The Offbeat Bride: Earhya, Nanny

Her offbeat partner: Robert, Bartender

Date and location of wedding: Temescal Beach House, Oakland, CA - March 22, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

We tried to make it a medieval-themed wedding, but in the end there were other factors influencing the final decoration decision. It ended up having elements of a medieval feel, a bit of nature, and plenty of origami. When we were looking at venues, there was a definite decision to try and stay as close to nature as possible without having to inconvenience our older guests too much. The beach house at Lake Temescal in Oakland was beautiful with the nearby trees, beautiful lake, and easily accessible parking. It also meant many of our guests didn't have to drive further than an hour to join us.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Our ceremony was very short, maybe 15 minutes at the most. It included exchanging vows, and a unity ceremony where we combined two wines together (sadly, the red wine was too dark to make it a rose color after combining). We actually had a ceremony a year before at a Renaissance Faire and that included having the men in the wedding party knighted. Since this venue didn't really allow for weapons like that, we decided on the sharing of wine ceremony as a nod to our desire for a medieval-style ceremony.

We are also big fans of sci-fi, so the songs for the ceremony were all from different shows and our musicians coordinated it beautifully. The processional was the theme songs from Battlestar Galactica followed by the theme from Star Trek: Enterprise. The recessional was "The Throne Room" from Star Wars.

Tell us about your reception:

Our reception was wonderfully laid back. We went for an afternoon wedding with a cocktail reception feel. There was beer and wine for all our guests, appetizer-like foods passed around, and a large pit-roasted pig for everyone to enjoy. My mom insisted on providing a pig because it just wouldn't be a Filipino party without it.

We chose to have chocolate-molded turtles inside of bags for our party favors and mini cupcakes instead of an actual cake to serve our guests. Everyone seemed to enjoy the variety of food provided and didn't miss the dancing apparently. I think the photo booth set up with the iPad helped out. Everyone ended up taking photos at some point.

Another thing we did was hire a babysitter. Since the only children there were my flower girls, I wanted to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble. It was definitely one of the best decisions of the afternoon.

What was your most important lesson learned?

We did a first look and for me, that got rid of some of the morning anxiety. Even though we had photos taken afterwards as well, I wish there was more time and next time, I would definitely plan for that. Another thing I tried to plan for, but didn't quite anticipate still was all the extra details that weddings included. For example, we wanted to have sustainable plates (instead of paper) and had to buy bamboo plates or when my coordinator called and said I needed to pay extra because I had so many items to transport that they had to get a rental truck. In the end, there were some extra costs to the wedding that I didn't budget for, but we had to accommodate.

Lastly, hire a coordinator (at least for the day of) if you're able. Without my wedding coordinator, my stress level would have been way too high.

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