Juliet & Tom's pop-cultured bookish wedding… for science! #Real Weddings: Global#australia#harry potter#literature theme#melbourne#short dress#short hair#the princess bride Updated Oct 12 2015 (Posted Apr 1 2014) Offbeat Editors We've got our noses stuck in the book of love with this week's theme: bookish weddings! Turn the page — I mean, scroll down — for literature-loving fun. Photos by Dani Van Groeningen The Offbeat Bride: Juliet, Careers Adviser (and Tribesmaid) Her offbeat partner: Tom, Robotic Engineer Date and location of wedding: Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia — June 9, 2013 Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We really wanted to emphasise how much fun we have together, so we included a lot of references that are important to us. We had Harry Potter Marauder's Map invitations and reception decorations. We also had a chemistry experiment as our unity ceremony, and a Terry Pratchett's Discworld cake! Related Post How to make your own "Yay!" celebratory flags I made these "Yay" flags for our wedding, intending for people to wave them for us as we walked away after the ceremony. They ended... Read more Our wedding was at lunchtime on a long weekend as lots of family were coming from interstate and they all had small children. It was much easier to actively include kids than to try and exclude them. We invited all the kids at the wedding to be in a "kid parade" at the start, and they came running in to "Cadence to Arms" by Dropkick Murphys, waving "Yay" flags and ribbon wands. I made my bouquet from the leftover fabric from my dress and some coordinating colours. It seemed easier and cheaper than buying florist bouquets. Our cars were retro coupes that belong to Tom's father. They looked amazing, although squeezing us all into two-door cars was a bit tight! We avoided the "clinkling glasses to get a kiss" routine at the reception by using the 20-sided dice at our table. Guests had to get our attention and roll the dice. If they rolled higher than 10, we kissed. If they got 10 or lower, they had to kiss someone. We had a live band and traditional ceilidh dancing, which I grew up listening, playing, and dancing to. The band taught everyone how to do all the dances and our guests mixed really well with each other. It was also our best opportunity to speak to people at the wedding since we were so busy at other times! We played the "Shoe Game" near the end of the reception which was hilarious! I didn't tell Tom what was going to happen so his responses were very genuine and very, very funny. To end the reception, we did a gender-neutral bouquet and garter toss. We asked anyone who wanted to be involved to step into the centre of the circle and we tossed the garter and the bouquet at the same time. Tell us about the ceremony: Our vows had a lot of references from literature, popular culture, and our personal beliefs. We used quotes from Shakespeare, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The Lord of the Rings, and our favourite singing comedian, Tim Minchin. We also had a reading from Douglas Adams' "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish." Our vows ended with a Princess Bride reference: Will you promise, should Juliet be kidnapped by three outlaws for the purposes of starting a war between Guilder and Florin, will you vow to scale the Cliffs of Insanity, fight a master swordsman by sword, a giant by hand-to-hand combat, and an insane Sicilian by mental dexterity, only to then risk death in the Fire Swamp with its Rodents of Unusual Size to rescue her? Tom: As you wish My husband is a role-player so we "rolled for skill" to see who would do their ring vows first. I rolled a one (in roleplaying not only would this be a "losing roll," but something bad would happen!) and Tom was worried about rolling something ridiculously high and showing me up, but he rolled a two! Our unity ceremony was a surprise chemistry experiment. We had a flask each of clear fluid that we poured into a measuring cylinder. We asked our celebrant to pretend that it was water and he made a lovely speech about mixing molecules and love being fluid. When we mixed the fluid together it turned pink, our guests went, "oooooh!" and our celebrant then talked about things not being what they seem and being open to surprises. Our biggest challenge: I spent a lot of time researching DIY projects and planning all the things we wanted at the wedding and it got pretty overwhelming. Tom made a Discworld luggage card box which took up far more time than we expected, which meant that we had to organise our DIY team a bit better. Our bridal party was amazing, coming and helping us make decorations as well as taking things home! Our favours were test tubes of honey (which is also our name) and we labelled them as "Felix Felicis" (Liquid Luck). This turned out to be much more complicated than we expected with honey going everywhere, labels not sticking, etc. But as long as we got married in the end, it was all worth it. My funniest moment: I got snuffled by a pig during our photos! We went to the Collingwood Children's Farm (which was next door to our venue), and were shooting some romantic farmyard shots and a huge black pig came out from his sty and gave me a great snuffle of my dress before I had a chance to jump off his fence. Luckily, no one noticed the stain when we came back in and did our first dance! Care to share a few vendor/shopping links? Bride's dress: Vanyanis Bride's shoes: Fluevog Photography: Dani Van Groeningen, a friend of ours who had studied photography before becoming a teacher and was amazing! Groom's (and groomswoman's) suit: Anton's Cake: Creative Cake Art Catering: Bursaria Venue: Abbotsford Convent Enough talk — show me the wedding porn! Reporter Name * Reporter Email * Original text Enter the original text here. Edited text* Enter your suggested copyedit here. Notes You can add a note for the editor here. * Required information. Fix Typo PREVIOUS I took off my ring yesterday NEXT Combine books and flowers and make a BOOK-quet Show/Hide comments [ 14 ] Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride and groom! I would love to hear your vows, especially how you fit Tim Minchin into them! Tim Minchin ftw! Reply You had me at Discworld Cake. Allow me to write that again: Discworld. Cake. And then there are the red shoes, and red boots, and red flats, and that gorgeous dress, and your adorable smile! What an incredibly fun wedding this seems to have been! Reply Oh my Goodness, Discworld cake and Luggage card box, I love it! What a fun looking wedding, I bet everyone had a blast. Congratulations! x Reply Discworld cake! The Luggage! Hooray! Reply DISCWORLD! AAAAHHHHH. Terry Pratchett has been my favorite author for years, and none of my friends understand why–*happy sighs* I love this community. Reply Happiness from all corners of this wedding. I especially love the Princess Bride vow – wonderfully written. Reply So many lovely, geeky details! I especially love the D20 kissing game, adorable & creative! Reply Oh my god! Oh my god oh my god, a Discworld cake, you had the luggage, Felix Felicis, I could die right now. This is amazing. Reply I just wanted to say that I think your dress is quite lovely 🙂 Reply THE LUGGAGE! And that caaaaake. I'm in love. Also, your wedding looks like it was a blast – such smiles! Reply It was such an honor making your dress. You looked amazing and so radiant and happy!!! Reply Ok, I'm dying! Discworld Cake?! And was that a "The Luggage" card box? I'm so jealous! Everything looks amazing, and you must have had so much fun, plus your dress and veil are gorgeous! Congrats! Reply Bravo and Brava! As I scrolled down I was yelling, "OMG, no WAY!" at the computer – especially at the Discworld cake (I want a Discworld as a coffee table) and the chemistry flask (I have them in my home bar). Best.Wedding.Ever! Reply Dear Juliet, these pictures are awesome. Could you tell me a few words about the unity ceremony components? thanks for your answer 🙂 Reply Leave a Reply to Rachael Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. Make sure you're familiar with our no-drama comment policy. Biz owners & wedding bloggers Please just use your real name in your comment, not your business name or blog title. Our comments are not the place to pimp your website. 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Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride and groom! I would love to hear your vows, especially how you fit Tim Minchin into them! Tim Minchin ftw! Reply
You had me at Discworld Cake. Allow me to write that again: Discworld. Cake. And then there are the red shoes, and red boots, and red flats, and that gorgeous dress, and your adorable smile! What an incredibly fun wedding this seems to have been! Reply
Oh my Goodness, Discworld cake and Luggage card box, I love it! What a fun looking wedding, I bet everyone had a blast. Congratulations! x Reply
DISCWORLD! AAAAHHHHH. Terry Pratchett has been my favorite author for years, and none of my friends understand why–*happy sighs* I love this community. Reply
Happiness from all corners of this wedding. I especially love the Princess Bride vow – wonderfully written. Reply
Oh my god! Oh my god oh my god, a Discworld cake, you had the luggage, Felix Felicis, I could die right now. This is amazing. Reply
THE LUGGAGE! And that caaaaake. I'm in love. Also, your wedding looks like it was a blast – such smiles! Reply
Ok, I'm dying! Discworld Cake?! And was that a "The Luggage" card box? I'm so jealous! Everything looks amazing, and you must have had so much fun, plus your dress and veil are gorgeous! Congrats! Reply
Bravo and Brava! As I scrolled down I was yelling, "OMG, no WAY!" at the computer – especially at the Discworld cake (I want a Discworld as a coffee table) and the chemistry flask (I have them in my home bar). Best.Wedding.Ever! Reply
Dear Juliet, these pictures are awesome. Could you tell me a few words about the unity ceremony components? thanks for your answer 🙂 Reply