Harry Potter Engagement
BEST ENGAGEMENT EVER! Daniel, time to step up.
Major thanks to Dana for pointing this out to me.
Showing posts with label geektastic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geektastic. Show all posts
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Coolest RSVP EVER!
Soooooo, I may or may not have invited two of my favorite authors to my wedding.
I may or may not have written them notes with their invitations saying I wanted them to know that without their books, Daniel and I probably never would have met.
And I may or may not have received a response from one of them last week.
If I did, it would look like this:
It also would have included a gift of an entire book series, signed to us specifically.
If that had happened, I might say that the author was awfully kind and thoughtful.
So why would I invite two famous authors to my wedding? Well, when I started middle school, I was kind of over reading. I loved books when I was little, but I was a lot more interested in cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics by the ripe old age of 10. It was not until I read The Seven Songs of Merlin by T.A. Barron that I regained the love I had once had for reading. After that, I was unstoppable. And when I finally gave in to the hoard's demands and saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in theaters, I was in love, and that love was slow to ebb.
We haven't been through Daniel's and my origin story in a while, so let's recap, shall we? Berkeley has a program called Decal that allows undergrads to teach full-on courses to other undergrads, and everyone can get credit for it. Within Decal is a club called BookWorlds which teaches exclusively on fantasy and sci-fi novels, specifically on worlds that exist only in books. My freshman year, I searched obsessively for a class on Harry Potter and found one my second semester through BookWorlds. Our officiant, Nicole, was the lead teacher for this class, and since she and Daniel were friends, Daniel hung out in our class a lot. We'd noticed each other, but it wasn't until I decided I wanted to teach that we actually got to know each other. Three days of obsessive facebooking, AIMing (yes, it was that long ago), and emailing later, we had our first date, and the rest is history (some of it fantastical).
So you see, if I hadn't read Harry Potter, we never would have met. And if I hadn't read The Seven Songs of Merlin, I probably wouldn't have read Harry Potter. I feel like I owe the authors something for that. I probably owe as much to J.R.R. Tolkien since BookWorlds would not have happened without The Lord of the Rings, but he's dead, so getting him an invitation would be tricky, and honestly, who has the time for that kind of thing?
The response/gift I may or may not have received from T.A. Barron was not completely out of the blue. We've met. Actually, he's met Daniel too though he doesn't really remember. The first class I taught was on his Lost Years of Merlin series, and I asked him to come and speak to our class. He obliged by meeting with us privately before a talk at a book store (in San Jose, funnily enough), and we've been in loose contact ever since. We met up when he had an event in San Francisco, I told him about my sorrow of never getting to see Stonehenge up close (damn preservation attempts!), and I spoke in a documentary he was doing about kids and books. He's a very cool person, just the sort of man I expected from reading his books, and it is entirely possible that I am actually his biggest fan (family excluded of course).
Now if only J.K. Rowling would get back to me...
.
Did you invite anyone famous or someone neither of you really knew to your wedding?
P.S. Rahm Emanuel was so getting an invitation before he left the White House. Daniel is actually related to him, and while he's not really close to the family anymore, I was hoping to get White House M&Ms out of the deal.
I may or may not have written them notes with their invitations saying I wanted them to know that without their books, Daniel and I probably never would have met.
And I may or may not have received a response from one of them last week.
If I did, it would look like this:
Honestly, Who Better to Fill One of These in Than an Author?
Personal Photo
It also would have included a gift of an entire book series, signed to us specifically.
The Great Tree of Avalon
Personal Photo
If that had happened, I might say that the author was awfully kind and thoughtful.
So why would I invite two famous authors to my wedding? Well, when I started middle school, I was kind of over reading. I loved books when I was little, but I was a lot more interested in cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics by the ripe old age of 10. It was not until I read The Seven Songs of Merlin by T.A. Barron that I regained the love I had once had for reading. After that, I was unstoppable. And when I finally gave in to the hoard's demands and saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in theaters, I was in love, and that love was slow to ebb.
We haven't been through Daniel's and my origin story in a while, so let's recap, shall we? Berkeley has a program called Decal that allows undergrads to teach full-on courses to other undergrads, and everyone can get credit for it. Within Decal is a club called BookWorlds which teaches exclusively on fantasy and sci-fi novels, specifically on worlds that exist only in books. My freshman year, I searched obsessively for a class on Harry Potter and found one my second semester through BookWorlds. Our officiant, Nicole, was the lead teacher for this class, and since she and Daniel were friends, Daniel hung out in our class a lot. We'd noticed each other, but it wasn't until I decided I wanted to teach that we actually got to know each other. Three days of obsessive facebooking, AIMing (yes, it was that long ago), and emailing later, we had our first date, and the rest is history (some of it fantastical).
So you see, if I hadn't read Harry Potter, we never would have met. And if I hadn't read The Seven Songs of Merlin, I probably wouldn't have read Harry Potter. I feel like I owe the authors something for that. I probably owe as much to J.R.R. Tolkien since BookWorlds would not have happened without The Lord of the Rings, but he's dead, so getting him an invitation would be tricky, and honestly, who has the time for that kind of thing?
The response/gift I may or may not have received from T.A. Barron was not completely out of the blue. We've met. Actually, he's met Daniel too though he doesn't really remember. The first class I taught was on his Lost Years of Merlin series, and I asked him to come and speak to our class. He obliged by meeting with us privately before a talk at a book store (in San Jose, funnily enough), and we've been in loose contact ever since. We met up when he had an event in San Francisco, I told him about my sorrow of never getting to see Stonehenge up close (damn preservation attempts!), and I spoke in a documentary he was doing about kids and books. He's a very cool person, just the sort of man I expected from reading his books, and it is entirely possible that I am actually his biggest fan (family excluded of course).
Now if only J.K. Rowling would get back to me...
.Did you invite anyone famous or someone neither of you really knew to your wedding?
P.S. Rahm Emanuel was so getting an invitation before he left the White House. Daniel is actually related to him, and while he's not really close to the family anymore, I was hoping to get White House M&Ms out of the deal.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Geeking out the Ceremony
At this point, you guys know about my geekish tendencies. And if I've had one obsession in my life to stand out above the rest, it's Harry Potter.
I've done it all: midnight premieres, conventions, dressing up, scouring the internet for rumors. I have my own website, and I've read each book more times than I care to admit. I've even taught two classes on Harry Potter at Berkeley.
But over the last few years, Harry Potter and I have grown further and further apart. I haven't read the series through since before the seventh book came out. I don't spend hours thinking about it, I don't obsessively check for news, I don't even know what's going on with J.K. Rowling anymore.
But still when I take the time to read a passage or two, I remember how much it meant to me, how much it still means to me. No book has ever affected me quite as much as Harry Potter, and I will never relinquish my love for it.
And that is why I would like to include a passage from the books somewhere in our ceremony. It has been important to me and my life and my view on life, and after all, Daniel and I never would have met without those books.
However, finding a readable passage is somewhat more challenging. As much as I respect JKR and her writing, if there is one thing the woman cannot write about, it is love. At least, not real love. Awkward teenage romance sure, but the intricacies and importance of true love between two people? Not so much. Dumbledore has a decent number of one liners about love, but the only real passage in the entire series is this one:
"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all."
—Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix
That's all well and good except for the bit about the Department of Mysteries and the mention of Voldemort. But I can't quite seem to edit them out without ruining it.
I have not decided whether I actually care if people don't get it, but you all seem like reasonable, mostly non-geeky people. Would you be confused if you heard this at a ceremony? Would you care if you were?
I've done it all: midnight premieres, conventions, dressing up, scouring the internet for rumors. I have my own website, and I've read each book more times than I care to admit. I've even taught two classes on Harry Potter at Berkeley.
But over the last few years, Harry Potter and I have grown further and further apart. I haven't read the series through since before the seventh book came out. I don't spend hours thinking about it, I don't obsessively check for news, I don't even know what's going on with J.K. Rowling anymore.
But still when I take the time to read a passage or two, I remember how much it meant to me, how much it still means to me. No book has ever affected me quite as much as Harry Potter, and I will never relinquish my love for it.
And that is why I would like to include a passage from the books somewhere in our ceremony. It has been important to me and my life and my view on life, and after all, Daniel and I never would have met without those books.
However, finding a readable passage is somewhat more challenging. As much as I respect JKR and her writing, if there is one thing the woman cannot write about, it is love. At least, not real love. Awkward teenage romance sure, but the intricacies and importance of true love between two people? Not so much. Dumbledore has a decent number of one liners about love, but the only real passage in the entire series is this one:
"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all."
—Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix
That's all well and good except for the bit about the Department of Mysteries and the mention of Voldemort. But I can't quite seem to edit them out without ruining it.
I have not decided whether I actually care if people don't get it, but you all seem like reasonable, mostly non-geeky people. Would you be confused if you heard this at a ceremony? Would you care if you were?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Dinosaur Math Cake
OMG, this is so hilarious, I just had to share it with you.
Background necessary: you guys know I'm a geek ("Hey, geekish tendencies!" I remind myself), so math on a cake = (hehe, see what I did there? Yeah, my fiance's sense of humor is getting to me) haha, funny. I wouldn't do it, but hey, it's definitely different, so props to them. But I was trying to figure out what was going on on the top there until I read the description: "here's the cake from Nathalie & Mathieu's geektastic woodsy wedding made to feature their favorite mathmatical equations, their dogs and their dinosaur cake toppers!" (source). Dinosaurs? But they're covered in feathers...ohhhh!
A friend who also happens to be our officiant used to work at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, and ever since we took her dinosaur tour, I have been telling her that she ruined my childhood by telling us that scientists now think that dinosaurs were even more closely related to birds than we thought. In fact, at least some of them were probably covered in feathers.
So basically, that makes this the geekiest cake I've ever seen. It's got math AND current and updated scientific theory. Trippy.
But there's more where that came from! If you thought any of that was funny or clever, you should really check out the rest of Offbeat Bride's Geeky Wedding Cakes post. There were definitely some lol ones...if you get the gag (don't worry, I won't tell anyone you recognized the Star Trek font or instantly knew a portal cake when you saw one).
Background necessary: you guys know I'm a geek ("Hey, geekish tendencies!" I remind myself), so math on a cake = (hehe, see what I did there? Yeah, my fiance's sense of humor is getting to me) haha, funny. I wouldn't do it, but hey, it's definitely different, so props to them. But I was trying to figure out what was going on on the top there until I read the description: "here's the cake from Nathalie & Mathieu's geektastic woodsy wedding made to feature their favorite mathmatical equations, their dogs and their dinosaur cake toppers!" (source). Dinosaurs? But they're covered in feathers...ohhhh!
A friend who also happens to be our officiant used to work at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, and ever since we took her dinosaur tour, I have been telling her that she ruined my childhood by telling us that scientists now think that dinosaurs were even more closely related to birds than we thought. In fact, at least some of them were probably covered in feathers.
So basically, that makes this the geekiest cake I've ever seen. It's got math AND current and updated scientific theory. Trippy.
But there's more where that came from! If you thought any of that was funny or clever, you should really check out the rest of Offbeat Bride's Geeky Wedding Cakes post. There were definitely some lol ones...if you get the gag (don't worry, I won't tell anyone you recognized the Star Trek font or instantly knew a portal cake when you saw one).
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Shoesies for My Feetsies: Dreams Do Come True
When searching for my shoes, I mostly looked in the department store sales racks. Lots of selection plus mostly reasonable prices seemed like my best bet. After-Christmas sales seemed like an excellent time to search, so when I was at the mall last week, I made a point of checking all the shoe departments.
And finally I lucked out and found these:
They are pretty much perfect. They've got the side strappy deal that I like and the behind-the-heel strap that I think looks so elegant. The light, silvery color appeals to me and works well with my dress. Plus, there's just the smallest touch of bling which is awesome. And best of all...
And finally I lucked out and found these:
They are pretty much perfect. They've got the side strappy deal that I like and the behind-the-heel strap that I think looks so elegant. The light, silvery color appeals to me and works well with my dress. Plus, there's just the smallest touch of bling which is awesome. And best of all...
...the heels are the perfect height!
There are just a couple of things that I'm worried about. The strap doesn't really hold my heel in place, so they flop around a bit, but I spent a lot of time walking and dancing in them at the store (much to the other customers' chagrin) and it was fine, so I think that will work out. More problematic is the utter lack of traction. I definitely like me some traction, especially since catching myself in this dress will not be easy, but my dad said he can rough up the bottoms for me, so we'll make it work.
On the whole, they fit my criteria really well, so I'm happy to check another thing off the list.
All Personal Photos
I'm happy with them, especially because they actually fit into my budget, but they're not my dream shoes. For as long as I can remember, there has been only one shoe that I ever truly loved, one shoe that would be special enough for my wedding day, one shoe. to rule. them....all right, not really, but when I first envisioned my wedding shoes, only one image came to mind.
That's right, a glass slipper. A real glass slipper. What can I say? I'm Disney obsessed, and Cinderella was my favorite movie when I was little.
I knew this was completely impractical and never going to happen from the beginning, but my shoe search really started with obsessively googling real glass slippers. The above were the only ones I could find that were real and would fit a real foot. They are almost $300. Obviously, that was not happening. But for a moment, I did dream of walking down the aisle in these beauties...and then changing into shoes that were not trying to destroy my feet for the reception.
It's probably best that I could never afford glass slippers. There are so many things that could go wrong. But I love that they actually exist, and perhaps someday I'll buy my dream shoes anyway. For now, I'm content with the practical pretties that I have.
All right, I know I'm not the only one who wanted to be Cinderella on her wedding day. Fess up. Who else is salivating at the thought of wearing glass slippers?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Going Lite on Offbeat Bride
When I discovered the amazing awesomeness that is offbeatbride.com featuring our STD video, I also discovered this which I think I may also have had a small something to do with actually.
You may have figured out by now that I am a big, big fan of OffbeatBride.com. In fact, aside from WeddingBee, it's the only major wedding website that I follow regularly. My fiance and I definitely have our geeky side, most of my friends since, like, 6th grade have been nerds, and I just love the creativity and uniqueness (and geeked-out awesomeness) that the Offbeat Brides put into their weddings. I was definitely tempted to join them and have a geektastic reception.
The thing is though, like the author of this post and her Offbeat Lite cohorts, I often feel a little out of place on this site--and even just on normal blogs sometimes--because deep down, I want a traditional wedding in many senses. I want flowers, a good photographer, a nice, formal reception, a big, pouffy white dress, a groom in a tux, and, well, the structure of a normal wedding. There will certainly be offbeat details like my STD video, but we're not actually going to have boardgames, sorting hats, and Disney princesses as centerpieces or do a first Rockband game instead of a first dance. And sometimes, I feel a little lame by our wedding's lack of extraordinariness.
But then, this is the wedding I want. This is the wedding Daniel wants. And as awesome as a Hogwarts cake would be, it's not really the shape we want our wedding to take. And that's OK. And sometimes it's good to remember that despite ANY expectations, this day really is about the two of you.
You may have figured out by now that I am a big, big fan of OffbeatBride.com. In fact, aside from WeddingBee, it's the only major wedding website that I follow regularly. My fiance and I definitely have our geeky side, most of my friends since, like, 6th grade have been nerds, and I just love the creativity and uniqueness (and geeked-out awesomeness) that the Offbeat Brides put into their weddings. I was definitely tempted to join them and have a geektastic reception.
The thing is though, like the author of this post and her Offbeat Lite cohorts, I often feel a little out of place on this site--and even just on normal blogs sometimes--because deep down, I want a traditional wedding in many senses. I want flowers, a good photographer, a nice, formal reception, a big, pouffy white dress, a groom in a tux, and, well, the structure of a normal wedding. There will certainly be offbeat details like my STD video, but we're not actually going to have boardgames, sorting hats, and Disney princesses as centerpieces or do a first Rockband game instead of a first dance. And sometimes, I feel a little lame by our wedding's lack of extraordinariness.
But then, this is the wedding I want. This is the wedding Daniel wants. And as awesome as a Hogwarts cake would be, it's not really the shape we want our wedding to take. And that's OK. And sometimes it's good to remember that despite ANY expectations, this day really is about the two of you.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Epic Save the Date Video
For my 100th post, I decided to wait for something special. This is my masterpiece, my Mona Lisa, my ultimate contribution to the wedding world.
About a minute-and-a-half ago, I sent out our Save the Date Video.
And it is awesome.
I really do not give a flying frak about the Save the Dates and neither does Daniel. This was definitely not something either of us wanted to waste money on. But once I saw this video, I knew that I wanted one that was just as awesome:
All right, so I'm not a professional editor, and ours is not actually this epic. But it's still awesome! My dad films movies for a living, and I was a film major, so I knew that between the two of us, we could pull a decent short film together.
I really wanted to do something unique, not the standard sequence of relationship pictures set to sappy music, but I still wanted to do something that would look good with low production values. But that left the question of what we should do? My first idea to simply tell the story of our relationship hit the waste basket when I realized it's actually sort of depressing (2 years apart, breaking off the engagement the first time--meh). Then we thought maybe we could do a fusion of us and one of our favorite movies: The Princess Bride. But once I started trying to map it out, it just proved too difficult. And then I had an idea. A very different sort of idea. Not at all your typical wedding idea, or even video idea, but something that just might work for one. Have you seen the iPad commercials? Here's our favorite:
I thought, why not make that into a video about us? "Nicole and Daniel are" stuff about us and our relationship. It would be short, easy, and totally unique. Daniel loved it, and I started writing the script.
It took a fair amount of time, but we are very pleased with the result. So without further ado, I present to you our epic iPad Commerical Save the Date Video:
OK, now I finally get to tell you about the super awesome thing that happened to us while we were shooting. We did a lot of the shooting at the Disneyland Resort, and my friend (and bridesmaid) and I did some scouting while there a few days before. I've always loved the wedding gazebo at the Disneyland Hotel, and with some encouragement from Bridesmaid M, I decided it would be a great place to fake get married. However, we were filming in the middle of the Sunday of Veterans' Day weekend, so I figured the gazebo might be busy. I had a back-up plan, a smaller gazebo at the hotel that we could use if there was a wedding going on.
Well, when we got there, we found the main gazebo all dressed up and a wedding party taking pictures nearby, but when we went to plan B, we discovered that the back-up gazebo was in the middle of their reception. What ever were we to do? Well...the wedding party was no longer in the ceremony area, they were busy taking pictures...and the main gazebo was deserted...so we took our chances and got the best fake wedding background EVER! I feel a little bad taking advantage of someone else's wedding, but I don't think they noticed, and even though the clean-up guy totally saw us, he waited until we were done to do his thing and didn't say anything. And we got the ultimate ending to our video!
I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's not exactly the same as the commercial, but I think it really works. And it was nice to be making and editing movies again. That was the best part of being a film major even though I didn't get to do much of it at Berkeley.
Soooooo, what do you think? Oh! And I really want it to go viral, so if you want to, you know, send it to people, post it on Facebook or Twitter, or share it on your blog or website, um, I don't mind :).
About a minute-and-a-half ago, I sent out our Save the Date Video.
And it is awesome.
I really do not give a flying frak about the Save the Dates and neither does Daniel. This was definitely not something either of us wanted to waste money on. But once I saw this video, I knew that I wanted one that was just as awesome:
All right, so I'm not a professional editor, and ours is not actually this epic. But it's still awesome! My dad films movies for a living, and I was a film major, so I knew that between the two of us, we could pull a decent short film together.
I really wanted to do something unique, not the standard sequence of relationship pictures set to sappy music, but I still wanted to do something that would look good with low production values. But that left the question of what we should do? My first idea to simply tell the story of our relationship hit the waste basket when I realized it's actually sort of depressing (2 years apart, breaking off the engagement the first time--meh). Then we thought maybe we could do a fusion of us and one of our favorite movies: The Princess Bride. But once I started trying to map it out, it just proved too difficult. And then I had an idea. A very different sort of idea. Not at all your typical wedding idea, or even video idea, but something that just might work for one. Have you seen the iPad commercials? Here's our favorite:
I thought, why not make that into a video about us? "Nicole and Daniel are" stuff about us and our relationship. It would be short, easy, and totally unique. Daniel loved it, and I started writing the script.
It took a fair amount of time, but we are very pleased with the result. So without further ado, I present to you our epic iPad Commerical Save the Date Video:
OK, now I finally get to tell you about the super awesome thing that happened to us while we were shooting. We did a lot of the shooting at the Disneyland Resort, and my friend (and bridesmaid) and I did some scouting while there a few days before. I've always loved the wedding gazebo at the Disneyland Hotel, and with some encouragement from Bridesmaid M, I decided it would be a great place to fake get married. However, we were filming in the middle of the Sunday of Veterans' Day weekend, so I figured the gazebo might be busy. I had a back-up plan, a smaller gazebo at the hotel that we could use if there was a wedding going on.
Well, when we got there, we found the main gazebo all dressed up and a wedding party taking pictures nearby, but when we went to plan B, we discovered that the back-up gazebo was in the middle of their reception. What ever were we to do? Well...the wedding party was no longer in the ceremony area, they were busy taking pictures...and the main gazebo was deserted...so we took our chances and got the best fake wedding background EVER! I feel a little bad taking advantage of someone else's wedding, but I don't think they noticed, and even though the clean-up guy totally saw us, he waited until we were done to do his thing and didn't say anything. And we got the ultimate ending to our video!
I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's not exactly the same as the commercial, but I think it really works. And it was nice to be making and editing movies again. That was the best part of being a film major even though I didn't get to do much of it at Berkeley.
Soooooo, what do you think? Oh! And I really want it to go viral, so if you want to, you know, send it to people, post it on Facebook or Twitter, or share it on your blog or website, um, I don't mind :).
Friday, November 26, 2010
HARRY POTTER WEDDING!
Even though you guys are going to think I'm super geeky after my previous post, I couldn't not share this with you:
OMG HARRY POTTER WEDDING: http://offbeatbride.com/2010/11/harry-potter-wedding
Go, go forth and drool!
OMG HARRY POTTER WEDDING: http://offbeatbride.com/2010/11/harry-potter-wedding
Go, go forth and drool!
Amelia and Josh's Wedding
Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to catch up on some real weddings that I've been meaning to share with you. This was originally meant to cover my hiatus period while we were trying to cinch the deal on our venue, you know, in October. Yeah, woops. Moving on...
We're going to start with Amelia and Josh. Now, despite my resistance to having a themed wedding, even to the point of thinking a color palette was too limiting, I LOVE looking at other people's themed weddings. OffBeatBride.com and I are best pals. So when my friend showed me a few pictures from her friend's STAR WARS THEMED WEDDING, I simply couldn't resist asking her if I could post about it.
I'm sure most of you do not have as many geeky tendencies as I do, so let's start with the obvious questions: what is a Star Wars themed wedding and how do you put one on? I'm going to assume you have all seen Star Wars at least because if you haven't, you should go watch the original trilogy and then come back and read this post.
So, what made this a Star Wars wedding? Well, this might give you an idea:
We're going to start with Amelia and Josh. Now, despite my resistance to having a themed wedding, even to the point of thinking a color palette was too limiting, I LOVE looking at other people's themed weddings. OffBeatBride.com and I are best pals. So when my friend showed me a few pictures from her friend's STAR WARS THEMED WEDDING, I simply couldn't resist asking her if I could post about it.
I'm sure most of you do not have as many geeky tendencies as I do, so let's start with the obvious questions: what is a Star Wars themed wedding and how do you put one on? I'm going to assume you have all seen Star Wars at least because if you haven't, you should go watch the original trilogy and then come back and read this post.
So, what made this a Star Wars wedding? Well, this might give you an idea:
*I don't know who took any of these pictures, so let's give credit to Amelia and Josh
Groom is dressed as a Jedi (or Sith? not really sure) and friends are wearing Star Wars t-shirts. And this was exactly how the bride and groom wanted it. The Star Wars elements of the wedding included the bridal party's clothing, the (brave) guests' attire, invitations, favors, decorations, and even some of the music. Here is one of the more enthusiastic guests:
Yeah, you get the idea. But with an all-out awesomely themed wedding, there is often resistance from the parental/family side, and Amelia and Josh were no exception:
"My parents thought it was silly to have a Star Wars wedding, but they were ok with it since I said it was what I wanted. I think they knew our minds were made up to have it this crazy, unique way. A lot of my family and friends kind of looked down on it, 'What's with the dorky wedding? You should have a traditional wedding!' and seemed a bit snobby about it. My advice would be to just make sure that whatever non-traditional theme you want, it's what will make you and your fiance happy. Everyone else, unless they are totally footing the bill, can deal with whatever you choose. And if they are footing the bill, some compromises should be made - but it is still YOUR day." - Amelia
Despite the lack of support from friends and family, they were able to make their day one guests will never forget. Amelia says that one of her favorite elements of the wedding was "... how much fun everyone was having. People are still talking about it, and it's been nearly 4 months. Also, it's a great conversation piece!"
At the end of the day, no one cares whether the wedding was traditional as long as they had a good time. Good thing for me to keep in mind.
But not everything about their wedding bucked tradition. Like many of us, Amelia's favorite moment was when they said their vows, "The ceremony was amazing. I remember all I could see was Josh....I remember thinking there were stars in both of our eyes - I don't think either of us have ever felt as joyful as we did then. We had Josh's grandparents marry us and that was exactly the right choice - it made everything even more special. We had pretty basic vows but even so, they were just what we wanted."
And as with all weddings, not everything worked out as planned: "A lot happened that wasn't planned! My husband's dad was in charge of the music... so we had a couple of false starts for the ceremony (the wrong music was played). The theme my dad and I walked out to was only 30 seconds, so not only did we speed walk for half of it, we walked the last half in silence! My hair that I was promised would last all night (curls) fell out of its updo about an hour before the wedding, so Heather frantically tried to fix it. The officiant forgot the last part of the 'history of us' speech we had prepared. During the vows, the music was accidentally turned on just after my husband said 'I do.' The music got stuck on repeat instead of shuffle, so the ceremony music played over and over and over all through dinner. We dealt with it by just laughing it off - we knew things wouldn't go perfectly and the important things were all there - good food, good cake, us, and our family and friends."
In the end, Amelia was very happy with the way things turned out. As she said, "that's definitely what sticks out the most, the absolute joy of the day."
What really impresses me about their wedding is not the amazing decorations or clothing (though the cake was pretty spectacular), but the fact that they were able to pull off a completely unique wedding that everyone enjoyed without freaking out about it. I know I can learn a lot from their go with the flow attitude and their conviction to make their day the one they wanted.
But the reason I decided to write about them was their cake which was fucking awesome! Observe:
Cute, traditional cake on top tier, DEATH STAR CAKE on middle tier, and Endor cake on bottom tier. As in the Death Star is orbiting the Endor moon on their cake. Yes, they did that on purpose because they are just that awesome!
I would love to post more pictures of their super amazing Star Wars decor if Amelia wants to send them to me (hint hint, nudge nudge). But for now, I leave you with the most important part of their day:
The Bride and Groom Together
If you were going to go all out for a themed wedding, what would you do?
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