As someone who often puts together these bride profiles while watching marathons of Doctor Who, this “geek week” wedding really made me happy. Also it’s a first costumed wedding cat that I know of! -Megan
The offbeat bride: Brenda, software trainer
Her offbeat partner: Rob, High School teacher
Location & date of wedding: Our home, Manchester, NH — 7/18/09
What made our wedding offbeat: From the get-go, our wedding was anything other than traditional. We chose a sci-fi themed wedding based on the the TV show Firefly and movie Serenity, that represented our love of sci-fi and a reason to be eco-friendly.
We did send paper save-the-dates and invites and had actual china and champagne glasses. But our wedding invites included a spinner game with easy character costumes. And our dishes were hunted/gathered from thrift stores. The chairs for our wedding were mostly free, salvaged from the side of the road.
For photos, we did hire a photographer, one of Rob’s former students, but also created a photo site and asked guests to upload photos. It worked out beautifully as we got over 2000 fabulous photos.
For the ceremony, my husband built a life-sized Tardis (from Dr. Who) and we were married in front by his best bud dressed as Princess Leia. The ceremony was a quick ten minutes, constructed that morning and included a surprise addition of a Building 19 discounted Table Talk pie.
There were delicious food, all dishes from our favorite local restaurants and homemade beer.
Last but not least, I did change outfits three times, the last was a traditional white wedding dress to wear during BBQ time. The last dress was a surprise and my loving husband said “What the hell is that?” upon seeing me alight in it.
Did I mention we also managed to have an invite signed by Joss Whedon?
Our biggest challenge: Getting the theme across to people was tough. We found that many people grumbled about it, even though they wouldn’t have bat an eye at a black-tie event. In the end the quick costume spinners made people more at ease and quite a few said they wished they’d watched the show/movie before coming to the wedding.
My favorite moment: It’s completely geeky, but my favorite moment was during the ceremony when everyone responded in chant with “So say we all” (a reference to the new version of Battlestar Galatica series).
My offbeat advice: Have the wedding that feels right for you.
Yes, to some it may seem a little selfish to respectfully require guests to dress in theme, but we were hoping to share much about ourselves (our interests, our relationship, our food, and our home) with those we love. And for us, that was the point.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:
- Main photog – Glenn Sweeney
- Ceremony dress – Faerie Hill Design (altered from the original design Shawna Trpcic)
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
66 responses to “Brenda & Rob’s sci-fi, eco wedding with a Tardis”
Love Firefly and love your wedding! 🙂
YAY! What a great day that was!! Let's do it again!! oh wait…
Oh, this is fabulous! I love everything – the Tardis, the costumes (that cat looks WELL p'd off!), the dinosaur food label thingies (I may nick that ;)), just the whole thing!
I was there and it was awesome!!! Browncoats 4 Life!
totally f'ing AWESOME!!!! I love it!
So so, so so so, so so so so so so so JEALOUS!
Mostly because if FH and I had a Firefly wedding (and we LOVE Firefly) none of my friends would even know what it was, and that's just plain embarrassing!
I love the Tardis! Congrats!`
FINALLY. A Firefly-themed wedding!
I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one who thought of it. BROWNCOATS FTW! No power in the 'verse can stop us from having completely AWESOME weddings!
I love this show and movie! And the fact that that was the wedding theme is fab! LOVE IT!
I love the wedding tree instead of a guest book idea! I so dig geek weddings!
OMG the TARDIS! Duuuude, my best woman is going to lurve this one!
And the cat's outfit is fantastic!
Is one allowed to say that your husband is HAWT!? Love the costume idea.
Why thank you. You are absolutely allowed to say it! <wink> These people thought so too: http://www.cinematical.com/photos/hunks-of-comic-…
Your dress definitely has an Inara-esque look to it, I love it! Congrats!
OMG OMG OMG! I LOVE THIS!! BROWNCOATS FOR LIFE!
Seriously, though, I always thought that a Firefly wedding would be gorgeous and amazing, and this certainly is. Love it.
P.S. If anyone knows where I can get one of those Kaylee spiral parasols, please let me know! I've searched the internets and ccame to the conclusion that they just don't exist.
The one my friend Al used was actually a white parasol that she painted to look like Kaylee's. Al couldn't find an exact match, but I think her's came out perfect.
This is possibly the best thing I've ever seen ever. Brenda and Rob, you win 1337 geek points. I do hope that the groom was reffered to as "Captain Tightpants" at least once.
You are both made of distilled awesome.
Doctor Who AND Firefly? Oh man. It's… just… WOW.
It's both fantastic and super shiny.
Keep flying!
OMG Doctor Who, Firefly, I think I'm gonna faint from excitement!!!
Love Firefly! Awesome wedding, I'm still looking at all the photos
🙂
Fantastic! I just wish the couples I marry could be even 1% as creative!
I love both Firefly/Serenity AND Doctor Who (lol we had a Tardis Caketopper, so I guess that is a wee bit obvious), so I loved this!
You got Joss Whedon to sign your invite? That is the best thing I've EVAR seen! Sweet!
I love the wedding tree! I was looking for a unique guesbook alternative, and I hope you don't mind but I think I am going to steal that idea! Plus I love to paint! Thanks so much! Your wedding was awesome!
But of course! Steal away. That's the awesome-sauce-ness of the OBB, cool people sharing cool ideas.
Your wedding… omg. Amazing.
Then I saw your wedding beer, went "FFFFF WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT" and immediately sent out an email to my brewmaster of a brother/best dude of awesome. SAWEEEEEEET
I love it all. I agree with Aurora – if I had Joss Whedon's signature on one of my invites, I would literally crap my pants in glee every day for the rest of my life.
A Firefly wedding?! Be still my beating heart.
Also, please please please tell the story behind the autographed invite. That is glorious.
It's a little long to post here, but you can check it out on our wedding blog. 🙂
http://bigdamnwedding.blogspot.com/2009/05/weddin…
Doctor Who AND Browncoats AND Star Wars?! I think I am in love with you two.
Hell yes to the TARDIS! (We had two TARDII(?) at ours, but neither were as awesomely massive as yours!!) What an amazing wedding!
One can never have enough Tardii (?). Really, not possible.
Thanks so much everyone for the positive shout-outs. We had a blast and hope this can help give you some ideas for your own wedding fun. Cheers!
too. much. awesome. Firefly/Serenity are my favourite things in the world and adding to that Dr.Who and BSG? You guys are awesome 😀
Ok, we're best friends now. This is seriously awesome!
"So say we all." I LOVE it. LOVE it, LOVE it, LOOOOOVE it!!!
We are HUGE Battlestar Galactica fans in this household. 🙂
It was a complete surprise! We didn't have a rehearsal so we were able to surprise each other with little nuggets. Deb surprised us with that one. There have been posts on OBB about how wonderful not knowing every detail of the ceremony can be and if you're ok with it, I highly suggest it.
PS. Hope you're watching Caprica.
Already married or I'd seriously mull stealing this. Yes, we're watching Caprica! So awesome. But I miss Battlestar so much.
We are also planning a wedding with elements of Firefly (we also have Serenity tattoos).
I love some of these ideas and will be using some.
One of the things we have planned is to have dinosaurs sitting on everyone's plate wishing time a "dinosaur good time"
Love the browncoat mentality.
Love your dress.
Super shiny. Browncoats (and their weddings) rock!
JOSS WHEDON SIGNED YOUR INVITE!!!!! NO WAY!!!!! I'm so jealous.
Our cat will probably murder me in my sleep for asking, but…OMG where did that costume come from?????
It's actually a dog costume but I added a little velcro to hold it around his paws. I bought it after Halloween for $2.50. Good luck with your cat. He/she might not be thrilled, but the pics are damn cute.
I heartily concur with everyone else here- this was totally awesome, thank you for sharing, it looked like an fantastic! good time! 🙂 yay! and congrats!
It was a HUGE honer to be invited to SUCH a spirited and joyous reunion of my cousin and bride!!
Thank you for allowing me to be a guest during such a fabulous occasion!!
I have to say the weeing was definately one of the finest, thought provoking, no airs, relaxing. laid back, at ease weddings I have ever attended!!!!
First, you got married on my birthday!
Second, our officiant included the quote from the end of the Big Damn Movie about Love keeping her in the air when she ought to fall down. He didn't tell us what he was going to say before hand, and it was a fantastic moment (even if a lot of our families had no clue what he was talking about).
Your Kaylee-lookalike buddy is the cutest thing ever! As someone whose ideal wedding dress is the dress Inara wore to the shindig ball, I adore your wedding.
Coolest wedding EVER!!! Me and the spouse are massive Firefly fans, and we bow down to your immense awesomeness!! Loved absolutely everything, you guys did such an awesome job and you both looked gorgeous!
Huge congrats!
Well done indeed! The whole thing looks like you had fun. All of my geek credentials come from Wheedon and Dr. Who and I love what you have included.
So jealous of your Joss-signed invite! Love love the Firefly theme. Now if only we can find a way to get our guests chanting "so say we all" after the toasts…
This is the second time I've seen a wedding on Offbeat Bride that I've actually imagined having for myself prior to reading the post. I have little notes like "so say we all" and "brown coat?" in a notebook to prove it. 😉 This wedding is inspiring because, honestly, it's hard to commit to an idea when it might be really out there for the families…but you did it! I must keep that in mind.
I'm in love with you both. I would toooootally do every single thing here. <3 your TARDIS!!
Wow. Rob could pull off being Dr. Who even without the outfit and police box. Brilliant. Love it.
No power in the verse can stop me from loving Sci-Fi/Fantasy themed weddings, especially Firefly-themed ones!
Looking at your pictures made me think that Mal and Inara were finally getting married. You two look so good. I love the Firefly theme.
I am having Tardis Palpitations. If my husband woulda let me…..ooooooh. SO JEALOUS.
omg sqeeeeeeee! Inara and Mal finally got married!!! Awesome. You guys look like them too.
And Joss signed your invite!! So jealous!!!
I love the one guest that dressed as Pris from blade runner!!!
the whole thing was just adorable XD
This is a brilliant idea, creating a themed wedding… I would totally do something like this…..
Wow.. this is amazing stuff.
OMG!! I didn’t know what my dream wedding was until I saw this! Firefly, Dr Who, Plastic Dinosaurs! Brilliant!
OMG You two are totally the two most awesome people that I know. I am one of those people that watch marathons upon marathons of Doctor Who AND I pretty much have Firefly and Serenity memorized. These are my two favorite shows and you guys totally pulled the wedding off! I look up to you two Browncoats. Mnmm too bad I have this thing where I want a traditional wedding, and I am not too sure my fiance would go for it. He will watch them with me and he likes them but he’s not the geekster wedding type.
luv the wedding!
I know that your wedding was last year- but my boyfriend and I were wondering if you still have the blue prints for the TARDIS? We’ve been searching the internet and we’ve fallen in love with your TARDIS. Please and Thanks!
I am with you – I want to use it to house my photo booth! Seriously, how do you get cooler than getting your picture taken in a TARDIS?
OMG! I LOVE your wedding – I totally want to be your best friend now. 🙂
Hi! My friends have asked me to be the officiant/minister/Shepherd at their wedding, and they want to have a Firefly/SciFi themed ceremony similar to yours. I’m trying to find ideas for what to say, so I’d love to see the video. Seems it’s been taken down, though. Is it posted elsewhere? Thanks!