Cara & Devin's backyard, goat farm wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

Day three of farm week brings us from llamas to goats! Cara and Devin got married on the goat farm in their backyard. This wedding is farm-y that the bride even had to take a goat milking break. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. -Megan

The offbeat bride: Cara, Art Teacher

Her offbeat partner: Devin, Boatbuilder

Location & date of wedding: Our backyard in Acton, Maine — August 15, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: From the beginning, we knew we wanted our wedding to basically be a big party where we could get all of our family and friends together for fun and yummy food. We had a very specific non-traditional vision for the look of the wedding (basically no white!) and it came off quite well.

We DIY'd a whole bunch of stuff, from me hemming Devin's pants the day before the wedding, to making homemade jam and goat cheese for party favors, to designing and printing our own menus, table numbers, the photo booth, etc.

We put up our big tent ourselves (to save $500!) and I borrowed all the tables and chairs for dinner from my school, thanks to my generous principal and helpful custodians.

We also got legally married at the town hall the week before the wedding/reception. This freed us up to do whatever we wanted for our ceremony. We borrowed the Quaker wedding ceremony format, and were told many times how beautiful it was. Basically, at one point in the ceremony, anybody who wanted to was allowed to speak. This was really amazing, and exactly what we wanted to incorporate our friends and families into the event.

…the bride and groom served the guests dinner at their tables.

We got comments on how one unique thing was that the bride and groom served the guests dinner at their tables. This never would have happened without my kick ass friends stepping up and dishing out the food as fast as we could get it to the tables.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was pulling together all the details that we wanted. We NEVER could have done this without the amazing support of our friends and family. On the last couple days before the wedding, friends appeared out of the woodwork and made “command decisions” that basically rocked.

We also pretty much paid for everything ourselves. This has been interesting… Basically over the course of planning the wedding for the past year, we bought things as we went along, and saved money for the biggest expense, catering. We also wouldn't have been able to do it, again, without our amazing friends who did things like bring kegs and make our cake as their gifts.

My favorite moment: There are a couple here….

Instead of “You may now kiss the bride” or whatever, my friend who was officiating, said, “You may now french it up in front of your families.”

Our dog, Rupert, was our self appointed “best dog” at the ceremony. It was like he knew what to do, he just wanted to be there where the action was, and have everybody look at him. He sat right near our feet pretty much the whole time.

I was also psyched that everyone took part in the outdoor activities; there was some pretty serious Cornhole competition going on, as well as badminton and croquet. As the evening wound down, a bunch of us walked down to the lake for a night time swim.

My offbeat advice: If you have great friends — trust them. One of our best friends/officiant stayed with us for about ten days before the wedding, and the day before and during the wedding, she basically was our impromptu wedding coordinator. She fended off my mom, yelled at me to get in the shower, and delegated to magically make goat cheese party favors appear. Devin's best man and his wife also kicked ass — supplying kegs and cold taps and basically anything else that needed corralling.

There comes a point, where maybe some things you wanted to happen aren't going to go off perfectly (for example, we wanted the apps to get served to guests once they sat, but they all swarmed them after the ceremony), but really, that's not lessening anyone's enjoyment of anything. Cheesy to say it, but “Don't sweat the small stuff.”

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
We DIY'd so much stuff, I don't even know where a lot of it came from! If anybody ever wants to know about something specific, please get in touch!

Dress- Wai-Ching, Seattle, Washington
Food- Mekhong Thai, Kennebunk, Maine (This is seriously some of the best Thai food I've ever eaten. the owners are amazing. Food was cooked on site. Everyone said it was DELICIOUS. And it was. If you're in Southern Maine and you're hungry, this is the place to go. Amazing crab rangoons. I don't even like crab rangoons, and I think I've eaten about two dozen over the past few days.)