Jamie & Chris' Family Reunion Style Wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The offbeat bride: Jamie, Recruiter and Executive Assistant & delicious cookie baker.

My offbeat partner: Chris, Screen Printer

Location & date of wedding: Hugh Moore Park, Easton Pennsylvania — Saturday July 12th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: During planning stages, when we described our wedding as a family reunion, people laughed at us. But in the end — that's exactly how it turned out.

We had games like badminton, Corn Hole, quoits, and a guest brought Kan Jam (a Frisbee game that the guys were all over), a keg, pinatas, and LOTS of family. That's all we really wanted for our wedding. Oh, and an all vegetarian spread of picnic-type food and a baked potato bar!

The unicorn pinata before getting the hell beat out of it. — The unicorn pinata pre getting the hell bashed out of it.

We wanted our wedding to be super casual and really fun. We wanted people to look back and remember the 20-somethings bashing the hell out of the unicorn pinata — NOT remember 10 drunk people dancing to the electric slide.

People said I was crazy because I baked cookies and mini whoopie pies to go with the cake and I DIY-ed a lot of the details, but I honestly wouldn't have had it any other way!

I'm sure a couple people whispered about my chest piece and my non-white dress. I'm sure that people wondered when the daddy-daughter dance was going to take place or when the toasts and the bouquet toss was going to happen. But that's just not us. And I also know that a lot of people had an awesome time.

The tented reception area with simple, yet impactful, details.

Our biggest challenge: You know, it's hard to remember the challenges after it's all said it done. They just fade into the background.

I guess I would say that our biggest challenge was keeping true to what our vision was for the day, maintaining a cohesive idea of what we wanted. It's easy to stray when you have two families, who are also helping monetarily, whose opinions and feelings you have to take into consideration.

We managed to deal with everything with a level head and remember that it is just a day.

Frisbee & beer, good recipe for a fun wedding.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was when I arrived at the park 30 minutes before the wedding and just hung out with everyone, including Chris. There was no “hide the bride” game before the ceremony. I was able to relax and say hello to our guests until our officiant arrived and we were ready.

When it was time to get started we let everyone know and they took a seat. It definitely allowed me to let go of any stress I may have had about walking down our make shift aisle in front of 80-90 people.

My advice for other offbeat brides: I have to say that it's OK to let yourself stress out (to a point) but then for the last three days before the wedding — let it go. Push it onto everyone else and just LET IT GO.

The bride & groom & the friends that have their back.

I tend to operate on a high frequency stress level and I took my own advice and the day of the wedding was so much more enjoyable because of it. Three days before the wedding there isn't much that you can control or fix and if there is — then you have a mother, mother-in-law, maid/matron/man-of-honor to take care of that stuff.

Enough talk — here's the wedding porn:

(Intern's note: People who direct me to Flickr streams where their first picture is them posing with a shark make it impossible for me NOT to profile them asap.)