Cheryl & Adam's Disney steampunk wedding

Cheryl & Adam had an awesome steampunk, no-Mickey Disney wedding. Would you expect anything less from the woman who taught us how to get over vow-writing block?
Nerds: count how many little things make you think of Joss Whedon! -Becca

Photos by David & Vicki Arndt Photography

The offbeat bride: Cheryl (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Adam

Location & date of wedding: Disney Wedding Pavilion & Grand Floridian Hotel, Lake Buena Vista, FL — December 5, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided that the most important thing about our wedding was having as many of the people that we love around us and having fun.

Since everyone was going to have to travel anyway, we went straight for Disney World. I've had people ask me what is Disney about our wedding? The location! Just because one gets married at Disney World doesn't mean everything has to be Mickey-fied. You can have a wedding exactly the way you want it there, because they're in the business of making a little magic. Even the bakers got excited about doing a Steampunk wedding cake.

We both love the Steampunk aesthetic and decided to go with that as our theme. We asked our wedding party to get all decked out and invited our guests to do so if they wanted to. We told everyone to come in whatever made them feel comfortable. We were surprised at how many folks really got into it!

Robot favors!

We wrote our own ceremony and our vows together. Our whole journey through the wedding planning, we did together. If we didn't BOTH love it, we didn't do it.

Our entire wedding party was made up of our World of Warcraft Guild members. We had a Man of Honor and a Groomswoman.

My bridesmaid, Arica, made my wedding dress as well as Adam's frock coat and vest. We handmade our wedding programs, hand painted all of our little robot wedding favors from resin casts that I got from an Etsy seller, set up our iPod playlist for the whole reception rather than having a DJ or a band, and got our lab glass wedding vessels custom-made by a glass blower who makes chemistry glass.

Tell us about the ceremony: Our ceremony was pretty short and sweet. I made a rough outline of what it needed: Intro, two readings, sand ceremony, vows, rings, and SMOOCH! Then I sat down and wrote out several drafts. Adam would proof read them and then I'd revise them until we came up with something that we felt was truly us. We included a quote from the movie Firefly.

We decided to do a sand ceremony for a unity ceremony, because Adam really wanted us to make something that would last beyond the wedding — a piece of art that we could keep and look at in the future. We poured different colored sands that our mothers carried in for us into our central vessel to signify the blending of our lives together.

Adam's brother read "Union" by Robert Fulghum and our friend Deb read "To Love is not to Possess" by James Kavanaugh.

In our program we included a blog journal entry about the song "You Are my Sunshine" being used as a recessional in a wedding. We used it as our recessional and sang our way out of the pavilion, off key and all.

Our biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was that there was no direct transportation from the various Disney resorts to the ceremony location and no one acquired their own transportation. I ended up spending a lot of time chauffering people around in the tiny, horrible rental car we got just so that we could get to the courthouse and get our marriage license before the wedding.

I admit, I got a little stressed out with all the driving, especially since, if I had known that I was going to have to drive that much, I would have gotten an actual comfortably-sized car. Finally, I decided for my own sanity's sake to just call a car company and have them send a car to make sure my wedding party got from their hotel to the wedding location. Found out it was only about $37.00 to do so. Peace of mind? Priceless.

My favorite moment: Our ceremony was very meaningful for us. Neither of us are religious, and so we wanted a ceremony that really represented the fact that we were entering into this union very seriously and solemnly, but that we also had a sense of humor and loved to laugh and have our friends and family laugh along with us.

Our vows were both serious and silly. He vowed to protect me from Blizzard and Rain of Fire as well as love me through the awesome and the lame. I promised to love him every night when I go to sleep, every morning when I wake, every moment in between, and to remind him of that fact as often as it takes so that he never forgets it either.

Our first dance was to the Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart, because it completely fits us as gamers. It's super sweet and nerdy. And neither of us dance, so we middle school shuffled our way through it happily. We'd tried to learn to dance and it just never happened before the wedding date.

The fact that we got to spend a few days before and after the wedding with so many of our guests who came down to be with us was really important to us.

My funniest moment: We had several Grand Floridian guests approach various members of the wedding (as well as Adam and I) thinking that we were Disney characters and asking to either take pictures with us, take our pictures, or ask for directions. We told them we were just a wedding, but we took pictures (and let them take pictures of us) anyway. It was kind of cool and fun. Everyone was super nice.

Also, one of the costumed greeters who works at the Grand Floridian, Richard, who has been there since the place opened, was absolutely adorable. He came over to us and kept clapping his hands and telling us how great everyone looked and that "THIS is a WEDDING!" We had him come take pictures with us. Then he talked to the people at the front desk and helped arrange a cart to carry us over from the hotel to the wedding pavilion. Not so much funny, but very sweet and touching.

Our vows got some chuckles, especially when Adam promised to love me even more than our mutual love of Chipotle burritos while protecting me from both Blizzard and Rain of Fire.

Oh, and because it was Florida and it rained in the morning, it was really humid. So our sand for our sand ceremony kept clumping up and didn't pour very smoothly. We had a few times when we thought that either a) we'd be pouring for longer than the rest of the ceremony took, or b) it was all going to come out in one big clump all over the table.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Arica was working on my wedding dress right up until the morning before the wedding. We were in her room Friday night and Saturday morning working on final fittings for Adam's frock coat and vest and the Polonaise jacket. We had been doing all of the measurements and she had been doing all of the work from Michigan while we were in North Carolina. It involved a lot of emails, phone calls, digital pictures of tape measures and a mock-up, and a bit of nervousness all around. I didn't think it was going to be a total disaster, but I was worried that everything was going to get done on time. By Saturday morning everything was finished and we were able to relax before the big day.

Also, I made the mistake of going to Universal Studios with everyone on Friday before the wedding. My feet swelled to like, twice their normal size. They were HUGE, they were blistered, and they HURT. I ended up wearing my wedding boots for only the ceremony before changing into a pair of thick comfy socks and some old loose shoes. Thank goodness for a floor length wedding dress! By the time I got to the reception, I ran around in my socks for the rest of the afternoon, and no one noticed! Comfy feet for the win!

My advice for offbeat brides: Get some sleep. Seriously. Everything feels better when you're not exhausted.

Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. If you see something on Etsy that is amazing but not quite what you are looking for, just write to the seller and ask if they do custom work. The worst anyone can ever tell you is that they're sorry, but they don't. The best thing that can happen is that you get something amazing that fits just who you are as a couple. Etsy is a great resource and I've met some amazing sellers there.

Always be on the lookout even in unusual places. I needed a holder to support our tube-like round-bottomed sand pourers for our sand ceremony. I ended up finding a metal rack holding three glass bottles that worked perfectly. I took out two bottles, used the middle one to hold our metal flowers, and the other two sections held our pourers. Hobby Lobby and other shops like that have great individual pieces that you can always take apart and repurpose.

Do everything with kindness, love, and patience. If something goes wrong or isn't going to happen exactly as planned — let it go.

Find people to help with your wedding who are as excited about it as you are. People who like your ideas and are given creative freedom to run with them will produce great work.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I never doubted how awesome my friends and family were. I only had it reaffirmed for me just how much love and support they were all willing to give, and how far they were willing to come to be there for us. Watching my wedding party hanging out together, some meeting for the first time, all getting along and having a good time really meant a lot to me.

I also learned that being chill, happy and mellow about everything and going with the flow makes for a calm bride and a fun experience. I really got to enjoy the day and all the people who made it possible. What didn't go as planned didn't matter. What did go as planned was amazing. Really, it was better than we could have hoped for.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress, frock, coat and vest: My bridesmaid Arica Jones made my dress, from the bloomers to the Polonaise jacket. She also made Adam's frock coat and vest complete with timepiece buttons. She is a ROCK star.
• Bride's Hat: Blonde Swan
• Corset & Handbag: Starkers!
• Jewelry: Catherinette Rings
• Pocket Watch: BirdzNBeez
• Groom's Hat, Pants, Shirt & Suspenders: Steampunk Emporium
• Goggles: Steampunk Design
• Rings: Reed's Jewelers
• Custom Lab Glass Sand Ceremony Containers: Sage Studios
• Photography: David & Vicki Arndt Photography
• Guest Book Mini Cards, Place Card/Favor Tags: deepfried
• Resin Casts for Robot Favors: toenolla
• Wedding Invitations: Royal Steamline
• Wedding Planner, Floral, Catering & Reception: Michelle Wenzler-Dorr at Disney Fairy Tale Weddings (wedding planner extraordinaire who completely embraced our Steampunk theme.)

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!

This wedding features Offbeat Vendors! Check out their vendor listing to see how they cater to offbeat brides:

• Royal Steamline