Cotton candy, smoke bombs, and LED outfits shine at this wonderfully weird Austin wedding #Real Weddings: Western US#austin#cotton candy#donuts#halloween#multi-colored dress#non-floral bouquet#red hair#short dress#tattooed bride#texas Posted Mar 29 2017 Offbeat Editors Photos by: Ashley Sheridan Photos by Ashley Sheridan The Offbeat Bride: Jane, Administrative Cat Enthusiast Her offbeat partner: Matt, Technology Rescue Date and location of wedding: Voodoo Doughnuts, Austin, TX — October 31, 2016 Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We had a total of 12 guests for the destination weekend, many of whom stayed in the same AirBnb for convenience. We did a costumed outing the night before the wedding where we hired a face painter and many guests had homemade costumes. I wore a sequin dress at the reception dinner and did a surprise costume change for the ceremony. The groom sported a Pokeball boutonniere and PokĂ©mon socks. We're both cat enthusiasts, so cats were featured whenever possible. We didn't have an official wedding party, though I did have a best man who wore Star Trek uniforms all weekend. We also decided to choose a new last name instead of me only taking a new last name! Tell us about the ceremony: We had our ceremony at Voodoo Doughnuts with an officiant dressed as a kitty. Guests were invited to wear loud formal attire or come in costume. We served coffee and donuts. We made a cardboard silhouette from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to adhere to the stage and invited guests to riff our wedding. We wrote our own vows, both of which made references to MST3K. I wore an LED dress that changed colors with a handmade lighted bouquet. Matt had an LED boutonniere, LED shoelaces, and a glow-in-the-dark wedding ring. I ModPodged some amazingly colorful Jessica Simpson heels with Lisa Frank cat stickers for the ceremony and then FORGOT them at the AirBnb! We made our entrance together to Harry Belafonte's "Jump in the Line." Our exit was to "S.O.B" by Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats. After leaving the ceremony venue, we met a man on Sixth Street running for president with his pet goat (you know, keeping it weird), then made our way to the Jackalope Bar where we took turns riding their giant jackalope to close the evening. Tell us about your reception: Since our ceremony was at midnight, we had our reception dinner before the ceremony. We dined at G'raj Mahal on Rainey Street where we had Indian food and discussed the new married surnames we were considering. We had some time to kill so we went to Craft Pride, featuring the black velvet wallpaper of my glam goth dreams, where we ordered a mega flight of 50 beers (one of every draft beer on the menu) before hopping in the limo and heading to Sixth Street for the ceremony. What was your most important lesson learned? Did you know that cotton candy melts? It starts out fluffy, then absorbs all the moisture in the air and becomes a sugary rock within an hour. I made my bouquet out of cotton candy, and by the end of the hour-long portrait session, it was completely unusable. Tissue paper flowers had to be used for the remainder of the evening, including the ceremony. We also learned that you can't use prepackaged cotton candy to make a bouquet as the texture is too dense. In a pinch, Golden Corral (yes, the buffet restaurant) is a purveyor of fresh spun cotton candy! We also learned that murals in Austin get painted over frequently. The morning before we took our photos, we learned the mural we selected had been painted over so we panicked and had to find a new one before our portrait session. We also learned that smoke bomb photography is a challenge for certain cameras and you should buy a ton of extras if you plan on trying it. After the ceremony, we noticed a banner in the background that featured the word "cock." When I asked around, I was told it was left in the venue from a liquor promotion they hosted. I was pretty annoyed the venue carelessly left it on the stage so it would be in EVERY wedding photo we had. A month after the wedding, our friends confessed they drunkenly moved it there. Our poor photographer spent hours Photoshopping the banner to read "cook" instead just so we'd feel less awkward sharing our photos with coworkers & relatives. We learned our friends are jerks. Vendors Groom's Suit: Opposuits Groom's Boutonniere: Printable Nerds Groom's LED Shoelaces: Flashingo Bridal Hair and Makeup: Method Hair Bride's ceremony earrings: TogaParyCentral Bride's Fiber Optic Dress: RaveNation Bride's Sequin Dress: Oleg Cassini via Braxae Bride's cotton candy earrings: IncredInedible Gallery This slideshow requires JavaScript. PREVIOUS 5 butt-saving reasons I need my wedding planner NEXT We heart the pink dress and hanky bags at this rustic barn wedding Show/Hide comments [ 10 ] LOVE everyone's fashion sense!!! Wow! Reply Those dresses are amazing! Reply This girl is one rad muffin. Matt's pretty kosher too. Reply Not my vision for my nuptials…but these people ROCK! I would have joined them in a heartbeat for their major off beat fun…a wedding that will truly be a memorable story to tell the grand-kids…hope they left one or two pics with the cock banner…I mean who wouldn't love a reference to male poultry in their wedding pics? Love it all! Reply Amazing wedding! I'd love to see a post on how you chose your new last name? Me and my fiance would love to do the same but are having trouble finding something that a) isn't already taken by people we know/famous people and b) we wouldn't be embarrassed about explaining why we chose it to people. Reply It is so challenging! We ran into those issues as well. Additionally, we kept throwing out names that were references to our fandoms and there was a lot of concern about how that would age with us over time. At one point we were so overwhelmed with indecision we almost left it up to a charity voting campaign where strangers could submit one vote for each verified charity dollar donation. We were going to call the campaign, "Name Us For Good." We didn't end up going that route, so that hashtag/branding is up for grabs if anyone wants to use it to ease their own indecision. Reply Friends of mine did this and they chose an ancestral surname that had 'died out' and they both liked. Reply Crazyyy, very interesting idea! Reply I love everything about this, I can't even describe how much. You guys made your day your own and it was awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂 Reply This is so inspiring! Reply Join the conversation Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. Make sure you're familiar with our no-drama comment policy. Biz owners & wedding bloggers Please just use your real name in your comment, not your business name or blog title. Our comments are not the place to pimp your website. If you want to promote your stuff on Offbeat Bride, join us as an advertiser instead.
Not my vision for my nuptials…but these people ROCK! I would have joined them in a heartbeat for their major off beat fun…a wedding that will truly be a memorable story to tell the grand-kids…hope they left one or two pics with the cock banner…I mean who wouldn't love a reference to male poultry in their wedding pics? Love it all! Reply
Amazing wedding! I'd love to see a post on how you chose your new last name? Me and my fiance would love to do the same but are having trouble finding something that a) isn't already taken by people we know/famous people and b) we wouldn't be embarrassed about explaining why we chose it to people. Reply
It is so challenging! We ran into those issues as well. Additionally, we kept throwing out names that were references to our fandoms and there was a lot of concern about how that would age with us over time. At one point we were so overwhelmed with indecision we almost left it up to a charity voting campaign where strangers could submit one vote for each verified charity dollar donation. We were going to call the campaign, "Name Us For Good." We didn't end up going that route, so that hashtag/branding is up for grabs if anyone wants to use it to ease their own indecision. Reply
Friends of mine did this and they chose an ancestral surname that had 'died out' and they both liked. Reply
I love everything about this, I can't even describe how much. You guys made your day your own and it was awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂 Reply