Rebecca & Kain Kaare's vintage, camp ground, tea party wedding

The offbeat bride: Rebecca, Mom and unemployed computer geek

Her offbeat partner: Kain Kaare, Dad and Carpenter

Location & date of wedding: Tanner's Flat Campground outside Salt Lake City UT — August 9th 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Hands down, it was the hats. We decided we wanted this wedding to be all about us and we put everything we love into it. We are both hat fanatics so we decided that having everyone wear hats was our theme. We threw in a bit of an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter element but kept it loose so as not to overwhelm who we are. We wanted to do vintage style ourselves so we kinda' picked a decade and went with it.

Norwegian wedding cake

We were on a very tight budget and ended up spending only $3000 including our wedding clothes, rings, and the honeymoon. We had the wedding party at a campground to save cash. For food, I made alot myself but also got sandwiches from Jimmy Johns because it's my favorite food. Kaare drew the design for our wedding invitation so we were able to make those ourselves.

We went with an eclectic look; clashing bright colors (mostly orange and paisley), bowls of skittles mingled with tea cups, and cupcake stands we made ourselves out of vintage plates. We also included my husband's heritage by having a traditional Norwegian wedding cake in addition to the cupcakes.

I wrote our secular (and somewhat anti marriage) wedding ceremony including a nonreligious handfasting. We recited the words to "All I want is You" as part of our vows. And instead of including readings in the ceremony, I made a reading banner and hung it between two trees.

The bride, the baby and the grandma. Love the ladies and their bright colors!

Our biggest challenge: Firstly, I planned the wedding in eight months, half of which I was pregnant and, four months in, I gave birth to my daughter. By the time I'd recovered enough to get back to the wedding, I only had two months left!

Aside from that, my biggest challenge was that I'm a big picture kind of person. Coming up with the theme was easy but perfecting the details was trickier. I would have forgotten napkins if my mother-in-law hadn't bought them! So having someone there to remind you of the little things is a big help!

My favorite moment: I'm cheating by listing several…

Firstly, I got a huge kick out of getting into my wedding dress in a tent. It kept the whole thing down to earth and from feeling too prissy and fake.

Secondly, I loved the wedding ceremony. I spent so much time writing it and tried so hard to get across how we felt about marriage and each other that it ended up really meaning alot to both of us. (It's posted on my wedsite if you wanna read it)

Lastly, the next day we had the in-laws babysit and went to an amusement park for our honeymoon and had an amazingly fantastic time. Looking back, it's just spending time with my husband that made the wedding experience special.

My offbeat advice: Put yourself into your wedding. Make it a personal expression of yourselves and your love for each other and it will be perfect!

Also take advantage of Bridal Parties! We decided not to have one and I felt the pressure that having a Maid of Honor might have alleviated a little. If you don't have the time to DIY everything then use Etsy.com! That site made my wedding still feel personal and supports small businesses!

Also, I used Offbeat Bride to get an idea of what I wanted to have in the wedding. It helped me remember and decide on things like favors, food presentation, wedding agenda, programs, etc.

Lastly, we had a very, very small wedding, being about only forty people. It was pretty much just family and super close friends, so we ended up sending out announcements and then including a seperate invitation to those who were actually invited to come. It helped to not offend anyone.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress- RomanticThreads.com
• Catering- Jimmy Johns
• Baby Isolde's outfit- PrissyPiggies & SparkleberryCrafts
• Dress Cameo Brooch- ElephantTusks
• His ring- harvestgoldgallery
• Veil- CRBoggsDesigns
• Custom Dragonfly Cuff - Aranwen

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!