Yellow vs Blue

The Offbeat Bride: Laura, Industrial Designer

Her offbeat partner: Seth, Industrial Designer

Date and location of wedding: Scoggins Farm, Monroe, NC — July 28, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Seth grew up loving superheroes and comic books, particularly Nightwing. I had grown up obsessed with Batman and Batgirl. We bonded over the topic until Seth gave me my first comic book, Ballistic Romance #1 (the story of how the two got back together), and in the back was a note from Seth asking me to be his girlfriend. Years later, after he worked up the courage to jump out of a plane… and propose to me, we decided to bring out the theme of what bonded us at the beginning and have a Batman-themed wedding. These characters had been a lifelong dedication for us and it only seemed appropriate.

Batman earrings from Etsy and a batman watch as a gift

More hand made logo boutonnieres

The groomsmen

Bridesdudes after the ceremony

The ceremony was to be fairly traditional, but the reception was fair game. Half of the reception was to be dedicated to Batgirl (Barbara Gordon, aka Commissioner Gordon's Daughter) and the other half would be dedicated to Nightwing (Dick Grayson, aka the first Robin). Batgirl's side was based off of the Gotham City Police Department and had a mugshot wall with props, pool tables, and poker tables. The Nightwing side was based off of Grayson's home base, Haly's Circus, and was complete with bouncy houses, pony rides, carnival candy, cotton candy, smoked turkey legs, hot dogs, barbecue, ice cream, juggling, and balloon animals.

My mother and father in law made this!

We made our own flowers out of comic books.

After we were unable to cut our guest list down to under 300, we decided to cut as many costs as possible so we could invite everyone who played an important part in our lives. We replaced flowers and decorations with home made comic book flowers and balloons which cost us a total of $110. The groom's parents made the cake and custom Bat-Signal for us as a wedding gift, and my little brother dug out his old Happy Meal toys to use as the cake toppers. The decorations and paintings were all done by friends and family members as wedding gifts. We saved thousands of dollars overall by doing work ourselves.

ceremony1

ceremony2Tell us about the ceremony: We used the song “Everything” by Lifehouse for our entrance. The family members and wedding party made their way down the aisle wearing black hero masks. Once the music built up, everyone took their masks off and at the climactic point (right when the song switches on the drums and electric guitar), the doors swung open and my father and I walked down together.

When the pastor asked for the rings, I looked back at my sister and a look of panic struck across her face. She had forgotten the ring in the dressing room! Luckily, she and I both knew what we had to do, so we both tried to keep straight faces and pantomime her handing me the ring. We were doing great until the pastor looked down and realized there was only one ring in his hand. Then he looked up and saw my our smirking faces trying to hold down a laugh, and he just about lost it on stage.

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Instead of a unity candle, we sealed our vows in a clear resin so we could put them on our mantle to remember our promise to each other. So my parents gave me the resin, and his parents handed him the hardener. We went back to our table to mix the resin and set the vows and Seth whispers “Do you know what you're doing?” To which I reply “No. I forgot to read the directions.” So once again, we faked like we knew what we were doing, trying to hold back a laugh.

After the ceremony, we left the church to “The Adventure” by Angels and Airwaves. Our wedding party put their masks back on and were told to have fun and do whatever they wanted as they were coming back up the aisle. Most of them danced all the way up, but one very tall groomsman (6'7″) got down on his hands and knees and very speedily crab walked all the way back up the aisle!

My mother made and painted this in 2 days!

Our biggest challenge: The biggest challenge was time management. We had chosen to do several things ourselves so we could save money, but we weren't as good about budgeting the time. I had started making the comic book flowers three months in advance, but completely underestimated how many flowers were needed just for six bouquets.

By the week before the wedding, we were still painting the cityscape curtains, making the church decorations, making the flowers and boutonnieres, finishing the cut-out, putting stickers on lollipops, making reception dresses for the flower girls, and more. We were even out at 2:00 a.m. before the ceremony buying champagne for the toast. I think I got about eight hours of sleep the whole week. In retrospect, we should have hired a coordinator to help us with time management and the reception. After all of that, we were so frazzled that we forgot to pour the champagne at the toast anyway!

In the city of Charlotte

Yup. Definitely the best shoot ever.

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The grand entrance

My favorite moment: The ceremony was so exciting for me and Seth that we didn't really pay too much attention to what was going on around us. When we arrived at the reception, the wedding party was hiding behind a curtain of the Gotham skyline that we all had to run through as they announced our names. When they called us, Seth and I ran through a tearaway wall in the center and that's the first time we really saw the guests. We looked out there and saw nearly 400 people who had come from all over the country to be here just for our wedding. It was beyond amazing to see that this many people cared about us and wanted to be there.

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At the end of the reception, we had our grand exit as running through a tunnel of punching balloons onto our escape motorcycle to the theme of the 1989 Batman movie. The Dark Knight Rises had come out the weekend before our wedding, and neither of us had seen it yet, so we headed to the theater for a post-wedding show. We walked into the theater still wearing our wedding gear, and there were almost 100 people from our wedding there to watch it with us. Our friends are amazing.

We ended the reception early to see the new Batman movie.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? DIY in advance! Very, very far in advance. And always treat everyone you know with respect, and apologize when you make mistakes. Our wedding wouldn't have been what it was without all of the help and talents of our friends and family.

Our videographer gave us this!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

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Comments on Laura & Seth’s Batgirl and Nightwing comic book romance wedding

  1. Okay, I’m going to give up. Nothing I will ever come up with is going to beat this*.
    Everything looks amazing, and despite being so very thought out the fun you and your husband had clearly shines trough. I’ve seen many weddings where the theme and it’s execution were more important than onjoying the wedding itsself, but it clearly wasn’t the case with you two.

    I hope you’ll have many happy years together.

    *Yes, I know it’s not a contest 😉
    P.S. I’m curious as to why one of the groomsmen is wearing a white tie?

  2. Damn, that’s one gorgeous geeky couple! And what an amazing wedding. I think I’ve fallen in love with both of them 🙂

  3. I love superhero weddings. They make me smile. Theses photos defiantly did them justice. I laughed several times, especially with the bride and groom licking the ice sculpture.

  4. OOOH yay!!! more photos!! I saw only TWO of them on when geeks wed (i think) but I craved MOAR!!

  5. Totally forgot the ring at my wedding too! Having read a lot of these posts in the last few months, it seems to happen a lot more than most admit 😉 I can’t believe your family made that cake?! It is fricken’ amazing! Congrats.

  6. HOLY CRAP I love this! The colors! The design! The photography! The DETAILS! Even in the engagement photos, the idea is so SIMPLE. Just one strip of color is all they need to get the theme across. SO CLEVER.

  7. Holy wedding day Batman! If the caped crusader ever got married I bet it would look like this! (Of course as we all know he’s married to his work).

  8. This… this wedding… I can’t even… omg.

    I love you both. This is incredible.

  9. This is quite possibly the most awesome wedding I have ever seen! For a comic geek girl such as myself, this is amazing. Pair that with BBQ, bouncy castles, ice cream and balloon animals and it’s Heaven! I can’t believe you guys made half of this stuff; it looks so professional. Please, I HAVE to know how you made the paper flower bouquet!

    Congrats on an astoundingly awesome wedding 🙂

    • The large flowers were origami lilies, one 7inch one glued inside a 9inch one. In the center of the lilies is a very small folded rose and all of the rest of the flowers were folded roses. spray paint the flowers white, then add your colors. Bend a small hook on a piece of floral wire, add a bead of hot glue and pull the floral wire (straight end first) through the center of the folded rose, then hot glue in place. Use green electrical tape to add leaves and grass to the stem.

      http://loandread.blogspot.com/2010/08/folded-rose-tutorial.html

      • Thank you for posting the info on how to make the flowers! These are some of the neatest that I have seen. 🙂

  10. We are having a Batman/Joker theme with Vegas. These ideas are amazing. Loved the porn. Great wedding.

  11. It’s your cake?! I had seen this cake in google images (and being the uber batman fan girl I am) i shared it on my facebook saying ‘dream cake right there lol’ Your wedding was amazingly put together. I love how you made the bonding of batman your theme. I bonded with my guy over batman arkham asylum game! Just had to tip my pointy black ears to you both. Hoping you are well 🙂

  12. I love everything about how you did your wedding, great theme and colors. How did you do the cityscape backdrop, we are trying to do something similar and yours looks great.

    • We made simple curtains out of cheap fabric and hand painted the cityscape on with a brush (don’t use a roller, it takes forever). We had to put a heavy drop cloth underneath while we painted since the paint went right through and had to immediately hang them up to dry from somewhere tall enough or else they would stick to the drop cloth for good. The center part that we ran through was done using a roll of white butcher paper instead of curtains, which we then perforated a few lines to make the breakaway easier.

      We build a simple frame frame using 2×4’s and dowel rods and painted it black. The curtain were hung on the dowel rods and the butcher paper was stapled onto the frame. If people aren’t running through it, use the butcher paper instead of the curtains, they look much nicer and are easier to do.

  13. I’m not even a comic book person and I LOVE THIS WEDDING!!!
    That bouquet!!!

  14. The photos with the dress and utility belt! I’m dying. I love it more than anything.

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