You've seen some details of this dancetastic wedding, but here is the full story on this UK parteh with amazing photos!

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The offbeat bride: Lotte, PA and aspirant professionally awesome person

Her offbeat partner: David, Playwight, Dramaturg, and Lecturer

Date and location of wedding: Registry Office, St. Nicholas Market and Trinity Centre, Bristol, UK — July 23, 2011

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: As a pair of eccentric extroverts with a limited budget and a love all things theatrical and silly, David and I knew we would never have a traditional English wedding. Instead, we designed it with two key principles in mind: we wanted a wedding that was fun (for us AND our guests), and about more than ourselves. There was singing, there was dancing, there was food-a-plenty. Our theme was “Great British fête.”

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Our guests were invited to spend their wedding favours (five 20p pieces) playing fête games, which had been designed and made by me and my friends over a series of intensive craft days. We saw guests splat rats (they were offered a choice of celebrity “rats” to “splat”), throw bean bags at paper mache effigies of the bride and groom, and race each other on space hoppers. My brother James dressed as a bear, our friend Sanjay did magic tricks, and I spent a heck of a lot of time pretending to be bridezilla on the bouncy castle.

Like all good fêtes, ours had a cause. David and I decided to use the wedding to raise funds for The SAFE Foundation, a charity run by friends of ours. The proceeds from our fête games, our grand raffle, and the gifts from generous friends helped us raise over £1600 to support people living in poverty around the world.

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We also shared the love a little closer to home. Our venue was an amazing community arts centre in Bristol, and David I were happy to know that the money they made from our wedding would be pumped back into the centre and good work they do. The food we did buy (most was donated by our incredible guests) was sourced from local companies.

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We tweaked the aspects of our wedding that were more traditional so they felt more personal. We don't have a car, so we were transported to the reception by rickshaw. Our first dance was a choreographed routine to Gogol Bordello, rather than an embarrassed hug-n-shuffle to a romantic song.

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David and I walked down the aisle together, like equals. My dad made a speech, and so did my mum. David and I gave a speech together. I did wear white and a veil, but this was offbeat in itself as no one, least of all David, ever expected that of me. We also both had a best man and a best woman.

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Tell us about the ceremony: Our first ceremony was a legal ceremony in Bristol Registry Office, attended only by close family. It was short, to the point and surprisingly emotional. My six-year-old nephew presented the rings, and my 91-year-old Nan and David's godfather were witnesses.

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Then we pretended to be pirates on the steps of the ceremony for our formal photographs, packed into a tiny pie stall in Bristol's food market, and drank British sparkling wine made six miles down the road from where the David grew up.

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Our second ceremony, about two hours later, was in a huge deconsecrated church (covered in bunting, fairy lights, balloons, and disco balls) with 160 people present. The ceremony opened with our wedding “choir” (brave friends and family) singing a specially arranged version of “Don't Leave Me This Way,” with David providing the piano accompaniment.

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Then Beyoncé's “Single Ladies” kicked in on the stereo and my bridesbirds and I danced down the aisle, giving a specially choreographed performance complete with arse-slapping.

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We had two readings: David's parents and family friend, Anni, read Edward Monkton's “A Lovely Love Story,” and despite only being asked to do a reading, arrived with beautiful handcrafted moveable puppets to illustrate the story. My stepmum gave a beautiful reading of an extract from Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

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In place of traditional wedding vows, we had written specific and personal promises for one another, printed on little ribbon-tied scrolls and placed in a “tombola of love.” Our best men and women, David's two-year-old niece, and an audience volunteer drawn at random drew these from the tombola for us to read to one another. The promises were followed by a rendition of Ben E. King's “Stand By Me” led by our choir, and accompanied by talented musician friends.

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The ceremony closed with David making a short speech about the similarities between baking the perfect wedding cake and maintaining the perfect marriage (including a few jokes at my expense), before fittingly showcasing the retro wedding cake David's aunt had made for us and me playfully stuffing it in David's face for the cameras. We then danced out to the Glee cast version of “My Life Would Suck Without You.”

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Our biggest challenge: As an entirely DIY and rather complex affair, our wedding was a logistical nightmare. There was SO much to do and SO much to arrange, that at times we despaired. Fortunately, we had an armoury: Lotte's obsessive organisation skills, David's experience putting on productions, and a super awesome wedding party.

I created a colour-coded Excel spreadsheet that listed every task that needed to be undertaken and who was responsible for doing it. It took ages to create, and was intimidating to look at, but it really helped tackle everything. David created a detailed production script for the celebrations that outlined everything that was happening when, and I used this to create itineraries and timelines for each member of our wedding party. Micromanaging? Possibly. But it made me feel better.

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My favorite moment: The wedding just wouldn't have happened without the support of our wonderful family and friends. So many people gave their time, skills, ideas and creativity to help create an unforgettable experience in the form of a wedding celebration. It was only when we saw the labours of everyone's love all together on the day that we truly realised how much we had been given and how very blessed we were to have such a wonderful community of family and friends.

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My funniest moment: When David was 14, his best man Tom secretly recorded him singing a terrible karaoke version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at an event in London. Then, at the end of the 1970s set of our “decades disco,” we suddenly realised we weren't listening to Freddie Mercury at all, but, thanks to Tom's DJ mixing skills, a strange blend of Freddie and the strangulated breaking vocal cords of a 14-year-old groom believing he was going to be a pop star.

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Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? My bridesbirds and I were very nervous about our “Single Ladies” entrance. We hadn't had much opportunity for rehearsal, and many of us had stage fright and were convinced it would be terrible. However, our fears subsided from the moment we entered. There was spontaneous applause and smiles from our guests and the dance ended up setting the tone for the whole day.

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My advice for offbeat brides: Don't be afraid to delegate and ask for help. Like me, you will probably have a whole host of wonderful friends who will be keen to use their talents to help you.

Don't be afraid to pay for what is important to you. David and I knew we wanted the day's events captured for posterity so hired an amazing photographer. Lauren was worth every penny. Not only did she take some incredible pictures, but she also acted as a bona fide counsellor, posture consultant, and underwear adjuster on the day.

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What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? In darker hours, I was convinced our guests would think our wedding was stupid, ridiculous, or self-indulgent. I should have known to give people credit. Everyone completely supported us and (I hope) had a really good time. We loved it.

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photography: Lauren McGlynn Photography

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Comments on Lotte & David’s games and dance DIY fête of love

  1. I confess I just teared up a bit reading this. Such an amazing couple, and wonderful wedding. It was an absolute privilege to be there.

  2. I teared up a bit too! Wonderfully inspirational, especially as I worry about us being seen as self-indulgent too. Thank you for helping me to remember to give our guests credit to love us as much as we love them. Thank you for posting, and congratulations from a fellow UK OBTer xx

  3. That looks like an incredibly fun day! I can’t imagine any of your guest NOT having a great time! They’ll surely remember it.

  4. The Wedding was great. But why wasn’t the Magician mentioned? He was awesome! He even got another gig out of the wedding for the Royal College of Surgeons. Yet no link! Who is this mystery magician?

  5. This is great! Lauren is going to photograph our wedding (hooray!) and I am super excited. We’re just having a small ceremony in the registry office as well, and this makes me feel better that it will look great! Beautiful wedding!

  6. I have to ask…what Gogol Bordello song? The colors of the picture are making me think it might’ve been Start Wearing Purple, which would absolutely make my day.

    • We actually went for ‘Oh No’ (though purple is an awesome tune) for the ace lyrics – “forces of the creative mind are unstoppable”.

  7. SO beautiful and fun! It looks like the guests had an awesome time, and so did you. 🙂 Your dress looks SPECTACULAR on you! I ordered my VoH frock from across the pond and it’s patiently waiting for my own nuptials this year. Looks like you weren’t the only one in attendance at your wedding with a VoH!!! 😉 Cheers!

  8. I was there! It was so awesome! And now I can break into the Single Ladies dance every time the song comes on, which is a highly useful life skill. I just looked at all the photographs again because they are that good.

  9. Yay! I’m also doing tons of yard games and a bouncy castle (or inflatable gladiator ring?) for my wedding, AND lots of bunting.

  10. Oh dear me, I love you guys. I feel like I know you just from reading this!

    Also, I know this is the tiniest detail ever, but… tiny vase of flowers on top of the cake? Genius!

  11. Wow I love this! Does anyone know roughly how much bunting was made for this? I am using bunting as my main decoration too 🙂

  12. Sitting on my sofa here in Bristol, this was very nice to see!

    I am convinced that I have seen David before! He looks incredibly familiar. This is possible if he’s an academic type…

  13. WOW, this is possibility my dream wedding. Seriously, love all the games and activities and how much everyone was involved in the whole process!!

  14. I love the sparkly rainbow details. They make me smile! Especially the glimpse of petticoat sparkles 😀

  15. Oh wow, that looks wonderful! Lauren is taking our photographs too and this makes me very excited 😀

    One question for whoever tagged this – why is it tagged plus size?

  16. Wow, this looked like SUCH a fun wedding! I love the lightheartedness of it all 🙂

  17. Score. Perfect wedding. AND … That dress – well, the belt, shoes and flowers – Amazeballs!

  18. WOW! I’ve been ‘stalking’ OBB for about a year now but this is the first wedding I’ve commented on. Love + quirkiness + friendship + belief + fun + damn good planning = this gorgeous wedding. Congratulations xx

  19. Wow! Thats all I can say right now. This wedding looks perfect in every way. Thank you for letting the world know about this, as it is a whole lot of inspiration I am in need of right now. It’s hard wanting to get married on a budget, knowing what you want, but others looking at you like you have 2 heads! You are an inspiration and I am excited to be planning my wedding again. Thank you!

    D x

  20. Oh my Gosh this really is wedding porn! I to am from Bristol and can see so many similar ideas to what I want! Looks like you had a fantastic day I bow down in homage to your beautiful wedding ^^

  21. I love all the splashes of purple
    And your first dance was to Gogol Bordello, it could not be any cooler <3

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