Hayley & Stephen’s 1950s polka dot wedding

The offbeat bride: Hayley, Customer Advisor

Her offbeat partner: Stephen, Theatre Technician

Date and location of wedding: Bury Town Hall, UK — April 26, 2011

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: When I was younger, I always thought that I would hop on a plane to Vegas when I got married to cut out on all the hassle and stress. However, after two children and a nan who was reminding me that she didn’t have much time left, we decided to have a family wedding in the UK.

Due to having a young family, we were on a pretty tight budget. We both decided we would be happy with a simple registry office affair, but then the idea of having a theme crept into my head. I have always been in love with all things ’50s. After only a few weeks of us being together, I had told Stephen how good he would look dressed as a Teddy Boy, and he said if there was ever an occasion for it then he would. I think I had found the occasion!

Having trained as a stage manager, I was keen to make as many items as possible to try and keep the costs down. We also had a lot of help from our friends. Without them, the makeup, hair, photography, wedding cake, and button holes would have been a mess.

Tell us about the ceremony: The majority of the ceremony was a pretty standard registry office wedding affair. We did try and inject some of our personality by having my dad, daughter, and her teddy bear walk me down the aisle to “Rave On” by Buddy Holly. Our son and his teddy bear stood with Stephen and the best man. After the ceremony, we walked back down the aisle to the theme tune from Happy Days.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was finding a date that all our friends could attend as most of them work in theatre. We originally had set a date in February, but realised that none of Stephen’s friends from work would be able to make it. So we decided to move it to a Tuesday in April as this is normally a quiet time in the world of theatre.

Two months before the wedding we found that an ice show had been booked for the day after our wedding, so a lot of his friends would be spending our wedding day loading in staging and waiting for water to freeze. Luckily a couple of them managed to get the day off and were able to attend. One of whom being our wonderful photographer, Andy.

My favorite moment: At the end of our first dance, “I Love How You Love Me” by Beth Orton, we got our children up on the dance floor with us. It was such a tender moment that I will always treasure.

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? Stephen’s drape jacket had to be specially made. Unfortunately, a mistake was made when taking his arm measurement, so when his jacket arrived the sleeves were far too long. The jacket arrived on the Saturday before the wedding, so we spent the Sunday trying to find a shop that was open and would do alterations overnight. We found a little shop that was closed, but had a contact number in the window. We rang it and a lovely lady took pity on us and allowed us to come around to her home to drop off the jacket and pick it up the next day. What a star!

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I recommend investing in a good wedding band, if that’s your thing. The nighttime entertainment can make or break the atmosphere. Our wedding band was a rockabilly three-piece called Wild. They not only looked the part, but they had everyone up on the dance floor.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Photography: friends of the couple, Andy Meyers and Keith Seddon
• Bridesmaid dresses: Vivien of Holloway
• Daughter’s dress: Etsy seller Loverdoversclothing
• Drape jacket: Rockers England
• Son’s drape jacket: Charismatic Cloth
• Cake: Owen’s Designer Cakes
• Band: Wild

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!