Zoe & Zach's puppet show park wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

What what?! It's another puppet wedding! We heart these puppet-officiated, puppet-attended, puppet fantastic weddings!

5834555741 6a934219d4 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

The offbeat bride: Zoe, Artist

Her offbeat partner: Zach, Art Professor

Date and location of wedding: F.W. Kent Park, Oxford, IA — May 28, 2011

What made our wedding offbeat: Zach and I were married by a puppet! We created a puppet show to the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear (a childhood favorite of mine). The project was a collaboration with several of our artist friends. We made the stage, scenery, props, and puppets. Instead of bridesmaids and groomsmen, we had narrators and puppeteers.

The puppet ceremony and reception all took place at a nearby state park. Everything was kept fairly simple. We reserved a shelter overlooking the lake, covered picnic tables with vintage tablecloths and potted flowers, and served BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.

The view on top of the hill was so beautiful that we didn't need to spend a lot of money on decorations, just a few paper lanterns and some cute vintage planters to hold butter mints. There was no electricity at the shelter, so we hired an accordion player who provided us with fun polka music. Most of our time and energy went into making the puppet show, which was kept secret from everyone except those involved.

Tell us about the ceremony: My sisters read “The Owl and the Pussycat” while we performed the story, and afterwards two friends sang “Anyone Else But You” by the Moldy Peaches while the puppets danced. Zach and I then emerged from behind the stage, and were married by the officiant puppet who stood at a mini pulpit.

The rings were delivered to us by a dove, which swooped down over the audience on a zip line! We then lit two sparklers attached to rockets, which rose up above the stage to reveal a sign that said “Zach and Zoe.”

The puppet show ceremony can be seen here:

My favorite moment: It was so much fun to surprise our guests with the puppet show, and to hear their gasps and laughter. We were smiling throughout the entire thing. The silliness of the puppets prevented any potential weeping.

My funniest moment: We dressed a puppet to look exactly like our officiant, Rudy, who was also our main collaborator. They had identical shirts, pants, belts, and hair. The puppet even had perfectly matching tortoise-shell eyeglasses! Everyone laughed when he popped up from behind the stage and started the ceremony.

My advice for offbeat brides: Making your own invitations can be really fun and easy! Zach and I painted a design together, which we had printed on cardstock through an online print service. We used a perforator to cut a dotted line on the invitation, so our guests could simply tear off the RSVP portion and mail it back to us as a postcard. No return envelopes necessary!