The Offbeat Bride: Jess, stay-at-home mom (and Offbeat Bride member)

Her offbeat partner: Casey, stabilization driller

Date and location of wedding: Kendall Mountain Lodge, Silverton, Colorado - November 29, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We wanted a small, intimate wedding with no wedding party. Our wedding was going to reflect our personalities, interests, and whatever else we wanted. We got married in an old gold mining town in the mountains that looks like you've stepped back into the 1800s complete with old brothels.

Winter is such a beautiful time of year and we couldn't picture anything but being surrounded by snow, mountains, family, and our closest friends. Both of us also had our hair and makeup done, guyliner and all. We did a first look before the wedding at the train depot where they have an old Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad engine. It was so amazing be able to share that first moment with just each other. We just held each other standing in the snow and all the cold went away.

We love our state of Colorado and everything it has to offer. We wanted our guests to get a small taste of this, literally, by doing an all Colorado bar. Everything we served at our bar was brewed, distilled, and crafted in Colorado, even the soda we used for mixers. Our signature drinks all had names referencing our theme, Snow White & the Huntsman. Our favors tied into our bar too. They were chalkboard shot glasses we made, so everyone got to sample the libations then take home their shot glass.

Tell us about your reception:

We DIYed and collected almost all of our decorations from nature. The table names were Games Of Thrones houses and were decorated in a very earthy feel with antlers, gourds, pine cones, bottles, and birdcages. Casey found a bunch of old bottles from the early 1900s at a job he was working on and we made them into potion bottles with spells from one of our favorite video games, Skyrim.

Food is huge to us so it was no question that an over-the-top plated meal was a must. We chose to have cupcakes over a cake. Casey handmade a stand for them to sit on and our cupcake toppers were ravens, one with a bow and the other with a mohawk.

With a rented P.A. system and a Spotify membership which allowed us to DJ the wedding. It was so awesome to be able to handpick every song we wanted. During dinner we played instrumental covers of our favorite songs, themes from video games, and songs from movies we loved. I think only one guest realized what the music was from.

Our guest book was old mirrors we found at yard sales and we made our own photo booth with some PVC pipe, a shower curtain, and some silly props. We found a photo booth software for free to run on a computer that connected to our camera on a tripod.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? Any other advice for Offbeat Bride readers?

Our biggest challenge was dealing with the fact that we were going to have a much smaller wedding than we imaged. We knew we wanted a small wedding, which to us was about 50. Well our wedding ended up having about 30 guests. Almost all of Casey's blood family could not attend which was very hard on both of us. At the end of the day we had to realize that our "family" was with us, blood or not.

Another huge hurdle we had to overcome happened two days before the wedding on Thanksgiving. We were awoken at seven in the morning to be told that our close friend (pretty much like a brother to Casey) was in a horrible car accident. Since we were having a destination wedding we weren't even home, we were in the town we were getting married in trying to get ready for the wedding. We finally got to talk to him the morning of the wedding and he was able to give us his well wishes. A piece was definitely missing but we felt his love surrounding us.

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