Lizzie & Chris' slope-side snow lovers wedding • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride)

The offbeat bride: Lizzie, snowboard instructor

Her offbeat partner: Chris, ski instructor

Date and location of wedding: Okemo Mountain Resort (the resort where we work), Ludlow, VT — March 7, 2012

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We picked Wednesday, March 7 because that was our third year anniversary, and having our wedding on a weekday enabled us to have it on the slope without a bunch of strangers lingering about.

It was held at Okemo Mountain Resort where we both work as full-time instructors, and the reception was at The Outback (not the steakhouse), a rustic bar down the road from the resort. I didn't want a formal, sit-down meal, just a relaxed and fun time. I also didn't want people to feel like they had to stay late, since it was a Wednesday, so we did everything right away. The wedding party danced in, and we went right into our first dance and used the same song (“Married Life” from the soundtrack of the movie Up) for our first dance, father/daughter, and mother/son dance. Then we ate, made some speeches, and cut the cake.

Our whole wedding party skied or snowboarded down the aisle, and we stood under an arbor made out of our old skis and snowboards that my father and brother-in-law built. The aisle was marked off with ribbon and ski poles that were stuck in the ground.

I was lucky to find a jacket with both teal and white on it. Chris rocked a teal jacket and a Duck Hunt tie that showed his gamer side.

I made my own cake. It was a pound cake with butter cream frosting that looked like snow. The cake toppers (snowboarder bride and skier groom) were custom-made. I also made our favors which were an E&C made from sugar cookies.

We tried to keep the costs down as much as possible. The only flowers we had were the bouquets and boutonnieres. We also didn't have to pay for the wedding or reception venue, only the food, drinks, and DJ. We had an open bar for the first hour that Chris' grandparents paid for as a gift.

My brother in-law made our centerpieces by cutting different heights of birch branches and drilling a whole in the top for a candle. A set of three different sizes were placed on each table with simple table runners that I made. I tried to keep everything really simple and easy so that I wouldn't get stressed over the little things. And it worked!

Tell us about the ceremony: We are not religious at all, so I wanted a ceremony that was upbeat and reflected our personalities. One of the poems we read was “Oh Tell Me The Truth About Love” by W.H. Auden.

Here are our vows:

I Lizzie take you Chris to be my wicked awesome husband. As my best friend I promise to encourage you, and be open and honest with you; To laugh with you, and cry with you; Through zombie attacks and through powder days, for richer for poorer, in sickness or in health, and to love and cherish you to infinity and beyond.

Our biggest challenge: We couldn't agree on how we wanted to do vows. I wanted to do the repeating thing and he wanted to write his own. This was a huge bone of contention for a few months. In the end, we decided to do both.

My favorite moment: My mom passed away when I was 13 so to honor her memory, and the memory of other loved ones, I added a pink rose to my bouquet as part of the ceremony. There were definitely some tears during that part.

My advice for Offbeat Brides: So many people are going to tell you to slow down and take everything in. I tried to make sure that there weren't a lot of little details that I needed to waste time worrying about, and that seemed to help.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I definitely learned that Chris and I had a few communication issues we needed to work out in order to work as a team to achieve the outcome we wanted. Communication is SO important, and we were able to find ways to make it work.