Hope & Gavin’s Head banging, Footy sock, Pantsing party Wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Hope, Lawyer & part-time politician (and OBT member “Hopium.”)

Her Offbeat Partner: Gavin, Engineer and “cannon fodder”

Location & date of wedding: Stony Range Botanical Gardens, Dee Why, Sydney, AUS — 6/6/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: There are numerous items that make it a little unusual. I think it’s the personal touches that make a wedding offbeat — well, how many you can get away with.

My little brother pantsed himself in front of all the guests. It was a stunt for my father’s speech. My Umpa (Grandpa), my brother, sister, and my dad all wore footy (Rugby) socks of our team! I wore footy socks. One for my team, one for the husbands. They match the Converse shoes very well! And the green in the wedding dress. Oh, the green!

The first dance. My brother was MC. He introduced the song as “reminiscent of a big ship, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.” The guests all went “Awwwwwwwwww.” Of course it was “My Heart Will Go On,” by the Screaming Jets. We head-banged for our first dance. And the piper — he was brilliant. The bridespeople walked in to the piper playing “Every Sperm is Sacred,” from Monty Python. I walked in to him playing “Thunderstruck,” by AC/DC. That’s very difficult. But AWESOME!

For our photos, we took a bushwalk. Much to the interest of Japanese tourists and dog-walkers.The Kombi [editor’s note: aka. VW bus] — it was magnificent. The cake toppers, known as “Feegles.” The Slushee cocktail machines. Few people were drunk at the wedding. Most had a sugar high. And the lolly throwaway bouquet!

There are many other reasons but well… not enough room here…

Our biggest challenge: The biggest hurdle was money. We cut back wherever we could. A few tips:

Scour ebay. Sometimes the bargains are cheaper than hiring! We got our chaircovers from ebay. 150 of them for $50. They were dark silver and needed repairs.

Make your own decorations — who needs flowers anyway? I again got candle holders from ebay, garden stones, water and spanish moss. The were really pretty.

Catering — cocktail food with substantials. Yum, less formal and people were full enough. You don’t need waiters. People are capable of serving themselves. My friends also pitched in without me knowing, they heated and served some food.

Who needs a DJ? I filled my laptop with music.

Venue — I picked a Council hall with spectacular views. Cheap to hire. But you do need to clean at the end.

Photos — A friend did ours! We have buddies that are artists so they went for it. The photos are pretty groovy.

My favorite moment:
Hope: When the celebrant said “You may now kiss the bride”, Gavin said “finally!!” Then we kissed. Then eskimo kissed. Then a great big hug! A close second is my Grandma reading the poem she wrote for the occasion. She’s 85 and was in tears. Big hugs for Grandma!
Gavin: Most of it!!

My advice for other offbeat brides: Although you should do what you want — try to get the family involved. Having Grandma write a poem for the ceremony was fantastic. Gav’s mum also read a Robbie Burns poem chosen by his dad. The mums also knotted the ribbons for our handfasting ceremony. When they have roles like that, it can be easier to get away with what you want!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Dress – Wai Ching
• Cakes – The Cupcake Room
• Caketoppers – PJSM
  * Prints
• Venues – Stony Range Botanic Garden and Tramshed Arts Community Centre

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!: