Laura & Joshuah's two-for-one Ozzfest and mini-farm wedding

The offbeat bride: Laura, Document Imaging State Employee

Her offbeat partner: Joshuah, Quality Control Inspector

Location & date of wedding:

• We had our elopement on stage at Ozzfest, Camden, NJ — August 22, 2010
• Our Joining as a Family happened in a tent in my parents' backyard mini-farm, Felton, Delaware — September 18, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Here's the thing: we were pretty much a married couple without the papers and we didn't need to get married. Then one day, we decided we wanted to. Then the prices, lack of interesting venues, and our own self respect had us rethinking the whole thing. While looking for Ozzfest tickets, we saw you could get married on stage. The idea kept floating in our heads, but we couldn't leave our daughter out of our ceremony plans, so we decided to have two weddings.

This moved our date up from May 2011 to Aug/Sept 2010. Our families were great about it, but we took some major heat for the Ozzfest wedding. Josh loves all music and was helping friends out with a church band. He got kicked out and we had one hell of a night in phone calls from angry church parents, but we prevailed and rocked out in the pouring rain at Ozzfest.

Our second wedding was just as fun. Everything was DIY. The largest cost came from the rentals, but we stayed under $5,000. Our families and friends helped make most of the food, Josh made the table decor, and I made the feather bouquets and 50 million other things! Josh's mom even made the groomsmen's ties out of the bridesmaids' shawls to help us save money. I made the cake which started to melt and fall apart. It tasted great though.

It was tattoo, music, halloween, family farm-inspired. We had black pumpkins, branches, and horses running around. I made a logo of our family and we had it placed on custom guitar pics. We used them as favors and in the flowers (perserved orchids — very cool, they last forever).

The best part was my mother doing our handfasting. She made the rope and had all the sisters and moms add something. It was my favorite part of the ceremony, because it became such a personal moment. We didn't want God in the wedding, but we found a wonderful officiant who just loves God. I loved her and gave in. She made it very "us," and worked with us on everything that was said.

It was so nice to see everyone having a great time, and loving us for who we are: artistic, tattooed, music-loving best friends, who happened to do everything in life backwards.

Tell us about the ceremony: We believe in something, but I really don't like to put a religious tag on it and I'm not a church-going lady. That said, we caved and had a very religious, but very open-minded pastor named Michelle who I just fell in love with. She respected our beliefs, and we hers, and she let us have a hand in everything said. She even let my mother do the handfasting, which was something she had never heard of, but found very interesting. As a way to join us and include our daughter, our officiant asked our daughter during the ceremony to confirm she was happy with us getting married.

The Ozzfest ceremony was rushed, but fun and I was nervous as hell. I still just laugh at that video.

Our biggest challenge: The biggest challenge was finding somewhere to have it. Every time we found something that was us and fun, it would make the food cost hit around $10,000! That is just crazy if you ask me. It was very hard on Josh and I both.

Ozzfest was a great way to express ourselves and walk away from traditions. Plus, it helped us decide to do the second wedding in the back yard under a tent. I guess I'm trying to say the location isn't that big of a deal; don't stress too much over it.

My favorite moment: Our daughter getting scared during the ceremony and running to her "mommom" was my favorite moment. She tripped on her dress and fell hard, and I stopped the whole thing to pick her up. She held me so tight and reminded me that all the decorations and vows weren't why I was there. She and her father were my reason for sharing our love that day.

My mother doing our handfasting was also a meaningful moment. She had a little speech planned that sort of went out the door. She held up the rope she made and explained what had been added and by whom. Everyone picked things that reminded them of us. Josh's mom even added a lego. When she started to cry I felt like she was sharing her love with everyone and just me all at the same time. It was very personal and just a wonderful thing to share.

My funniest moment: The funniest moment was probably when the moms opened the gifts we got them. We had put a picture of our positive pregnancy test in the frames. Surprise! They passed them around all day so we basically told our whole family we were pregnant with our second child on our wedding day.

My mom 2 looked at the framed picture, looked at me, looked again, and then screamed at the top of her lungs! My mom 1 was crying her eyes out, and Josh's mother was still trying to open hers when she just burst into tears!

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? I thought we wouldn't have enough food and that people may not like the "home cooked meal"-style buffet, but boy, was I wrong. We had more food than we ever needed mainly provided by family. Go figure.

The groom sang to the bride.

My advice for offbeat brides: My advice: stop worrying about how offbeat you are!! This is something I did for about a month in the very beginning. I was on all the cool kids sites thinking, "Oh, man. I'm not weird or interesting enough." Really, Laura? I am perfect just as I am and I have someone who loves me for being me, not me covered in offbeat flare.

Tell your family your plans up front. They just want to be helpful and if you let go a bit they will get stuff done! I was so thankful for all the help our family and friends gave us. They had amazing ideas and put so much work into helping us be happy.

Nothing goes as planned, so let go and just enjoy the day for what it is. It doesn't last long. You don't want to miss it being mad over flowers or tables.

Have you been married before and if so, what did you do differently? I have been married before and I did everything differently. I was very young and the marriage only lasted a year. This time I stopped and enjoyed myself, worried less and realized that it's an important event because of the people in it and the ones there for you — not because of just you. I just really got to let go and enjoy myself. Last time I had fights and did everything myself. I felt very alone in the first marriage, but not this time. Plus, the first time I think I was just getting married to prove everyone wrong, but they ended up right.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I learned that your family loves you more than you know. We all really came together and it just made the planning and weddings great.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Table decor: Micheal's craft store and the woods
• Ozzfest dress: Forever 21
• Family dress: David's Bridal
• Ozzfest Necklace: Faster Than You

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!