The Offbeat Bride: Angela, Bartender

Her offbeat partner: Ty, Chef

Date and location of wedding: Kit's Point Beach, Vancouver, British Columbia - February 27, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: I grabbed my dress from ModCloth for about $100, and we bought Ty's outfit the day before the wedding. We spent under $500, and everything was DIY - I even sewed my sash the night before by hand. Canada's system is different from the American one, but our amazing marriage commissioner was kind enough to wed us in her beautiful home on Kit's Point Beach. She had married thousands of couples in the exact same spot! It was a very intimate, emotional ceremony with our witness and our photographer. We walked to the beach afterwards, and then went to Granville Island for drinks and general shenanigans with family and friends.

I would say very little about our wedding was traditional. Even our relationship is quite strange to the average person, considering we live in different countries and met on World of Warcraft! But that doesn't matter to us - we just want to be happy and to be together.

The logistics of a cross-international relationship made even the thought of planning a wedding too much to bear. We wanted our day to simply be joyous, carefree, and full of light and happiness. We wanted it to be just to the two of us and to enjoy our very limited time together. The less we spent on our elopement/wedding meant the more days we could afford to take off work to travel internationally and enjoy the presence of one another.

Tell us about the ceremony:
Our ceremony was very straightforward, yet emotional and blissful. Our marriage commissioner read beautiful vows that we repeated while holding each other's hands, and we tied mint ribbon on our fingers in lieu of wedding rings (we are getting tattoos).

Our biggest challenge:
Our biggest challenge was overcoming the fear that family and friends would be offended they weren't invited and that we didn't have a big traditional wedding with drinks, food, and a reception. Much to my relief, all of our family and friends were not only understanding, but extremely supportive. They were so happy for us, and excited for our future together. I'm grateful I got over the fear of disappointing everyone else, and had the wedding we had in mind.

I still wanted to get family together, so I'm having a reception later this Summer. I mailed out marriage announcements, and everyone was happy with that. I was prepared for an army of angry grandmothers, but thankfully, that was not the case.

My favorite moment:
I live in Southern Oregon, and Ty lives in Vancouver, BC. Unfortunately, this means due to cost of travel and taking time off of work, we only get to see each other for two weeks at a time, about every six months. So our wedding was truly meaningful for us because, not only we were able to be enjoy being together for a few weeks, but it was the beginning of us being able to live in the same country as one another and begin the lengthy, bureaucratic process of immigration.

My funniest moment:
It was the afternoon of the wedding, and I was getting myself ready, curling my hair and taking my time applying my makeup. Ty disappeared with the photographer to go grab coffee, donuts, and pizza. It took them about two hours, and if I wasn't so busy being emotional about the fact that I was getting married, I may have noticed. They then returned with 30 minutes to spare, carrying a shoe box. Apparently, we had forgotten to buy him dress shoes for the wedding! He was quick-witted enough not to say anything and take care of it before I noticed, so that I wouldn't freak the hell out.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
The most important thing we learned from our wedding was that it was okay to do it our way. If you can, try not to sacrifice too much to follow traditions or appease extended family. My wedding was completely stress-free and I'm so grateful for that.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Enough talk - show me the wedding porn!