Eni & Andrej's gothic, Yugoslavian wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The offbeat bride: Eni, Public Administrator

Her offbeat partner: Andrej, Computer Programmer

Location & date of wedding: The Berkeley, Toronto, Canada — August 1, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat:

My mother gave me away.
There were NO Flowers except my black lilly bouquet. The bridesmaid's bouquets were made by me out of buttons and wire.

Bridesmaid dresses were ordered from the career section of Victoria's Secret
My gown was red and ordered on eBay. (It was made in China and shipped via mail — I hate trying clothes on in a store.)
Our first dance was a Tango that my love and I practiced for a month and choreographed ourselves.
Our wedding photographer was a queer-photo specialist that I googled and just HAD TO HAVE.

Tell us about the ceremony: We wrote our own vows and we recited them to each other in our native language (Serbo-Croatian).

We could not find an officer to wed us in our native language, but the minister was extremely cool and respected all of our desires. We asked him to wear a black and red cloak which he loved.

We had two of our friends from the wedding party recite two poems in Serbo-Croatian — one from a female author, and one from a male author.

Our biggest challenge: Definitely picking the venue. I was 100% sure that the perfect venue did not exist in all of Toronto since I dislike banquet halls and such. Once we entered The Berkeley, we both stopped breathing for a moment, looked at each other and we knew that our search was over.

My favorite moment: When we danced our tango (that we choreographed and practiced in our underwear on weekends for a month prior our wedding day), it seemed as if the earth stopped moving for five minutes. The whole room was quite, we had all eyes on us, yet we felt as if we were alone.

My dad was killed during the civil war in Bosnia in '93, so it was very emotional for my family when my mother gave me away. My husband lost his mother to cancer in 2006, so the speech given by my sister/maid of honor was very touching — she mentioned all those who couldn't be with us.

In addition, we had many friends who drove ten to twelve hours the night before in order to be with us.

My funniest moment: Our wedding party started drinking really early, so no one was really in their spot, doing what she/he was supposed to be doing. It made the whole night frustratingly funny.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Our speeches — we did not even think about practicing. We each spoke for a few minutes and did more than just thanking everyone. The words just came to us naturally.

Also, we ordered our cake topper from etsy.com and I did not hear from the artist who made it until two days prior the wedding day. He sent it via Fed Ex to my friend in New York who received it a few hours before her flight to Toronto.

My advice for offbeat brides: Go crazy as much as you can during your preparation. Although the husband (to be) might not show any interest right away, give him a chance and just a little bit of time — HE WILL COME AROUND and you won't be able to stop him once he gets going.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? You can overcome anything if you are just a little patient and if you keep your mind open.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?