Misty & Corbin’s historic and haunted Deadwood wedding extravaganza

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Remember Misty's epic red dress juxtaposed with Corbin's casual outfit in the tuxedo alternatives post? Here's the whole haunted, old west-style wedding WITH a peek at Misty's fantabulous, vintage underthings! -Becca

Angled Love

The offbeat bride: Misty, Assistant to VP of Academic Affairs, full-spectrum photographer (and Tribe member)

Her offbeat partner: Corbin, Automotive Technician (and motocross racer)

Location & date of wedding: Upper veranda of the Historic Franklin Hotel and Reception at the Historic Bullock, Deadwood, SD — June 27th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband's proposal, a sweetly romantic avowal of eternal love and other such emotives, was followed by my “yes” and then his “… on one condition.” Er. Back up. On a condition? There's a condition? Boy said what?? Well, it was actually a request — that he fervently desired to have our wedding in Deadwood, SD. No problem there, it would have been my choice as well!

Ringbearers Escorting FlowergirlWe love Deadwood. It's a strange mixed-up vibe of sentient historic buildings, Victorian grandeur, Old West outlaws, and all-night long party-casinos, Vegas style! Throw in the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a constant influx of tourists from all over the globe, (as well as Harley riders galore), and the 1950s era celebrations throughout the town, and you have a mix of good times that is really hard to explain!

Corbin wanted our announcement for the newspaper to say, “Misty and Corbin are having a fun fu@#ing Wedding in Deadwood, and you can't come!” Well, that wasn't going to fly with the newspaper, but it did seem to set a certain tone as we planned (except for the “you can't come” part — warped senses of humor notwithstanding, we invited about everyone we knew. We, ahem, have exhibitionist tendencies).

Bride and Groomsmen

The resulting wedding was ours in a way we'll always remember. Our favorite town. Our music. A haunted hotel (yeah, I really like ghosts and antiques). Kick-ass attire (scarlet for me, jeans for him and the guys, and whatever style dress my ladies felt good about), and a DIY extravaganza!

Posed

SkippingOur biggest challenge: Hmmm, our biggest challenge would have been the limited amount of finances for the wedding vs. our desire for a certain amount of pomp, grandeur, thematic style, grand theatrics. Obviously, a bit of creative thinking was going to be paramount here.

There were many things that we (um, okay “I” ) wanted for our wedding, and many were out of our budget. A beautiful setting for the ceremony: yes. Spending hundreds on decorations (or having to lug them clear to Deadwood): no. So we carefully chose a spot for the wedding that was incredibly kick-ass all on its own. We didn't put up one decoration — the 100+ year-old building and incredible view did the decorating for us.

The ladies

Cake tableEbay came in terribly handy. I was able to gift all the ladies in the wedding with fabulous, vintage 1950s-era Aurora Borealis jewelry (plus buy my own) to wear in the ceremony at a VERY reasonable price! Great vintage stuff, plus we all sparkled like hell! For that matter, we bought my antique engagement (circa 1940) and both wedding rings (circa 1925) through an ebay antique dealer.

Roses and TulipsI wanted a tiered, amazing wedding cake, which was ridiculously expensive. So we ordered three plain white rounds through a store bakery, stacked them and decorated them ourselves.

Flowers, $400 for a few florist bouquets?? Yeaaaah, no — wholesale! They were shipped in a box, and we made bouquets ourselves. We outfitted the reception with The Dollar Store and online price-comparison shopping, and it all looked AMAZING!!!

Downtown Deadwood

Misty and CorbinMy favorite moment: We had reserved most of the Historic Bullock Hotel for our attendants and guests, and it was so incredibly FUN having all of our friends and family all over that hotel. Most arrived two days before the wedding; we couldn't poke our head out of our room without seeing some of our crazy wild friends or eccentric family members. They are a truly hilarious group of people. It was great and we made the most of thoroughly enjoying our favorite town with all of our favorite people!

Bridal portrait

Heading to the ceremonyMy funniest moment: A moment in time that I will always love is the walk to the ceremony. My ladies helped me with hair and make-up in our suite at the Bullock (kicking my poor Corbin out by 8:30 am) and then we walked over to the Franklin (ceremony location) in order to put our dresses on. I was stoked by my authentic corset and knickers (all the way from England!!) so, that's what I wore for the walk over. Walked Main Street from one side of Deadwood to the other in my knickers, with my entourage of ladies trailing along, toting the dresses (they were so amazing!). Of course, we were running a bit later than we meant to be, so all the guests saw us breeze by on our way to the “fainting room” to dress, and my grandmother used BOTH my names as I passed, first AND middle. God, we laughed… loved it!

Wedding Party

My advice for offbeat brides: I think my advice would have to be: however expensive it is, you DO NOT have to pay that much for it to have equal quality. We saved a great deal of money through DIY options, utilizing the internet, buying at auction prices, comparison shopping… and not one item that we saved on was a compromise. Our goal wasn't just to stay in budget; it was to have absolutely everything exactly the way we wanted it and STILL stay in budget. It took more time, research, and effort, but we did have everything just the way we dreamed it would be, without indebting ourselves to our wedding.

A kiss

Red wedding veilCare to share a few vendor/shopping links?
We live in a fairly small, kinda backward (oh!) town in Wyoming, so almost the entirety of our wedding shopping was done online.

  • Dress: Lana by Maggie Sottero My wedding dress was one of our few full-price items, but it was the RIGHT dress.
  • Veil: I had my wedding veil custom-made by the seamstress who altered my dress, (out of bits of leftover dress!). I decorated it with an antique brooch (ebay). Not a lot in the way of red wedding veils that I could find …
  • Jewelry: My ladies and I all wore vintage Aurora Borealis crystals that I bid on on ebay.reception decor
  • Corset & knickers: La Magia
  • Cake decorations: Lucks
  • Flowers: Potomac Wholesale
  • Favors: Oriental Trading
  • Reception items: Invitations by Dawn, including a kinky little black chiffon garter with a motorcycle charm on it! (My husband is a motocross racer).
  • Photographer: Mike Roberts
  • Venue: The Bullock Hotel, where we held our reception, and also stayed for the week, catered the reception and they were GREAT. I would highly recommend them! Also, the Bullock hotel is one of the most haunted places in America — it's worth a stay even if you're not having a fabulous Deadwood Wedding Extravaganza!

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Comments on Misty & Corbin’s historic and haunted Deadwood wedding extravaganza

  1. I love, love, love your dress and your entire wedding! You smoked that day girl! It looks like you had so much fun with your family and friends. Congrats!

  2. I’ve always been curious about how to go about making bouquets from wholesale flowers. How far in advance did you have them shipped? I’m assuming like a day before the wedding, so they would be at their freshest, right? I think that would make me stress out a little though. Did you make the bouquets the day before or the day of?

  3. The dress is gorgeous! Everything about the wedding looks lovely, but I am absolutely in love with the “old timey” posed photo in the slideshow with groom in the tub. It’s such a great photo and I love the mood it gives off! I can only imagine your whole wedding was like that. 🙂

  4. Your “funniest moment” tickled me!!!! LMAO! I want knickers!!! Knickers sound way more better than SPANX! 😉 Congrats to you and your man… YOU LOOK EFFING AMAZING!

  5. Yay Deadwood! I’m a Sturgis girl, myself, but I, too, love Deadwood, it’s such a fun town! Beautiful wedding!

  6. My fiance and I love deadwood too! We won’t be married there but hope to vacation there again! Loved reading about your wedding! Congrats!

  7. How awesome! My wedding is gonna look like we are a bunch of copycats! Seriously. I’m wearing red, we’re getting married in a huanted mansion in an old west town, and we invited everyone we know as well! Congrats and I love it!! I wanna see more Wild West brides! 🙂

  8. I think you did great on your wedding, it’s nice to be different from your normal wedding.

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