How We Did A “Geek Chic” Wedding

 

My husband and I met and bonded over Dungeons & Dragons in February of 2009. We shared our first drink, a Ghostbuster themed shot, while toasting to Egon. My husband and friends LARPed during his proposal to me back in May 2012. (Watch it here.) We were married at the St. James Hotel in Red Wing, Minnesota on July 13, 2013 and just celebrated our first anniversary of marriage and fifth anniversary of being together last month.

When we first began to plan our wedding, he really wanted to throw an all-out secular geek celebration. I was hesitant and maybe a little resistant to the idea after thinking about how my non-geeky friends and family might react to such an “out there” wedding. I felt that I might end up being judged and shunned as a “weirdo.” I hesitantly talked about it with the lesser geeky members of my family, and found out that most of the people I was hesitant about either weren’t coming/couldn’t come, or didn’t really care what kind of wedding it was as long as it was what made us happy.

I dove into sites like The Offbeat Bride and Pinterest, looking for weddings similar to what I wanted, and uncovered a wealth of other “geek chic” weddings with Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and mishmash geekery. I was thrilled. After being reassured by both my husband and family that this was our day, not anyone else’s, I fell head first into wedding geekery.

Here are some of the geeky details:

• My dress: Bought at Davids Bridal, inspired by The Legend of Zelda series.

• My shoes: Sparkly purple strap pumps from Payless. (Unfortunately they lasted only seconds after the ceremony ended. I am not a heel person. I spent the rest of the reception in flip flops. One of my biggest bride tips is to wear shoes you will be comfortable in and have your dress altered to those shoes! My dress was hemmed with these heels on and they were excruciatingly painful because I (like a moron) did not break them in properly.)

• My gorgeous Celtic/LOTR inspired moonstone jewelry (circlet, necklace, and earrings) by Etsy artist Camias.

• Flowers (pictured above) by Inspired Home & Flower Studio in Red Wing, MN. They also did some lovely centerpieces for us.
• Handmade Avengers+ boutonnieres crafted from action figures by my husband. (Pictured in top picture: Nick Fury; Not Pictured: Green Lantern, Jean Luc Picard, Hawkeye, and HALO’s Master Chief)
  

  Captain America (Groomsman), Thor (Groomsman), Ironman (Groomsman), Batman (Best Man)

  

  Superman (Father of the Groom), Spiderman (Ring Bearer), Black Widow (Usherette)

• Our bouquets and flower girl basket featured dangling My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic figurines. (Unfortunately not pictured.)
• My sister sang a lovely English version of Serenade from Fruits Basket, arranged by YouTube’s Erutan (katethegreat19). (See in “Ceremony” video below!)
• Our poem reading was “How Falling In Love is Like Owning A Dog” by Taylor Mali.
• We had “theme songs” for our processional including music from HALO, Angry Birds, Austin Powers, and others. (See in “Processional” video below!)
• The traditional Bridal March was replaced by the 25th Anniversary Legend of Zelda Symphony Theme Medley. (See in “Processional video below!)
• Our recessional was Geeks In Love by Lemon Demon.
• Our ceremony was handcrafted by myself, my husband, and our Master Chief of Ceremony, Clayton Rutschow (a published Sci-Fi author, check him out on Amazon! His book is available in print and Kindle!) which included references to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, “Single Ladies,” and many others, ending with a rousing chant of “So Say We All” from Battlestar Galactica. Even my non-geek family/friends got into it!
• The “Knot-Tying” unity ceremony. (A hoopy frood always knows where his towel is!)

• We used a gold leaf version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy instead of a Bible. (Pictured above)
• Our programs: (Designed by myself.) Based on the program from this wedding on Offbeat Bride.

• Our Invites/Save the Dates (Artwork by Carl Thompson) The back had a picture of a whale and a pot of petunias (drawn by me) with a link to the “Wedsite” my husband created for our guests, complete with RSVP form.

• Awesome photography by Colleen Austin of Midnight Photography and Graphics. She was AMAZING and did everything we wanted including some fun ones:

• Our TARDIS wedding cake (lactose and gluten free for my dietary concerns) by the amazing and lovely Janan Juliff, The Cake Diva based out of Minneapolis.

• I custom designed our table signs with spaceships from various Sci Fi franchises, the head table being the Death Star, of course.
• In lieu of that annoying glass clinking, we opted to use a big TARDIS blue and gold 20-sided die for our “kissing” tradition. Guests had to come up and roll the dice. If the result was an 11-20, we would kiss. If the result was a 10 or lower, they had to find someone to kiss! It was great and we didn’t get interrupted while we were eating dinner which is one of my wedding pet peeves.
• Our guestbook was a River Song inspired “Spoilers” book from ThinkGeek. “Give us spoilers about life the universe, and everything.” We even got Weird Al Yankovic to sign it when we met him at a Barnes & Noble! (He made sure to remind us to floss!)
• Our DJ was also one of our good friends, Dusty Jostes of (aptly named) Firefly DJ & Sound and played everything from Weird Al to Gangnam Style to Bohemian Rhapsody, which got us some great photos of our buddies air guitaring and singing along.

Overall, I’m extremely glad I got over my fears of having a “weird” wedding and embraced my geeky side. Everyone who came, even the ones who didn’t get all of our references, said it was one of the most fun and unique weddings they’d ever been to. I still have people raving about it to me which is a great feeling. I wouldn’t have changed a thing and couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of my family, friends, and amazing personal attendant. If you’re having doubts or hesitating about having the wedding YOU want, remember it’s for YOU and your partner, and not for anyone else!

My uncle was kind enough to film the ceremony. Please check them out on YouTube! (You can watch us all cry a lot and be weirdos.)

The Processional Video

The Ceremony Video