The Offbeat Bride: Jessica, Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable Coordinator

Her offbeat partner: Tim, HVAC Technician

Date and location of wedding: Exploration Place, Wichita, KS - April 4, 2015

Tell us about the ceremony:

We all walked down the aisle to Vitamin String Quartet's cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love." Because the groom is ordained himself, we chose to write our own ceremony since we had access to a plethora of material and books. We were lucky to find a minister who supported us taking the creative reins.

During the ceremony, there was a wine box ceremony. A close friend of ours (who is a very talented artist) decorated a wine box for us, which we the put in a bottle of wine and two unread love letters to each other. The idea is to open the box on our fifth (or tenth, whichever we decide) anniversary, drink the wine, and read the letters. If we reach a time of marital turmoil, we will open the box during that time to help remind us why we made our commitment to each other. After the ceremony and our public announcement, we exited to Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage."

Tell us about your reception:

During the ceremony, I had worked very hard at keeping my emotions at bay (cant ruin the makeup that early!). After we exited, I turned around and saw that my eight-year-old daughter (also a flower girl) was red-faced and crying from happy emotions. That's when I lost it.

The reception was very free-flowing. We went straight from the ceremony into dinner. The open bar also opened up right after the ceremony to make sure everyone who wanted to partake could. The table décor was created by me. I purchased vases and added red glitter on them and topped the glitter with black and white polka dot ribbon. The vases were filled with fresh red roses and black glittery twigs. Under the vase I used black decorative cake doilies to separate the red in the vase from the red on the table runners. Fake red rose petals and black and red table jewels were sprinkled around each vase.

After dinner we cut the cake. But first, not without a hiccup. I totally forgot to buy cake servers. Luckily, a guest had a large tanto (knife) on his hip. We sanitized it and use that to cut our cake.

What was your most important lesson learned?

I was lucky. For us, it was a rather smooth ride. I think our ever-growing guest list (and not growing budget) probably stressed me out most.

I would advise planning early. I had a little over a year from engagement date to wedding day. We purchased everything as we went and booked the big stuff early. We ended up leaving our reception with ZERO wedding debt. I also made it a point to put our money where it really mattered to us: photography, venue, cake, dress, and food.... the rest I was able to piece together on a budget.

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