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The offbeat bride: Violetta, marketing

Her offbeat partner: Jason, chef

Location & date of wedding: Central Square, Cambridge and World's End, Hingham, MA — October 28, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was a fabulous result of spontaneity. We decided that we simply wanted a fun lighthearted day off/night out with our dear friends. And so it was!

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We “planned” it in six weeks and set the day to be a Thursday, based on my favorite funky/soul band's schedule. The band plays at our local bar so that was the reception venue.

Cambridge City Hall was happy to accommodate our canine “best man” in their ceremony hall and they had the lowest marriage license fee around.

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The closest restaurant was Hungry Mother, which specializes in soul food. This piggy backed onto our choice of music entertainment for the night. Hungry Mother could only fit a party of sixteen, which gave us a perfect excuse to keep the guest list trim!

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We called it our “W Party” instead of the wedding day.

10Tell us about the ceremony: The ceremony, scheduled for noon, was short and sweet. It was just the five of us — bride, groom and “the best man” (our Doberman, Calabos), Jason's mom, and our photographer.

Fifteen minutes and a box of tissues later, we were on our way to the World's End in Hingham, MA — a magical spot with rich New England foliage, hiking paths, and serene beach shores. We had a light hike in the woods, a bottle of bubbly from a highway-side liquor store, and an artful photo shoot — all impromptu!

The dinner was set for 7pm and a ten minute ride from our apartment. The comfort food, the cozy atmosphere, and the great company of our close friends made the big W party a success!

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Oh, and the Funky Chicken dance-off did take place to the tunes of the Chicken Slacks band, but no one remembers who took the prize 🙂

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Our biggest challenge: The usual suspects: money and family.

We did not set the budget, but were realistic about how much we could afford.

The only big expense we couldn't avoid was the dinner, but food, being one of Jason's biggest passions, was worth it.

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The stationary expense was solved by emailed invitations, designed by the fabulous Erin Deeley.

The photography was a gracious gift by another friend, the talented Kat Nania.

The all-night-dancing fest was secured by the funkiest Chicken Slacks, the Thursday night resident band at the Cantab.

In lieu of wedding favors and other decorations, we chose to support our friend's project, which happen to fit in really well with our chicken theme.

The rest of the fluff was long gone off the list.

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The family story: We broke the news a month in advance. After fours years of living together, it wasn't necessarily a shocker. There were hugs and congratulations, and a slight confusion about our plans. Long story short — the day is yours, the family will understand, and forgive and forget.
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My favorite moment: I shed my first happy tears when Jason's mom (who was the only other person at the City Hall ceremony beside us two and our photographer), gave me these beautiful bangle bracelets for my “something old.” They were mementos of her late mother. It was very meaningful and heartfelt for the both of us.3

Another favorite moment was when I saw Jason on the footsteps of the City Hall. I spent the previous night at my friends' house to honor some bits of tradition. He had shaved his (scraggly) beard — the fruit of four years of growing — for the big W day. I made a bet with him the day before: I promised to take his name if the beard is out of the picture

Another surprise by Jason was the wedding cake. It completely slipped my mind, and our wedding menu featured scrumptious caramel ice cream with Maine sea salt. Then out of the blue, the real wedding cake, with layers and toppers (and a cutesy line from a card he had given to me four years ago), emerged. Jason had planned and pulled it off.

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My advice for offbeat brides: Please don't listen to your mother's advice about wearing everything new on your big day. My feet were screaming in disapproval of my Kenneth Cole's Gentle Soles after the first hour — good thing I packed a pair of little red flats or the dance party would have been much slower paced.

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Comments on Violetta & Jason’s funky chicken dance-off wedding

  1. Ack! I adore this! All of this!

    Offbeat Bride needs some sort of family reunion where we can all get together, meet, and exchange high fives. Truth.

  2. Yay! Your wedding is gorgeous. I am also wearing an Ouma dres…she is a doll, and her dresses are gorgeous!

  3. Whaaaaat! I need to know everything about the groom’s (I’m assuming) shoes. How great that Slurms could make it to Fry and Leela’s big day.
    Also the dress + the shoes + the hair accessories = my current favorite wedding getup. Beautiful!

  4. So so so awesome!

    I know all about the Kenneth Cole shoe issues. I almost exclusively wear gentle souls and they take a while to “break in” but once they are *swoon* my feet are in heaven…but yeah…OUCH for a wedding day brand new! So glad there was shoe backup!

    Amazing dress…amazing couple. So cute!

  5. Violetta – THANK YOU for sharing your wedding with us. Reading this blog entry made me cry. I adore your attitude & the simplicity of it all.

    As one who is in the midst of planning a wedding campout weekend, I so appreciate your reminder to keep it fun, for you and your guests! Right about now, it’s all logistics for me & I’ve lost sight of the fun we’ll have.

    I wish you all the best.

    • Thank you Cindy:) You WILL have so much fun!

      Everyone enjoys their own wedding – simple or elaborate – just be there for each other..

      Peace.

  6. Your wedding looks like an absolute fantasy wedding to me right now, with 70 invitations to write… sigh… love your rocking wedding!

  7. I was smitten with the cake topper toys, as Santa is bringing a few here for my boyfriend. 🙂 the entire wedding was perfect, lovely, exciting, interesting, and just plain wonderful! I personally loved the red flats more. 😉

  8. What a fantastic looking wedding! Honestly? I like the little red flats better. Black, white, and a splash of red is always beautiful. Congratulations on your awesome day!

  9. Is it bad that when I saw the title to this blog post, I thought the wedding had a chicken-dance-off?

    (I’m a Minnesota bride. The chicken dance is a MN wedding standard.)

    Anyway, the pictures are so lovely! What a fun wedding. 🙂

    • Actually, they DID do a funky-chicken-dance-off:
      “Oh, and the Funky Chicken dance-off did take place to the tunes of the Chicken Slacks band, but no one remembers who took the prize”

      Sadly, there were no pics of that and the text was kind of buried by all the incredible pics, but it’s there! 🙂

      – Becca

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