Wild suits, retro dresses, and a green man at this St. Patrick's Day wedding

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The Offbeat Bride: Althea, Personal Care Assistant

Her offbeat partner: David, Mad Scientist

Date and location of wedding: Whitman VFW Post 697, Massachusetts - March 17, 2015

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

When we decided on a St. Patrick's Day wedding, it allowed us to incorporate details that were important to us but didn't necessarily fall into a theme. We knew we had to have a beer-themed, kid-friendly, wheelchair accessible, get out of it cheap, on a Tuesday celebration that would smash everyone's expectations. We also annually host St. Paddy's parties and wanted our wedding to reflect our own traditions.

Tell us about the ceremony:

For our ceremony, I carefully constructed a combination of traditional Irish blessings but completely secular. We concluded with the prayer from the film Boondock Saints, a kiss, and an unplanned, running jump high-five.

Tell us about your reception:

In our experience of attending weddings, we had gathered that the most chaotic time was feeding everyone, so we made a game of it. Each table was designated a song and when your song played, it was your turn to make way for the buffet.

I had left a Green man suit in the men's bathroom with a note that said "who ever joins us during the reception in this suit gets a free drink." We should have known that our friends would fight for this honor rather than worry no one would do it.

What was your most important lesson learned?

Be prepared for anything. We certainly weren't expecting record snow to leave us scrambling to have everything ready, almost losing our venue 11 days out, and a three-year- old "Lord of the Rings" is going to do whatever he wants to. We wouldn't have pulled it off without our friends and family who came early to help set up and stayed late to help tear down.