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The offbeat bride: Charli, Advertising
Her offbeat partner: Steve, IT
Location & date of wedding: Mercury Hall in Austin, TX on August 23rd, 2008
What made our wedding offbeat: We partied the only way we know how. Go big or go home. Everything we did for this wedding was unique and true to us. Every detail was customized to our style and anything we couldn't find we built/made ourselves.We didn't bother to take ourselves too seriously and made the ceremony and reception the best party of our lives.
As people arrived they got their drinks, found their seats and got ready for the production that was the ceremony. We had it at night outside and handpicked more contemporary songs for the ceremony. Steve even edited down an instrumental version of Coldplay's “Viva la Vida” for me to walk down the aisle. We had our friend perform the ceremony since neither of us are religious and Steve surprised me with having our dog be the ring bearer and come down the aisle during the ring exchange.
After the ceremony we asked that all of our bridal party, including parents, danced their way back down the aisle to the reception. Everyone participated and turned the recessional into a soul train. Steve also hid two friends in the bushes to set off fireworks when he and I were dancing down the aisle. It was the most eventful ceremony I've ever been a part of.
We customized the reception to our needs. We made all our own centerpieces, cake topper, cake stand and had a friend make the freakin' fabulous cupcakes.
We set up the photobooth and asked people to put together a scrapbook page using the pictures they took in the photobooth as their way of “signing” the guestbook. All of the pictures from the booth were put together in one big book for us to remember how much fun everyone had. The pictures from our photographers do a better job of showing how ridiculous it was. Best party of our lives.
Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was doing everything we wanted without spending a fortune. We didn't want anything to look cheap or unfinished so it took a lot of work to make sure we executed our offbeat ideas in a way that looked classy without being expensive.
Steve and I took A LOT of time to research different ways to keep traditional ideas in place, but revise those traditions enough so it was something custom to us. After settling on our ideas we figured out how we could do it ourselves. Making things yourself for your wedding is really time consuming, but worth it when you see everything in place.
My favorite moment: My favorite moment was dancing down the aisle right after the ceremony and hearing the fireworks go off above me. Time stopped for me when I realized that I just married my perfect partner, we were dancing in celebration and there are fireworks announcing the happiest moment of my life. They were a complete surprise and a perfect punctuation to the ceremony.
If you're just slightly offbeat like I am, take traditional ideas and spin them to be unique to you and your partner.
My offbeat advice: If you're just slightly offbeat like I am, take traditional ideas and spin them to be unique to you and your partner. You can do things that will be fun for you as well as quiet down the peanut gallery and naysayers.
Enough talk — show me that wedding porn: Click the photo below to see memorable shots of Charli & Steve's Fireworks & Family Dancin' Wedding
About the Author: Offbeat Weditors
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