Cotton candy, smoke bombs, and LED outfits shine at this wonderfully weird Austin wedding

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 Pokémon 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

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