fellock wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Erin, Teacher and Sign Language Interpreter

Her offbeat partner: Shayne, Job Coach and Photographer

Date and location of wedding: Casa de Rio Colores, Liberty Hill, TX and Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland — August 17, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Originally when we got engaged, we were planning a destination wedding with our family followed by a party/reception back in Texas. We decided on a trip to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. After the fact, I started researching the logistics of getting officially married overseas… and — oh my goodness — what a nightmare! At the same time, I started realizing I wanted our friends and extended family to be more involved in our wedding. Slowly, the destination wedding became a family vacation with a faux ceremony (on the Cliffs Moher, AKA the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride in Ireland!) and the Texas party morphed into an honest to goodness official wedding.

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

All of Shayne's dudes worked on growing mustaches for the ceremony (some more successfully than others!). I sewed my bridesladies clutches from the leftover fabric from my dress, and lined it with the mustache fabric from their dresses.

fellock wedding

Shayne and I are combining our last names, and the logo turned into a brand for the wedding (it was on the ass of the “beericorn,” on the cups/koozies, on the programs, on the arms of the sunglasses, etc.). Inside each clutch was an engraved “Fellock” (the combination of our last names) flask with the date on them. For some reason the dudes' flasks had the correct year, but the ladies had 2014 engraved on them. We all took it to mean we need to have an annual anniversary shindig, so they could commemorate next year's party.

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

I wanted frozen drink machines, but hate the acid-y commercial margarita mixes. One of my bridesdudes works at a local bar and shared one of their recipes — the perfect ratio of Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit vodka to grapefruit juice. Yum!

My mother-in-law (and her crew) took on the “Sunday Hung Over Brunch” including bloody mary bar, cheesy garlic grits, a pineapple fruit tree, and other assorted breakfasty goodness.

fellock wedding

The shift from having a party to actually doing the ceremony here in Texas was an interesting one. I went from not wanting a wedding dress, no match-y bridesmaid dresses, no cake, etc. to a full 180. I have never envisioned myself wearing a white dress, but I located aqua octopus fabric that was perfect for me. But it was discontinued so I had to contact the factory directly to get the last few yards. I found a local seamstress who made my dress and all of my bridesladies' dresses. My mom pushed for a cake and we found a woman who was happy to make an octo-cake and Shayne's mustache-shaped groom's cake. It melted a bit in the heat, but it was tasty regardless!

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

Tell us about the ceremony:
It was August in Texas, so we wanted our ceremony to be short and funny. We all walked down the aisle to the Flaming Lips “Do You Realize??” The ceremony was super quick and ended with shots of Jameson from our flasks. It was so short that the person responsible for playing the music for our exit stepped away for a second and missed the cue to play Bright Eyes' “First Day of My Life.”

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

Another huge headache was getting a photographer. The first guy we found seemed too good to be true, and he was. After we met in person and he got the deposit, he fell off the face of the Earth. I got the money back and found a second photographer. She was much more expensive, but it was getting close to the wire. I got an email from her saying that she wouldn't be in Texas the month of our wedding and if we still wanted her, we would have to pay her travel. But I guess the third time is a charm, because we couldn't have been happier with Alexandra at Ixi Photography!

fellock wedding

My favorite moment:
Both Shayne and I were raised by our mothers, and it only felt right to have them walk us down the aisle. My twin sister was our officiant, decked out in a tuxedo t-shirt and jorts. Shayne's sign language interpreter he had in middle school is still a good friend, and it meant a lot that he was able to interpret the ceremony.

fellock wedding

The paper flower bouquet was a DIY project. I made flowers from newspapers my mother had saved that represented important people to me that are no longer with us. Instead of my matron of honor holding my bouquet during the ceremony, I laid it on a chair intentionally left empty for those people unable to attend.

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

My funniest moment:
One of the first purchases for the wedding was a life-sized hollow horse. My mom called me one day and said, “So, you mentioned you wanted a unicorn that could dispense beer when you pull its horn? Well, I think I found the perfect horse to transform.” My high school mascot was a unicorn, so I had mentioned in passing that it would be cool.

fellock wedding

My stepfather is an engineer and always up for a random project. He researched all of the logistics, from how to cancel out the temperature rise from the beer traveling from the keg up through the beericorn to crafting several options for the horn including LED lights, another that was chrome, and a third that was a real horn.He also researched how to get one of his hot rod connections to airbrush it a pearly white.

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

We couldn't afford a separate photo booth, but our photographer was very accommodating and even had the second photographer man a photo non-booth area. I delegated finding props to one of my bridesladies, who rocked the selections, which made for hilarious photos!

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

fellock wedding

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!


jewelry: Brent & Jess

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Comments on Erin & Shayne’s mustachioed, octopus, and “beericorn” Irish/Texan wedding

  1. This. This is fantastic. I’m loving everything about this- from the octopus dress to the beericorn to the mustache-growth for the wedding. And your officiant is killing it in that outfit. Love, love, love!!

  2. Shut the front door this wedding is AMAZING!!!! Congratulations. You partied it up RIGHT!

    AND I WANT TO SMUSH THAT LITTLE DOG’S CUTE FACE!!!!

  3. What are you doing with the beericorn now? You could totally rent that thing out!

    • It is currently acting as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Beericorn in a gaudy Xmas display on my mother’s front yard.

      • Love it! We are getting married at Casa Rio this May! Would you be willing to rent or sell the beericorn ? It’s so fabulous!

  4. Where did you find the octopus fabric for your dress?! It’s incredible, what a fantastic dress. I love how you used a logo – so cool! Beautiful wedding, bravo!

    • The fabric was actually a lighter weight outdoor fabric I found at Calico Corners. It was discontinued, so I had to contact the distributor directly to get the last few yards!

  5. LoveloveLOVE this wedding! The amazing octopus dress (want!), the unicorn, the cute centerpieces, the bride’s hair, the mustaches! Looks like a super fun party. Congrats!

  6. Love the last name mash up, love the koozies, love the sister officiant – this wedding seriously looks like it was a blast!

  7. Best. Wedding. Ever. Seriously, a beericorn? Genius! And the dresses? Perfect! Love Love Love the Octopi Wedding Gown. style, panache, and having a blast. Now that’s what I call a wedding! Congrats on your marriage and your kicking wedding!

  8. Oh my goodness!! I can not express adequately in words how much I love your Octopus dress!!! It is absolutely amazing! I really wish I had through of an octopus theme for my own wedding 🙂 Everything looks wonderful and your guests seem to be having an fantastic time!

  9. I LOVE this wedding!!! Especially since they walked down the isle to “Do you realize” by the Flaming Lips – because my husband & I did TOO! eeeeek!

  10. I love love love this wedding! The octopus dress is gorgeous, as is the bride wearing it. Congratulations!!!

  11. I love those chairs! Did you just collect fabric scraps for them? I’m currently trying to figure out a cheap way to handle folding chairs that look like those without frou frou wedding seat covers.

  12. Oh. My. God! This wedding is all of my hopes, dreams and wet dreams into one fucking awesome party! What a gorgeous bride!!! I am sad that I do not know you personally because you love all the things that I love and the fact that you had a unicorn dispensing beer. Again….everything I could ever want.

    Your wedding kicked ass. My only disappointment is that I was not invited. . . I would have totally crashed this event. Congrats to you and I think you should throw the EXACT SAME PARTY every year. Love is to be celebrated…especially with a unicorn.

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