I am SUPER excited that we're finally featuring OBT member Lara‘s wedding. You might remember Lara from when I featured her custom drawn “Geeky Love” invitations and then again when we featured her very meta wedding favors. Yay for Lara and her awesomely geeky wedding! -Megs

us outside the venue

The offbeat bride: Lara, Illustrator (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Steve – Project Manager

Location & date of the wedding: Le Gothique restaurant in London, UK — June 19, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted our wedding to be personal and to reflect us as we really are. And that is geeky! So we decided to stop fighting it and just embrace our geeky natures with the ceremony and decorations and called on the fabulous skills of our friends and family who are amazing and really made the day.

CeremonyI illustrated all the invites and made the decorations (hurrah paper cranes!), and favors, which were little scrolls with favors inside — such as us making them cupcakes or helping them move house! We had pixel images of characters like Pikachu and Tails instead of table numbers, family members played live music (including the Windwaker theme tune!) during the ceremony and in the evening. We had a film, tv and general knowledge quiz during dinner and did a joint speech. The Mario and Yoshi cupcakes were a big hit and a six foot cardboard cut out of the Laputa robot managed to arrive at the reception as did Han Solo and Leia!

Tell us about your ceremony: Mum and Dad walked me down the gravel path “aisle” to meet Steve. It meant a lot to me to have them both there. Lara&steve_0476

In England you cannot have a civil ceremony outside. It has to be inside a registered building or structure. Luckily, we were able to have most of the wedding outside. We sat the guests in the cute little garden of our venue and stepped inside the doorway for the legal part of the ceremony!

The Registrar who conducted the ceremony was great. She was very easy going about the changes we had requested and our choices of readings. Steve's brother read A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton and Steve's Mum read I'll be there for you by Louise Cuddon. centrepiece

While we signed the register my Mum and three of my brothers played the Windwaker theme tune. Fantastic!

My favorite moment: Lara: standing in the hallway with my Mum and Dad just before walking in to the ceremony and feeling really supported and loved as they tried to make me laugh! Seeing Steve waiting for me and realizing that I wasn't nervous at all about actually getting married. Listening to my family playing the Windwaker music (I know it probably seems a bit odd, but the effort they put into learning this music for us and doing such a brilliant performance of it brought a lump to my throat).

Steve: my brother Andy doing a really good reading during the ceremony. The actual, you know, wedding bit! Our first dance because it was so geeky and fun.

Confetti

My funniest moment: The speeches from the chief best man and my Dad were genuinely funny and sweet. During the quiz everyone got really competitive which was hilarious to watch! There was also some quality dancing later on in the evening. thankyou illustration

Our biggest challenge: Keeping the various interested parties happy! Lots of people gave advice and suggestions, which were great but sometimes conflicted with each other or our own ideas. We took everything they said on board and tried our best to find ways to compromise because we wanted everyone to enjoy the wedding! At the end of the day if it was something we felt really strongly about, we stuck to our guns, if not, we let it go. Many of the things we compromised over ended up being all the better for it.

First dance (and the dress does its thing!)Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? We were nervous about the first dance as we're both a little clumsy and made up our dance moves the week before the wedding! We really wanted people to dance while my brother and his wife did a set of brilliant cover songs. We figured the best way to get them to dance was to start it off ourselves! We danced to the James Bond Theme tune!

Luckily on the day it all came together (with help from the dress which swished out very satisfyingly when I spun around!) and I only forgot one of the moves which hopefully nobody noticed apart from Steve! Everyone was laughing and clapping so I think they enjoyed it too, which was the main thing we were hoping for! And it did the trick, everyone danced the night away!
Lara&steve_1475
Advice for offbeat brides: Sit down with your partner and make a list of things that are really important to you both and see how you can fit those in. Ask for help from friends and family – you will be amazed how awesome they are! It meant a lot to us and I think they enjoyed being part of the day too. Stop worrying, it will be a great day! The awesome seating plan

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Teamwork! When Steve and I work together we get cool stuff done! Obviously we had worked together before this for various things, but nothing so complicated. It was great to see that when we use our powers for good, we are able to create something special!

It was also great to learn how supportive and enthusiastic all our friends and family were. I was a little nervous that some would find our wedding too strange and think we were not taking our vows seriously. I should have had faith in them from the very beginning because they were all fantastic.
Glassy heels
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Comments on Lara & Steve’s colorful DIY geek-fest wedding

  1. My favourite offbeat wedding 🙂

    I love the way you tackled the non outdoors wedding law, I think we might have to borrow that one.

  2. Such a beautiful wedding! I really love your shoes. They are super cute!!! And the seating chart and the pixel table “numbers”. I’m pretending the black mage is the one and only: Vivi! Vivi gets represented. Sweet! 🙂

  3. OMGBBQ! Windwaker? As in Zelda? As in, are we related? 😉 Such beautiful music from an awesome game! Also: the black mage! *swoon*

  4. I hate shoes. Not a shoe girl. These shoes? I ate them up. Om-nom-nom. Whoop, I just Dorothy’d them away.

  5. The cake is soooo unique.. I love that idea a picture of art couple and those flowers added on to the cake!! I am learning to do art or decorate cakes and it must have taken awhile to do the flowers!! congrats to the couple!!!

    • The cake was made by Steve’s Mum, though she’s not professional I think she should be! She came up with the idea of using the picture from our invite and the little flowers- it was so fab!

      Thanks for all the lovely messages everyone!

  6. dress, shoes, cake, table pictures, Batman cufflinks… I think I’m having an awesome overload!
    Everything looks lovely and fun and fantastically geeky. 😀

  7. OMG I love this wedding! So many cute details – the dress, the shoes, the cake.. I love it all! 🙂

  8. Blast… I’d talked myself out of the Vivian of Holloway dress for reasons I can’t even remember now, but one twirl shot and all other options go out the window…I LOVE THAT DRESS!

  9. Awesome! Love all the geeky details, the picture on the cake, and Want the turquoise petticoat! ;D

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