Awe!

The offbeat bride: Lisa, Tribe member

Her offbeat partner: Kyle

Location & date of wedding: El Corazon bar, Seattle, WA — January 16, 2011

What made our wedding offbeat: Zombies! Mutated Baby Dolls! Leopard Wedding Dress! Bloody Tuxedo Shirts! We fell in love over our mutual love of zombies and all things Romero, and wanted a wedding that was uniquely us.

wedding 089We designed and did pretty much everything ourselves. I designed the Save the Dates and invites and the artwork for our beer koozies (viva Adobe Illustrator!). Kyle and I bought all the decor ourselves, and designed all the tabletop decor.

We wrote our own vows and one of my best friends got ordained just for our ceremony.

It's Murder on the Dancefloor!We had four bands play our wedding so it felt more like a show at our favorite bar than a stuffy wedding. Punk Rock Dance Party! Our wedding party walked down the aisle to “Final Countdown” (when the music started everyone went nuts!); I walked out to “Walk the Line;” and our recessional was the theme from “Rocky!

Even though our wedding was quirky, it was still sentimental, loving and emotional… just like us!

Ring time!

Holy HammeredTell us about the ceremony: Here are our vows, which we obviously wrote ourselves:

Kyle, do you promise to love Lisa in hypochondria, and in health in rich times and… in your normal lives?
Do you promise to always answer the door when the door bell rings and to not make too much fun of Lisa for hiding and screaming?
Lisa, do you promise to love Kyle in leather and in beard, in rich times… and in your normal lives?
Do you promise to always allow Kyle to have at least 3 unfinished “projects” going at any given time?

Everyone is still asking me how many projects Kyle has going!

After the vows, our officiant, Mike, poured us shots from his Bible. Right before we took our shots one of my friends yelled out “Jameson or Bushmills?” (I famously only drink Jameson; Kyle is a Bushmills man) Without missing a beat I yelled back, “Jameson…PLEASE!” 🙂

It's official!

Don't forget to wash your hands!Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was negotiating the guest list. We had to keep it small to be within our budget, but it was hard not inviting people that we really wanted there. Also, lots of people didn't RSVP so we didn't know if they were coming or not.

The good thing was that our caterers were pretty flexible (we hired a local hot dog vendor) so we didn't have to worry about place settings or specific portions. I'd definitely recommend casual brides go that route rather than a plated dinner. Everyone got to eat as much as they wanted and we didn't have to stress about so and so not making it. That helped a lot!

Zombie Wedding!

Night of the Living WedMy favorite moment: We had friends that came from all over for our big day — as far away as Japan! Knowing that people wanted to see us get hitched so much meant a ton to us.

Also, I loved our ceremony! We wrote it ourselves and everyone participated along with it. Hearing everyone cheer, laugh and cry along with us… well, it was just so awesome! My big sister gave a sweet toast and my two best friends gave a toast where they rewrote the words to “Don't Stop Believin'” to fit me and Kyle, and by the end everyone was singing along!

5447321876 5546d992eb alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

My funniest moment:I loved that when we walked out to the theme from Rocky, I got to do a little Rocky Balboa pose on top of the stairs and we could hear everyone singing along as we walked out.

Groomsmen! (on a dumpster)

Our amazing cake!Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Our cake! One of my friends told us pretty much the second that we got engaged that she would make our cake as a gift to us. Unfortunately, almost a year later and a month before the wedding, she bailed. We hadn't even looked into the cost of cakes since we thought it was taken care of and we were shocked by the price! (Especially since we wanted something creative to go with our theme). We pretty much crossed having a cake off our list, until Kyle's good friend, Becky, came through and delivered us an amazingly rad (and super tasty) cake!

wedding 240

Mike West playing with PonyHomieMy advice for offbeat brides: Realize that everything won't be perfect no matter how OCD you get. People will be late, people will get drunk… roll with it.

Rely on your friends; they love you in all of your craziness and you'll be surprised who is willing to help you spray fake blood all over flowers or make baby-doll part bouquets.

Remember that this day is about celebrating you and your partner and it should be a reflection of your love and life. For some people that may mean taffeta and swan ice sculptures, for you it may mean disembodied fake limbs and Jameson toasts. I wouldn't have been comfortable in a white poof dress and Kyle would have felt awkward in a suit. We wanted to be ourselves, be comfortable, and HAVE FUN!

Being your offbeat self? That rocks.

Lisa and some bridesmaids!

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?I've learned that your friends really come through for you when you need it! Our friends rule! (They were the best little helper monkeys!)

Army of Darkness Tribute

5447323082 239bcb02db m alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

  • Bride's Dress: Trashy Diva
  • Bride's Shoes: Iron Fist Clothing
  • Birdcage Veil: Vintage Box 1947
  • Hand Broach (on veil): Kreepsville666
  • Bride's Bone Stretch Bracelet: Martha Rotten at Mode Merr (ps. Everyone at Mode Merr rocks! I couldn't find my package and they went totally out of their way to help!)
  • Bride's Brain Necklace: Chris Telford
  • Bride's Wedding Ring: Yvonne Snyder
  • Grooms ring: Chris Telford

wedding 132We got a lot of our decor during Halloween (and at sales after!)

Other websites we used for miscellaneous accessories were:

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

Meet our fave wedding vendors

Comments on Lisa & Kyle’s zombie apocalypse, punk-rock dance party wedding

  1. ZOMG SHOES! This wedding looked amazing! I love the first photo up top too 🙂

  2. Utterly awesome! I wouldn’t have even thought of El Corazon as a venue! Sooo very cool. And that dress! And zombies! And a hot dog vendor?! Perfection!
    Although, I am a Bushmills gal, myself 🙂

  3. Those are the best best BEST Zombie Apocalypse shoes EVAR!!! And the black toenail polish is perfect.

  4. Awesome wedding, period. Amazing dress! Where did you get the brides maides dresses???????

  5. I absolutely love it! So ballsy and so original! I have the zombie heels to and love them! I was hoping to get the company to make me the same ones in black and red for my wedding, but it probably wont happen… so I’ll take some others from Iron Fist. I’m so glad on how your wedding turned out and it really looked like an epic time… one for the books! Congrats!

  6. um, possibly my favourite wedding EVER.
    Everything is absolutely amazing, but my favourite thing? Your hair!!! *swoon* XD (followed by doll parts. doll parts!!!!)

  7. HOLY HELL, best wedding ever. You guys look like a blast. I’m convinced more weddings should have dismembered baby dolls. Seriously, I don’t even have words to say how awesome I think your wedding was.

    Also, sooo envious of your zombie stompers! And your bridesmaids’ dresses!

  8. Neat! I saw this wedding on the Trashy Diva blog (Oh how I love Trashy Diva!) and thought “Must be OBB!”

  9. I could not love this wedding more! Anything zombie-related gets my blood a’pumpin’ and this is just too fantastic. The oxymoronic OCD punk in me also loves that the groom’s dreads match the bride’s petticoat which matches the bride’s shoes. So organized, so satisfying, and SO ATTRACTIVE! You both look fantastic!

  10. this wedding is AWESOME!the dreads just make my day, i’m totally planning on having some zombie elements in my wedding (the zombie shoes in ballet flat form for one thing) but it is extremely satisfying to see a couple go ALL OUT! so SO awesome

  11. thanks folks. I’m jacking your halloween theme wedding ideas. *thumbs up*
    it’s super rad.

  12. Love everything about this! My favorite part though is the fashion–including the groom’s. The dresses and shoes are so great. When people are in clothes that are true to themselves, well, that’s just rad.

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