Kristen & Derek's Friday the 13th courthouse wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

We celebrating Friday the 13th with a wedding that is both a Friday the 13th wedding AND our first Kansas wedding!

The Offbeat Bride: Kristen, Greenhouse Peon

Her Offbeat Partner: Derek, Greenhouse Peon also

Location & date of wedding: Courthouse / Park Building Reception, Kansas — Friday the 13th, February 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We got married on a Friday the 13th to commemorate our first date, which was also on Friday the 13th. Luckily our families know we're a little off, so the black Chinese cheongsam dress and matching jacket (Ebay) and the skeleton cake topper didn't even cause them to bat an eyelash.

It was the little things that I hadn't seen at other weddings that we did to save money, that I loved. Like taking two different sized ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen to make a two tier wedding cake. The black roses on top of the cake are ones that have decorated my house for years.

It was an incredibly simple, black and white decorated reception. I guess what you would expect for small town/low budget. It was under fourty people and, although we catered the meat, the rest of food was all dishes brought by family. Although a “buttload” isn't a precise measurement, I'm pretty sure that's how much food ended up there (calling it a “feast extravaganza” in the invites was his idea). My black veil was from Halloween clearance a few months before. The plants, I bought from work on my discount with a gift card and they made great wedding favors.

Down in my heart I knew this was just one day of my life and I felt it was a terrible thing to throw so much money at it (even though Derek's mother paid for everything, thanks mom!) when I was so happy with how it went down just by using my imagination.

I didn't spend money on a photographer because we had six disposable cameras to share, which thanks to all the kids, we'll have many pictures of legs and the floor. Everyone was pretty stoked that it was a wedding they could wear their jeans or a black dress to. It was everything I hoped for because it reeked of Derek and I, just being ourselves all laidback with that dark edge. The minute it was over we left for a nineteen hour drive to Vegas for our honeymoon, yeowza.

Our biggest challenge: The hardest part of the wedding was explaining to the siblings that we wanted to keep the ceremony intimate by having parents only. That was pretty difficult when his sisters are my best friends. They took it okay considering they knew that would be like adding twenty people to a small courtroom if you count the spouses and kids. I also wish it had been warm enough to light up some fire poi and dance. 😀

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was Derek slinging me over his shoulder and carrying me down the courthouse steps with everyone laughing and taking pictures. It gave new meaning to “carrying over the threshold.” And cutting the ice cream cake with a butchers knife but the cake was frozen solid so we had to cut the regular extra cake instead.

My advice for other offbeat brides: For offbeat brides (and basically even more traditional ones too), you got to let the little snafoos go. Sometimes when an incident arises, you get your most memorable wedding moments. Like, forgetting a knife to cut the rolls with and my grandma chopping them open with my cake cutting butcher's knife. Sometimes it's a fight in your conscience to opt out of traditions, but I realized that if I didn't understand or care about unity candles then why include them?

I've never been one for weddings, not being too much of a girly-gir,l and being one of those shy types who doesn't like to make a big fuss about herself. It sure doesn't change anything in your relationship after you get married, so all I wanted was a great party for the family without all the other b.s. Just remember that it's about marrying your best friend (in my case the man my daughter sees as “Daddy”) and living your life together. As my now hubby says, don't try to impress, just enjoy yourself.

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!: