The Offbeat Bride: Keri

Her offbeat partner: Jess

Date and location of wedding: Lake Pearl Luciano's, Wrentham, Massachusetts - July 3, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Right off the bat, a wedding of two awesome ladies isn't exactly "onbeat," although it is more common now at least. Either way, we took the traditional wedding and turned it into our own perfect day. The minute we got engaged, we knew that we wanted something Avengers-themed. That being said, we didn't want the wedding to look too out-there at first glance. The more people looked around at things, the more they started to notice our little, personal details, and that's what made the day ours.

We had a ring warming - our rings passed around in a box that I had given Jess a gift in for our first anniversary. All of our flowers were handmade; Jess made my bouquet and hers out of scrapbook paper, foam balls, and a whole lot of patience, and Jess's mom made my bridesmaids' flowers out of ribbon and an equal amount of hot glue and patience. Our moms' corsages were handmade (purchased, this time!) as well as Jess's dad's boutonniere, fashioned after kanzashi flowers in our chosen colors of blue and green. The only real flowers we had were the centerpieces, and those were also blue and green.

Every detail was pre-planned, from the individualized Avengers buttons on our bouquets to the girls' bouquets and our bridesmen's boutonnieres. My maid of awesome made our seating chart to look like it came straight out of an Avengers comic book. We hand-wrote our entire wedding ceremony together, choosing our favorite readings and writing out the rest of the ceremony. My maid of awesome's husband even hand-crafted our cake knife. It was personal and nerdy, down to Jess's dad's Star Trek cufflinks and our officiant pulling out Captain America and Thor Pez-dispensers mid-ceremony.

Tell us about the ceremony:
During our ring warming, our officiant Duffy asked everyone to "hold them for a moment, warm them with your love, and then pass them on to the next person. As we continue through the ceremony, voice a silent wish or dream for the girls - your happiest thoughts for their bright, shining future." Duffy was responsible for his portions of the ceremony, which included how he knew us, and how he had come to know and love us as a couple. Our two readings were"Sonnet XVII" by Pablo Neruda and "How Falling In Love Is Like Owning a Dog" by Taylor Mali. Jess and I have a dog and he rules our life, and we can't imagine our existence without him. Mali's spoken-word piece is so beyond appropriate for us that it had to be done.

We also had a sand ceremony, which is fairly traditional, all things considered.

Our officiant, my closest friend from college whom I refer to as my little brother, was telling wonderful stories of how we used to write college essays together, and then commented that he had remembered a Facebook conversation had between Jess and I over which Avenger I should be (I'm a Captain America, if anyone was wondering). I had said that I was Thor, but Jess said Captain America. During the ceremony, he proceeded to pull out two Pez Dispensers, one of Cap and one of Thor. It was a total surprise and we laughed so, so hard.

The other priceless moment was when Duffy declared us "wife and wife," Jess squealed so loudly (you could call it a scream, really) and nobody was expecting it. It was pure, unadulterated excitement that we had finally done it!

Our biggest challenge:
Amidst all of the normal wedding drama, the biggest challenge we had was well before our wedding. Our original venue, Lakeview Pavillion in Foxboro MA, BURNED TO THE GROUND! We got married in July and in the middle of April, the venue had a horrible fire and the entire building went up in flames and smoke. There were no sprinklers and the building couldn't be saved. It was horrible, and tragic, and terrifying. As I sat at the table in tears with my mom on the phone, Jess was already on the phone with Lake Pearl, calm, cool, and collected! There's a reason I married this one! We had an appointment with Lake Pearl the next day and they were unbelievably accommodating and sympathetic. We got to keep our date which was a Thursday night and still available, and made all of the new plans with them.

My favorite moment:
One of our most meaningful moments was one of my own personal moments. My dad passed away a number of years ago and I was fortunate enough to have my mom to walk me down the aisle. She asked to do it, which touched my heart more than I think she'll ever know. We also danced to Spice Girls'"Mama" for our mother/daughter dance. Not having my dad there was a horrible thing to truly think about, and I'll never stop wishing he could've been there, but being able to share those moments with her was beautiful.

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Enough talk - show me the wedding porn!