The Offbeat Bride: Hannah, Esthetician

Her offbeat partner: Mark, Graphic Designer

Date and location of wedding: Denton Downtown Courthouse Lawn, Denton, TX - April 25, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We wanted a simple, laid back wedding that represented who we are in all our quirky greatness and the eclectic things we love. Our ceremony was held at the spot where Mark proposed and where we go to hang out in our free time, the Denton Courthouse Lawn, aka our town's own back yard for everyone.

There were the running themes of tattoos, skulls, vintage clothing styles, VW Buses, and mod gardening accents throughout our ceremony and reception. We tried to show off who we are as people and as a couple.

Tell us about the ceremony:

The decorations were simple. They included a rug for us to stand on with floral strands and succulents in painted gold pots beside it. We had guests bring blankets to sit on the lawn. My daughter, who walked me down the aisle, and I hid in a coffee house across the street until it was time for us to walk. We walked down the aisle, which was the sidewalk that runs through the courthouse lawn, to Jason Mraz's "Best Friend."

We both wrote our own vows and had a friend marry us who knew each of us before we even knew each other. We kept religion out of our ceremony because we have different religious views, me being Christian and my husband being more spiritual. We wanted it to be more about us and our story. We walked back down the aisle to "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness.

Immediately after the wedding we had a classic VW Bus waiting with which to take our wedding party photos. My daughter and I love those old buses so it was something I had to include.

Tell us about your reception:

The reception was in an old Methodist church. We utilized the parking lot and had yard games outdoors. Indoors we had a table with skull coloring sheets and crayons, plus temporary tattoos and glow bracelets for the kids. There were retro games for the adults and retro-style sodas in bottles for everyone to sip on while they waited on us to arrive at the reception.

The decor on the tables were round mirrors covered in bright green moss with mod glass candlestick holders, gold polka dot indented tea light holders, a single succulent in mini white pots, and terrariums that I made out of mason jars. Each jar was filled with moss and miniature items that represented either my husband or myself. For example, I have a thing for garden gnomes, so one had a little gnome with a rake and pot with mushrooms in it. We also collect records so another had a tiny white chair with little records on it and records all in the moss as well.

Our cake, which was made by a childhood friend of mine, was covered in black fondant and made to look like a chalkboard. It had the same skulls that were on our invitations in white. We had a sit-down dinner provided by my tattoo artists' husband who just so happens to be an amazing chef. Dinner included chicken in a bechamel sauce, a seafood soup, a pistachio and watermelon salad, and bananas foster for dessert.

What was your most important lesson learned?

Our biggest challenge was finding a reception venue that would fit all of our guests and wouldn't cost us a fortune. We tried to keep our wedding as cost-effective as we could because we refused to go broke or into debt from our big day. We paid for it ourselves so that was important to us, plus we were more focused on how excited we were just to be married to each other and not on having an expensive super impressive wedding.

We were lucky enough to have friends with wedding related talents, who were kind enough to offer up those talents as their gift to us in order to make it all affordable. That being said, I'd tell readers not to be pressured into spending more than they want to for their wedding. You can have a special wedding without a huge bill to pay. Make decor yourself and start your DIY projects as soon as you get engaged. Spread out your costs throughout the engagement and always keep looking to see if you can get a better deal on what you're wanting.

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