Lauren & Nick's Lego-filled, "nerdfest hootenanny" wedding #Real Weddings: Midwest US#geeky#LEGO#michigan#rainy#socks#star wars March 3 2010 | Offbeat Editors offbeatbride The moment I saw their Lego cake topper and their card box constructed out of legos, I knew I had to profile them on "geek week!" So Lego nerds, check it out… -Megan The offbeat bride: Lauren, computer nerd for a museum in Houston (and an OBT member) Her offbeat partner: Nick, TSA Officer Location & date of wedding: The War Memorial, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI — 8/28/2009 What made our wedding offbeat: From top to bottom, everything about our wedding bucked tradition. Somethings were out of our control, so we tossed out tradition. Lauren's whole family was unable to attend the wedding, so her father-in-law walked her in. But somethings… the lego cake topper, the moissanite ring (no diamond here!), and the knee high striped socks, well… we did it our way. We met online years ago, so our relationship was viewed as non-traditional from the start. We stuck with what made us comfortable and happy, in our relationship and the wedding, and it worked out. So what if our best man was blind? So what if we only had one side of the family there? These unique opportunities, while challenging, just gave us a chance to make the wedding our own. We interjected our personality into every part of the wedding, and our friends and family embraced it. I AM still surprised we got away with walking out to The Throne Room from Star Wars. Our biggest challenge: Working out a budget with each other. I help do event planning for work, so I kind of had the basics of 'throw a big party' down. I knew what we needed and what the cost was like. Dear Nicholas had no idea. The boy had some serious sticker shock. We helped tackle it by arranging a "Money Meeting" every Saturday morning at 10am. We'd sit down and be totally honest about money. Wedding related items were always the first topic of discussion, but we started having open and honest conversation about our spending habits and what was really important to us. These meetings really helped us focus on what spending would be like for the wedding, and between the two of us from now on. My favorite moment: My dress, borrowed from a friend, had a french bustle in the back. As any dressmaker can tell you, those things are a crazy maze of horrible ribbon. We couldn't figure out how to get my dress up and ribbonafied. So finally, my maid of honor just dives under there… then Nick… then MOH's boyfriend… then another bridesmaid… then a photographer. I had half the damn wedding party under my dress. Strawberry filled centerpieces with the charitable donation info. My offbeat advice: Focus on what's important to you. There's always a way to incorporate it into the wedding. We support a lot of non-profits. The plan was instead of favors, each table could be a non-profit. We ended up narrowing it down to three for all tables. In the middle of the party, a server walks up to Nick and says she knows people who have worked with two of the organizations and she knows of the third and it's activities. It gave us the warm fuzzies, just like when we decided to do it. You shouldn't do something just because everyone does it/it's normal/etc. The wedding is for you. If you spending it pleasing everyone else you'll never get to enjoy your big, awesome party. Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?: BrickLink.com – Custom Legos for the cake topper jmauerjewelry.com – moissanite rings. they're shiner than diamonds, but they're made in a lab in the USA, so it's greener, ethical, and uh …patriotic? SockDreams.com – my knee high socks came from here! Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Reporter Name * Reporter Email * Original text Enter the original text here. Edited text* Enter your suggested copyedit here. Notes You can add a note for the editor here. * Required information. Fix Typo PREVIOUS Register for your honeymoon with Traveler's Joy (+ enter to win a free honeymoon!) NEXT 8-bit video game wedding invitations! Show/Hide comments [ 29 ] Awesome wedding! And Shiner Bock! Mmmmm. Is 9:30am too early for beer? I met my FH on-line too. : ) Reply AH-mazing! Looks like it was so much fun. And you look so beautiful and filled with smiles!!! Reply Fantastic wedding! BTW, thanks for hooking up up with sock dreams… I love how you wore your feet 😀 Reply May I ask why your family couldn't attend? Was it too far away? I'm dealing with a similar thing with my FH's side of the family, except its also an illness issue… Reply I have an extremely small family, so when I say, "The whole family couldn't attend" I mean less than 10 people. It's a long story, but mainly distance and circumstance kept us from being together. Our wedding party was comprised of my "internet family" down here in Houston… So I had people with me who were very important in my life. =) And now I have Nick's family… and holy damn there's a lot of them. We get along swell. I guess my advice would be to have a lot of communication with the family who can't make it (if you can), take a lot of pictures, and keep in mind that while it's unfortunate that everyone can't be there… You are loved. And your wedding is a celebration of that. Enjoy it. Reply Is that a Dwight-style decorative banner I spy? Love it! Reply love the cake topper. very neat. Reply Oh my gosh. Please tell me the "You Are Getting Married." banner is an Office reference like I think it is. Best. Idea. Ever. LOVE IT. 🙂 Reply It is! Friend/bridesmaid Stephanie made that. It is AMAZING. Reply I saw it and immediately went OMG A DWIGHT BANNER. Reply That is the best thing ever! Almost as good as having Dwight there… Reply Neat! So funny that your wedding was viewed as non-trad because you met online! That's became so common among my peeps – me, my sis, several married & engaged couples I am friends with – that's it's passed into 'standard territory'… Reply Lovely! Everybody looks so happy, and some very cool pictures too. And that car! I like…. Reply How fun! I really love the cut of the dress, too. And kudos for borrowing, yay! Reply Wow! That's amazing that you borrowed the dress from a friend. It fit you like a glove! Also, thank you for saying "no" to chair covers. Reply Chair covers always seemed like such a crazy thing to me! It's a CHAIR. No one is going to remember what your CHAIR COVERS look like. Seriously! Reply Looks Awesome!!!:) Reply Legos and socks aside, I don't see all that much off beat about it. Still, it looked lovely, and so did the bride. Very pretty, and obviously happy to be herself. Congrats, and may you guys have a lifetime of happiness! Reply I don't know, I think Legos and socks and sneakers and The Office-influenced computer printed banner, and strawberry centerpieces and borrowed wedding dress ALL registers as pretty awesomely offbeat to me. I've never been to a wedding with any ONE of those things before. And I second that congrats. 🙂 Reply I dunno, it seemed like every opportunity to do something traditional with the wedding… well, it never ended up that way. I think other than having a white dress, a bridal party, and a cake, everything else was up in the air… and gosh, it just made the experience more enjoyable and meaningful. I guess the main point is that you can have a "normal" wedding without it being exactly what you read about in Mass Market Brides Monthly. From crazy awesome inked brides to someone like me… (Also, I'd like to take a sec and say that I really do hope that moissanite rings do become something you see in Mass Market Brides Monthly because they really are better all around.) Reply Love the bridesmaid dresses!! Ones you could ACTUALLY wear again! 🙂 Reply They had been used in three different weddings that summer. My bridesmaid Peggy actually is wearing the bridesmaid dress I wore in a different wedding… We wanted to be smart about it. Black A-line dresses are timeless, too, so when we look back at the pictures it isn't "what were we thinking?!" Reply LOVE the idea of making donations to not-for-profits as wedding favours!!! 🙂 Could be even more fun if it were pigs, chickens, etc donated in each guests name – might have to steal that idea myself 😉 Congrats 🙂 x Reply We entered our reception to Throne Room! 🙂 You all looked super cute. Loved all the pics. Reply Oh! I wore that exact same bridesmaid dress for one of my best friend's weddings a couple years ago. Since then, it has been repurposed as THREE different Halloween costumes! 🙂 Totally well-spent money! haha Reply I tried so hard to talk my guy into processing with The Throne Room… I'm so glad to see that other people actually succeeded in doing so. 🙂 Reply My partner and I are all about moissanite! Great choice with that and the rest of the wedding. I love the "money meeting" idea. Might become a part of our wedding planning too! Reply LOVE the card box! Go LEGO! 🙂 Reply That's so funny I met my husband online 9 years ago, and he really like legos to! God Bless! Reply Leave a Reply to Lauren Church Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. 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Awesome wedding! And Shiner Bock! Mmmmm. Is 9:30am too early for beer? I met my FH on-line too. : ) Reply
Fantastic wedding! BTW, thanks for hooking up up with sock dreams… I love how you wore your feet 😀 Reply
May I ask why your family couldn't attend? Was it too far away? I'm dealing with a similar thing with my FH's side of the family, except its also an illness issue… Reply
I have an extremely small family, so when I say, "The whole family couldn't attend" I mean less than 10 people. It's a long story, but mainly distance and circumstance kept us from being together. Our wedding party was comprised of my "internet family" down here in Houston… So I had people with me who were very important in my life. =) And now I have Nick's family… and holy damn there's a lot of them. We get along swell. I guess my advice would be to have a lot of communication with the family who can't make it (if you can), take a lot of pictures, and keep in mind that while it's unfortunate that everyone can't be there… You are loved. And your wedding is a celebration of that. Enjoy it. Reply
Oh my gosh. Please tell me the "You Are Getting Married." banner is an Office reference like I think it is. Best. Idea. Ever. LOVE IT. 🙂 Reply
Neat! So funny that your wedding was viewed as non-trad because you met online! That's became so common among my peeps – me, my sis, several married & engaged couples I am friends with – that's it's passed into 'standard territory'… Reply
Wow! That's amazing that you borrowed the dress from a friend. It fit you like a glove! Also, thank you for saying "no" to chair covers. Reply
Chair covers always seemed like such a crazy thing to me! It's a CHAIR. No one is going to remember what your CHAIR COVERS look like. Seriously! Reply
Legos and socks aside, I don't see all that much off beat about it. Still, it looked lovely, and so did the bride. Very pretty, and obviously happy to be herself. Congrats, and may you guys have a lifetime of happiness! Reply
I don't know, I think Legos and socks and sneakers and The Office-influenced computer printed banner, and strawberry centerpieces and borrowed wedding dress ALL registers as pretty awesomely offbeat to me. I've never been to a wedding with any ONE of those things before. And I second that congrats. 🙂 Reply
I dunno, it seemed like every opportunity to do something traditional with the wedding… well, it never ended up that way. I think other than having a white dress, a bridal party, and a cake, everything else was up in the air… and gosh, it just made the experience more enjoyable and meaningful. I guess the main point is that you can have a "normal" wedding without it being exactly what you read about in Mass Market Brides Monthly. From crazy awesome inked brides to someone like me… (Also, I'd like to take a sec and say that I really do hope that moissanite rings do become something you see in Mass Market Brides Monthly because they really are better all around.) Reply
They had been used in three different weddings that summer. My bridesmaid Peggy actually is wearing the bridesmaid dress I wore in a different wedding… We wanted to be smart about it. Black A-line dresses are timeless, too, so when we look back at the pictures it isn't "what were we thinking?!" Reply
LOVE the idea of making donations to not-for-profits as wedding favours!!! 🙂 Could be even more fun if it were pigs, chickens, etc donated in each guests name – might have to steal that idea myself 😉 Congrats 🙂 x Reply
Oh! I wore that exact same bridesmaid dress for one of my best friend's weddings a couple years ago. Since then, it has been repurposed as THREE different Halloween costumes! 🙂 Totally well-spent money! haha Reply
I tried so hard to talk my guy into processing with The Throne Room… I'm so glad to see that other people actually succeeded in doing so. 🙂 Reply
My partner and I are all about moissanite! Great choice with that and the rest of the wedding. I love the "money meeting" idea. Might become a part of our wedding planning too! Reply