The Offbeat Bride: Tash, Land sales agent (of body love fame!)

Her offbeat partner: Jay, Pastry Chef/Patisserie owner

Date and location of wedding: Lakeside & Cabaret Cave, Yanchep National Park, Yanchep, Western Australia - November 14, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We had an elegant goth wedding with a vintage vampire queen feel... IN A CAVE! There was no way that we were to have a white, princess-y, cookie-cutter wedding; it would be so uncomfortable as it's just not us at all. I remember, after getting engaged, visiting a bridal expo and oh boy did I feel out-of-place! Everything was the same thing in my eyes. From that moment on I knew that I had to source everything myself.

For the colour theme, think generous servings of black, lashings of burgundy/red, and a pinch of white here and there for contrast. The decor consisted of lots of red roses, black and white stripes, damask print, and black lace.

Here are some highlights: personalized odds and ends (cufflinks, toasting glasses, wishing well chest), my custom-made black wedding dress and veil, amazing burlesque, DIY centrepieces, a coffin ring box, and bleeding candles.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Tall vases with red roses lined the black and white striped aisle runner, leading down to the beautiful willow trees beside the lake at Yanchep National Park.

We decided against having a wedding party - we wanted everyone attending to full enjoy themselves with no responsibilities and the focus to be on us, with only my son by our sides. With no bridesmaids, I walked alone, meeting both of my parents halfway.

We included a sand ceremony to tie my son into the ceremony, blending us as one like the sands combined. It all sounded beautiful, but in reality it was hilarious as the sand spilled everywhere and we all lost it laughing.

Being the metalheads we are, we had to incorporate some sort of metal into the music, even if it was on the softer scale for us. We managed to sneak in some Metallica, and Bullet for my Valentine, and the guests were none the wiser.

Tell us about your reception:

The reception was in a cave and it was incredible! I was so glad to be able to access the cave the day before and set everything up the way I envisioned it so I wasn't stressing about it on the day.

Another highlight were the incredible thrones we hired to sit on. We caught quite a few of our guests sitting on them throughout the night and some even taking selfies on them. We entered to Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and cut the cake to Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams."

We didn't do bonbonnieres/favors as such, instead we put together a candy bar ourselves and decorated black Chinese noodle boxes as name place cards on the tables.

Our guests also had an amazing (and hilarious) time with the open photo booth we hired through our photographer. We added Halloween masks to the prop table and brought our own black damask print curtain for the backdrop. There were 440 photos alone from the photo booth.

What was your most important lesson learned?

Don't be afraid to DIY. I sourced most things on the internet ( Etsy, I love you!) and if I couldn't find it, I made it. Because I had no bridesmaids, I didn't have help at the ready as most brides might. Still, it wasn't as hard as I'd heard. I did have some help from a few family and friends, which was so helpful.

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