Laura & Michael's blue winter wedding in Brooklyn • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The Offbeat Bride: Laura, Business Manager

Her offbeat partner: Michael, TV Producer

Date and location of wedding: reBar, Brooklyn, NY — December 8, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Our wedding philosophy was that if you give people food, booze, and some good music to dance to, they'll have a good time. We also wanted to keep the planning as stress-free as possible. We started by finding a venue that did a lot of the work for us, reBar (now closed with significant scandal) in Brooklyn. They provided the space, the food, the bar, the DJ, flowers, and candles — plus, it was open seating. If we'd wanted to, we could have limited our involvement to inviting people, finding an officiant, and showing up!

With so much taken care of for us, we were able to do some fun side projects. I handmade my bouquet and Michael's boutonniere. Michael created a website for us, including a slideshow of our awkward teenage pictures. My mom planted and grew 100+ succulents, and my sister made “L&M” flags to stick in the pots. The plants did double duty as decor/favors. We didn't have bridesmaids or groomsmen, and I did my own hair and makeup. We tried not to over-think things.

Tell us about the ceremony:
We wanted to keep our ceremony short, not too sentimental, and secular — but it was important to some family members that the ceremony include the Jewish tradition of breaking a glass. We struggled with how to include it in a way we were comfortable with, but finally thought of a way to frame it so it was more about tradition than religion. We passed the idea by the interested parties to make sure no one would be offended, and luckily, they thought it was hilarious. Here's what we had our officiant say:

Today, Laura and Michael's families come together on this chilly December morning here in Brooklyn. Almost forty years ago, Michael's parents exchanged vows in a Philadelphia synagogue on a snowy March evening. And a few years later, Laura's parents were married in a backyard on a sunny August morning, had a potluck, and played croquet.

To celebrate the families that have helped shape them, to honor tradition , and because smashing things is fun, Michael will now perform the Jewish custom of breaking a glass – but he will do it with a croquet mallet.

Our biggest challenge:
It turns out, if you take a standard wedding ceremony and remove everything trite, sentimental, or religious, you wind up with a blank document. It was a huge struggle to build the right words from scratch, and we were still making tweaks the night before. But people laughed in the right places, got teary when I got teary, and if anyone didn't like it… well, they only had to suffer through it for four-and-a-half minutes!

My favorite moment:
My sister and her boyfriend prepared a ukelele/harmonica duet of the Magnetic Fields “Book of Love,” and both of our fathers gave lovely toasts. We loved those moments.

My funniest moment:
Years ago, Michael made a “Cake Inspector” shirt for one of his high school friends. As soon as our wedding cake rolled out, this friend unbuttoned his shirt and struck a pose: he'd come prepared. Luckily, the cake passed inspection.