Amy & Mike's "come for the cupcakes, stay for the wedding" Wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The Offbeat Bride: Amy, full time stay-at-home mom

Her Offbeat Partner: Mike, software developer

Location & date of wedding: Fantasy Farm – Makebelieve Ballroom in Toronto, Ontario — November 16th, 2008.

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted a wedding that would be, above all else, FUN! We did away with certain traditions — I walked down the aisle with my husband and I didn't throw a bouquet or garter, but it held most of the elements that one expects at a wedding. We tried to make it unique in the details, without straying too far from what we feel a wedding is.

Some obvious “offbeat” choices were my black/purple hair, showing off my tattoos, a tea-length dress with fishnets and pin-up style shoes. We had a board game table, candy buffet, and magician to entertain the crowd. They were all quite a hit!

A lot of the wedding was DIY to try and cut down on costs. I made the bouquets myself out of fake flowers used in the DIY centerpieces. We used seamstresses, etsy and family whenever possible! My husband and I slaved away for a long time on our invitations ourselves. My mother-in-law made the purple ties my husband and son wore. My father in-law spray painted all the centerpiece vases to help fit the colour scheme, my maid of honour and sister organized the polaroid photo-booth guest book, and our friend came in for us as a last minute DJ. It was definitely a joint effort, and in the end, we heard nothing but compliments. It was a fantastic evening!

Our biggest challenge: Quite honestly our biggest challenge was figuring out what we wanted to do to make the day special. I had always dreamed of having a medieval wedding for some reason. A fairy-tale day with costumes. This is what made us choose our venue which is very medieval themed. We realized, after telling guests it was a costume-themed wedding, that while the idea of a medieval-themed wedding seemed nice, it really wasn't us. If we couldn't bring ourselves to dress up for a medieval faire, why dress up for our wedding? It was hard to do a complete 360 and plan the wedding from scratch again, but we did, and were very glad we did. What we came up with in the end, was very very us.

My favorite moment: It's hard to pin-point a specific event, as the whole day feels like a blur now. I would have to say having everyone come together for a group shot was my favourite moment. Seeing all our friends and family gathered in one big group, giving a peace-sign to the photographer, was just a great moment I was happy to have done. I really recommend a group shot!

My advice for other offbeat brides: Really think long and hard about what you want to do BEFORE you tell other people what your plans are. My biggest mistake was constantly telling people my ideas, and changing them, then telling them something else. Wait until you are sure you know what you want to do before letting everyone else know. (One friend had to return the costume he ordered when we told him it was going to be medieval!)

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?: My dress was a white full-length bridesmaid dress with pickups that cost me $175! I made it my own by having a seamstress tailor it to exactly what I had envisioned. My shoes were on sale for $40 at Aldo. My husband wore a suit from Le Chateau. Decorations were fake-flower centerpieces from Walmart and lanterns with battery tea-lights from Ikea. The maid of honour and flower-girl both wore custom dresses.