The Offbeat Bride: Kimberly

Her offbeat partner: Brenton, Performance Instructor for a Distribution Center

Date and location of wedding: The Ironworks Hotel, Beloit, WI - September 19, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

The theme started out as just "masquerade," as I've always wanted to have or attend a masquerade ball, but as we began to brainstorm ideas, we started working bits of ourselves into the details. My husband and I have a large collection of antiques and oddities, and we ended up incorporating different pieces from our home into each of the centerpieces and the decor. Thus, "The Curious Masquerade" was born. Maps, medical models, scientific instruments, antique candelabras, and other various things all got (carefully!) flora-fied and bedecked.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Our ceremony opened with a Kesha song. It sounds like a terrible idea, but "Past Lives" is actually a beautiful song that speaks to us as a couple. We've always felt, from the moment we met, that we already knew each other somehow, some way.

Neither of us are religious, so instead of verses and hymns, we included quotes from authors like Lewis Carroll, and scientists, like Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan. It spoke of the forging of love, much like the forging of our rings, as a primal and imperfect process.

Up to this point, we had (including the crowd) been wearing masks. As we went to read our vows, we removed them as there should be nothing between us but honesty. We wrote our own vows, in secret, so neither of us knew what the other would say. We were worried they would be too similar since we are so alike, so a friend read them the night before. He came back in tears and said we would be fine, as they were nothing alike, and he was very right. We both struggled not to cry while listening to each other and reading our own, which is exactly how it should be.

We kissed, and exited to Lana Del Rey's version of "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty.

Tell us about your reception:

We did a first look, partly to get the photos out of the way early, and partly to relieve tension so that we could actually remember our ceremony. We decided to exchange gifts at this time too. I had commissioned a portrait of us from an artist we liked, which I had framed. He found some vintage medical diagrams and framed them for me. We frame a lot.

For favors, we ordered a bunch of cheap Mardi Gras masks, and I took them all apart and customized them so that no two were the same. Then we set them up on a table for everyone to pick from.

Music is a really big thing for us, so the DJ had kind of a tough job, and a very extensive list. He did great though. We vetoed all of those party dances that they always do at weddings, and opted for techno and electronica mixed with the more popular pop music, a ton of '90s alternative classics, and some of our favorite indie stuff. Our poor DJ.

What was your most important lesson learned?

Two weeks before our wedding, our photographer had medical problems and backed out. She was kind enough to set us up with someone who was willing to do the photography exactly as we had agreed with her, for the same price (which was a lot less than he usually charged). He was very cool, and it was awesome that he was willing to do that for us, but we absolutely hated his photography style. What ensued from there was a frantic grab at anyone we could get our hands on in one of the busiest times of the year for weddings. Let me tell you, we got AWFULLY lucky. Jadon Good, a very successful (and busy) photographer out of Milwaukee, just happened to have nothing to do that day. And we just happened to enjoy his work. So we ended up booking our photographer a week and a half before our wedding, and by some miracle, it worked out perfectly.

For the love of Pete, GET THAT CONTRACT IN WRITING. Cheap, handshake, friend-of-a-friend photography seems like a great idea (I'm a photographer myself and know better!), but don't do it if you have any other option.

My only real suggestion otherwise is to make sure the guests understand the bar situation. My guests ended up drinking the hotel out of Moscato, thinking it was included in their meal, and my parents (who, awesomely, paid) ended up with a hefty bill at the end of the night.

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