through our photoshoot.

Our ceremony was a handfasting-inspired rainbow of color, where friends and family came up one at a time to place ribbons around our hands — and then we tied the knot!

Our wedding theme was butterflies and feathers, which are two symbols very important to me and Shasta (respectively) so Shasta painted a wedding "logo" for us, showing one butterfly wing and one angel wing, that was printed on all our invitations, favors and so on. I had butterflies scattered over my dress, butterflies and feathers in my bouquet, and our maids of honor carried handmade feather, crystal and butterfly bouquets.

I also handmade our wedding favors, which were small painted flower pots with packets of potting soil and various seeds. Borrowing from another OBT bride's idea we also created a "wishing rock guestbook" that was a big hit! Throughout the day people kept saying how "us" the experience was – which was exactly what we were going for. ♥

Tell us about your ceremony: The ceremony was based on the traditional idea of a handfasting, but in this case we used nine colored ribbons. Our officiant, Nori Rost, asked questions that formed our vows: "Will you laugh with each other? Will you respect one another's individuality? Is it ever your intention to cause the other anger?" After each time we answered "yes" (or "no", as some of them were trick questions!) a member of our family or one of our friends came forward with a colored ribbon and placed it around our hands. Once all the ribbons were in place, Nori helped us tie them into a knot, and Shasta got to wear them around her shoulders like a rainbow for the rest of the day. We plan on framing them in a shadow box with some of our other wedding trinkets soon! We then exchanged rings, and a kiss (I TOTALLY smeared Shasta with lipstick, it was awesome) and pranced away, happily married and ready for cake! I'm really thankful that we hired a videographer to capture the whole thing, because I can't wait to go back and listen to the exact wording of the vows again – they were really beautiful.

Our biggest challenge: I was so lucky to have so many of the details already taken care of for me; the wedding iteslf was incredibly easy thanks to the package we picked. The biggest challenge I encountered (and it's probably small compared to most) was trying to coordinate so many different people. We had three guests from out of town that we were either hosting at our house or arranging accommodations for. Since our house is an hour and a half drive from the wedding venue, we also needed to coordinate transportation to and from the wedding, and to and from the airport. We also did our best to make sure that while we were occupied with wedding stuff, our visitors would have things to do, people to talk to and food to eat. Thanks to some wonderfully helpful friends everything went very smoothly in that regard and everybody had a great time.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? When we were getting ready, Shasta put her suit on, she bent to tie her shoes and then looked up at me with a funny expression and said "uh-oh." A couple stitches in the back seam of her pants had popped. I didn't have a sewing kit with me, so I told her she'd just have to be careful not to bend over until after the wedding, haha… Miraculously, though, her pants held up through the ceremony, the cake, the photoshoot and the reception luncheon. But as soon as we got in the car to head back to the Bed & Breakfast after lunch, she got into the driver's seat and we both heard it – RRRRRIIIPP!! Her pants split right up the back. I took a quick photo as soon as we both got back to our room, because it was so hilarious. Thank heaven they made it all the way through the wedding events, at least!

My favorite moment: Shasta had only one of her seven brothers in attendance, and both my brothers as well as my mother and my aunt were there – every family member present participated in the ribbon ceremony, which meant so much to both of us. We also formed an impromptu receiving line right after the ceremony, which at first I thought was a little silly and overly traditional – however, getting the chance to greet and hug each guest individually turned out to be really special, as so much of the rest of the day was spent in a whirlwind.

Shasta and I were able to exchange bites of cake and sips of cider with no difficulty whatsoever due to our exaggerated height difference (I think perhaps to the mild disappointment of some guests who were hoping for at least a *little* awkward amusement?) We each signed our marriage certificate, and though it wasn't a legal document it still felt amazing to see our names on that piece of paper, confirming our commitment to one another. After the luncheon, one of the servers came up to tell me that she's served at hundreds of weddings and ours was one of her favorites! She even made a wishing rock for our guestbook before we left.

My funniest moment: There were two. At the reception luncheon I ordered a beer, and since I have NO beer-pouring skills I asked my best man to pour it for me. The glass slipped in her hand and all my beer ended up in the lap of her white wedding suit! I admit I actually spent a moment debating whether I was more disappointed about the waste of the beer or the damage to the suit I'd worked so hard on. Fortunately Layne handled the whole thing with her usual good humor and grace – I got another beer and she cleaned up her suit so well that once it dried you'd never have known about the spill.

Funny moment number two occurred when some of the guests asked me to do a bouquet toss. I didn't want to toss my bridal bouquet, so I used one of the maid of honor bouquets instead. It was caught by my friend Steph, a fashion model whose near-six-foot-height has afforded her an impressive bouquet-catching track record. She promptly turned around, dropped to one knee and melodramatically proposed to her best friend, Sarah – all in fun, of course, but it was enormously entertaining!

My advice for offbeat brides: Few events are as personal as your wedding, so take the time to base the event on yourselves – your favorite colors, your favorite hobbies, your favorite people – and you'll find yourself enjoying it so much more than if you're trying to cater to others' expectations. If you've got lots of DIY projects, consider what elements you might be able to delegate to others, and allow yourself plenty of time to complete your highest-priority tasks; I made three suits (and remade several pieces of each), my own gown and one maid-of-honor dress in preparation for our wedding, and these sewing projects took me nearly a year to complete. I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't selected a wedding package that pretty much handled all the other details!

Take time with your photographer, and if you have the opportunity to hire a videographer, DO IT. The day goes by in such a glowy, excited haze that you probably won't remember the details as well as you want to later! Also – we kept our ceremony very short (about fifteen minutes) and many guests remarked how grateful they were, and instead got right to the cake!

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Governmental recognition does not a marriage make. It was the love, support and enthusiasm of our friends, family and vendors that made our wedding every bit as meaningful and valid as those that are legally recognized; and of course, our love for each other makes our commitment real and lifelong. ♥

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Cake, Flowers, Venue, Officiant, Photography, and Wedding Night Accomodations: Blue Skies Inn
• Sewing patterns for the suits and Ashleigh's dress: Burda
• Reception Luncheon Venue: Giuseppe's Depot Restaurant
• Kanzashi hair decorations: A gift from my maid of honor, from Etsy
• My necklace and earrings, and my wedding ring and engagement ring: Ebay
• Shasta's wedding ring: Titanium Era

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!