Katie & Mario's vintage vaudevillian evening of magic & love • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

You've seen photos from this wedding of a magician & his assistant on Offbeat Bride before, but now it's time for all the glorious details …

The offbeat bride: Katie, magician's assistant & director of magic company

Her offbeat partner: Mario, magician

Location & date of wedding: The Lounsbury House, Ridgefield CT. October 11th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: As a magician and his assistant, we have a kind of unique lifestyle, and we really just wanted to share that with our family and friends.

In our everyday life, we are very inspired by all things vintage & vaudevillian. We love old silent films, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and we incorporated as much of that era and attitude as possible.

We chose a venue consisting of several smaller rooms as opposed to one large banquet hall. This encouraged lots of movement and mingling. It was great to see everyone interacting!

We put our hearts into every details. I hand-drew a playing card caricature of us and then Goccoed it onto the cover of our programs. Our favors were postcards of vintage magic posters, and every guest got a hand-sewn felt “faux-stache.”

We encouraged our guests to dress in vintage-inspired garb, but kept the era loose (late 1800s to early 1900s) to make it easier, and kept it optional, so as not to annoy anyone. We were shocked at the amount of people who dresses vintage. Everyone looked stunning, and we really felt like we had stepped into a time warp.

Our biggest challenge: 1. The invite list! We really wanted it to be an intimate affair, and that meant keeping our guest list to close family and best friends only. This wasn't always easy to explain, but we are very fortunate to have very understanding families.

2. I made the mistake of bringing my bridesmaids to a bridal shop for their dresses. It was a total nightmare. The dresses were fabulous, but it wasn't worth the trouble we went through dealing with horrible bridal shop people and their attitudes, lies, and disorganization. As soon as we had our hands on the dresses, we got out of there and had them altered elsewhere.

My favorite moment: My handsome poppy walked me down the stairway to an amaaazing rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.” It was moving, upbeat, and put a real hop in our step.

My offbeat advice: Get all the big and/or boring stuff out of the way as early as possible, so you can focus on fun details for the bulk of the months leading up to your big day.

My favorite vendors ‘n' stuff: