A Halloween metal concert wedding with a spider wedding bouquet

The offbeat partners: Sanne & Dirk

Date and location of wedding: Jan Cunen Museum, The Netherlands, NB Oss — October 26, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Because we love Halloween, the venue was decorated with pumpkins that we carved with our bridesmaids and groomsmen a few days earlier. We also carved some pumpkins and filled them with pansy flowers to decorate the tables.

halloween wedding details 1 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

We tried to do many things ourselves to save us some money: we made our own gifts and bought our own champagne. My cousin is a florist and we created the spider wedding bouquet and boutonnieres together. We also designed the wedding invitations with a friend of ours who is a graphic designer.

Tell us about the ceremony: Our ceremony was held at the Jan Cunen Museum in Oss. We wanted to keep it light and funny, and our officiant did all that and more.

In the Netherlands, it isn't custom to read your own vows, so the officiant visited us a few days before the wedding to talk about how we met and why wanted to get married. During the ceremony he made a summary of our lives and made some inside jokes that made us all laugh.

Our biggest challenge: One of our challenges was our choice of music. We asked a local band called Duck & Cover Band to play at our wedding (they cover Metallica, Slayer, Motörhead, etc.). We love going to concerts and listening to metal. Not everyone shares our taste in music, so we already prepared some of our guests with the fact that we had asked this band to play at our wedding. To keep everyone satisfied, we asked the band to play for an hour, and after that the DJ would play all sorts of music. We bought lots of earplugs and distributed them at the entrance of the venue.

My favorite moment: The look on Dirk's face when he saw me opening the door was amazing. It was as if we met for the first time again, and it was love at first sight.

Dirk started rehearsing with his former band called Insaint a few weeks before the wedding, although I didn't expect it to be for the wedding itself! He wrote me a song and played it. When they we're finished, Dirk's other band called Ayranoch entered the stage and started playing some of their songs. It meant a lot to me to see our friends putting in all this effort and really making our day special. We had lots of help from our family and friends in general, and it makes us very proud to have them in our lives.

My funniest moment: During the ceremony, before Dirk could say “Yes, I do,” I asked him “are you sure?” because Dirk always asks me things twice, even if I give him my final answer. So I decided it was time for some payback! Luckily for me, his answer was that he was sure about it, and we all had a laugh.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Write down your first ideas and wishes for the wedding, and stick with your priorities. I really struggled with what gets offered in the wedding industry, and it really made me doubt my choices. It is very tempting to adjust yourself to the choices they give you.