I am loving their choices of wedding day attire — it may not be traditional, but it still looks way sharp. It’s pretty obvious that the bride and groom had fun with their choice of theme and even more fun getting their wedding photos taken. Oh, and yes, that’s a real Thompson submachine gun he’s holding! Way to take a wedding theme all the way!

Edward Denson and Tamika March’e Thomas said their vows on Valentine’s Day at an Ohio White Castle after winning a radio contest with a prize package that included a fast food wedding, a diamond pendant, and a White Castle gift card.

Amazingly, while Edward and Tamika were saying their vows in Ohio, Stephanie Keil and Rich Brostowski were doing the same in New Jersey… at a White Castle… after winning a radio contest!

My heartfelt congratulations to both couples, who I hope included Maalox on their wedding registries.

The chandelier is one of the details that really make this ceremony space a success. And how about that amazing dresser? The whole color scheme is so pretty and rustic without being too country.

The chapel looks like it was open enough to retain an outdoor wedding feel while also giving wedding guests the impression of being in a cozy, private, and intimate space. It’s the best of both worlds!

(Images: Green Wedding Shoes; Photographer: Stephanie Fay)

I am loving *LOVING!* this bride photographed by Marie Labbancz of Art of Love Photography. She could have let circumstances get her down, but she didn’t. Sure, having your foot in a cast on your wedding day is going to suck a little, but what’s a little plaster compared with the awesomeness of saying yes to forever with the person you love?

Maybe you spent your girlhood and even your adulthood of being that perfect princess of a bride the bridal magazines slyly suggest you can be, but fate may just have something to say about that. Could be a broken ankle or a black eye, or worse, a round of chemo that makes your hair fall out or a life-saving operation that leaves you with a big ol’ scar. These things happen, but they don’t mean you’re not going to be eye-poppingly beautiful in your wedding dress, dig?

To the brides-to-be worrying about some minor or major physical imperfection, I want to say that no one worth their wedding invitation ever thinks the bride looks anything other than amazing. It’s your wedding day; you’re going to have that glow. How could you not be gorgeous? So quit worrying about how you’ll look and start worrying about the reception menu and the floral arrangements. Kidding! Don’t worry about anything, just enjoy planning your wedding!

Off the top of my head I know married couples made up of a Catholic and a Unitarian, a Baptist and a Catholic, a Baptist and an Atheist, and a Jew and an Agnostic. Getting personal, I consider myself a non-denominational Christian, while The Beard might best be described as spiritually ambiguous, but no great fan of religion. As you can probably imagine, things can get pretty complicated in a marriage when a pair of people have different views on little-g god or big-g God or the Divine Spirit or whoever, but the wedding is often the first hurdle a couple has to make it over.

How do the successful interfaith brides and grooms do it? There are a few wedding ceremony options open to those couples who find themselves on different sides of the religion divide.

Who cares more?
When religion is very important to the bride but not so important to the groom (or bride #2 or one of the families or the other way around, you get the point) it may be worth planning a wedding ceremony based on the traditions of that person’s faith. There’s only so much you can do to make sure no one’s family is offended, but it wouldn’t be at all nice for the very religious member of the couple to have to get married without god. I’m not entirely sure, but it feels to me like it would be less painful for an committed Atheist to participate in a religious ceremony than for a committed Christian to have to have a humanist ceremony. I could be wrong, though. Edit: And I was, as was pointed out to me. To many, Atheism is as much of a core belief as faith in a deity.

Ditch the divine (for now)
Then again, if no one immediately involved really cares that much, but it’s family that’s causing the problem because they’re each pushing for a wedding ceremony that reflects their faith, you could go neutral. There are Humanist ministers and non-denominational officiants who are happy to whip you up a non-religious (but still rather spiritual) ceremony that won’t offend anyone… or make one family feel like it was jilted in favor of the other.

Creative combinations
Interfaith weddings are totally cool! I particularly like it when two people of different religions have a wedding ceremony that includes an officiant from each faith. Like the idea but finding it hard to set up? You can create your own ceremony that includes bits and pieces from the wedding ceremonies common to your religious traditions and have a spiritual (but not religious) officiant preside over the whole thing. There are some rad interfaith ministers out there who will custom design a wedding ceremony just for you.

Ceremony A, Ceremony B
In rare cases, your or your intended’s religious tradition won’t recognize you as being really and truly married if you don’t include the rites and rituals of that religion in your wedding ceremony. You could use that as the deciding factor in choosing one religion over the other, or you could have two ceremonies back to back or even two weddings. This tends to work out particular well when there are cultural clashes on top of religious differences, and when your family is in one country while your SO’s family is in another. It is, of course, the most expensive way to deal with the issue, but all parties are placated and you get two weddings!

(Image via)

On this rather dreary Monday, I’d like to remind all the brides-to-be out there not to be afraid of doing whatever it takes to enjoy the wedding. Want a bounce house? Rent one. Think pinball machines would entertain your guests? You can probably rent those, too. You want to change into a white wetsuit and have a first heat instead of a first dance? Do it. You say you need inspiration? The six brides below obviously had a great time at their weddings, and their guests probably did, too.

This bride and her groom both took a turn in the horseshoe pit at their outdoor reception. It was a bit muddy, but so what? (via)

Giant Jenga? Awesome. While looking for pictures for this post, I also came across snaps of a bride playing giant chess. Think big! (via)

Football fans have it easy when it comes to enjoying the wedding. Just mix one open space with one football and a matched set of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Sneakers optional, but probably a good idea. (via)

Brides and grooms who play an instrument or two can get up and jam with the band, though I don’t recommend spending the entire time on stage, as tempting as that might be. (via)

Playgrounds make for great post-ceremony photo opportunities, but they’re also a lot of fun to romp around in… especially after a solemn wedding! It’s even more fun with the bridal party, if they’re game. (via)

Shooting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours, why not have a skeet break between the ceremony and reception? It could be a great way to blow off some wedding day steam. (via)

It struck me that brides and grooms thinking of planning a baseball themed wedding like my friend Mike mentioned in last week’s post might be inspired and impressed by seeing some of his plans. These are some of his and his fiancee’s wedding plans, and I am truly astounded by their thoroughness. It’s one thing to weave a theme into your wedding, but quite another to let your theme take center stage!

• I had David Wright help me with the proposal — he’s one of the most popular players on the Mets right now, if you didn’t know.
• The ceremony is going to be held at Citi Field, where the Mets play. How cool is that? All of the Mets games start 10 minutes after the hour, so the ceremony is going to begin at 1:10 p.m. and the reception will start at 7:10 p.m.
• We invited everyone attending our baseball themed wedding to join us on our first week of the honeymoon on a cruise, so we sent out magnetic save-the-dates with the wedding date and cruise dates colored in the way a baseball team does on its schedule of games.
• Our wedding invites are going to look like tickets with the stub being the RSVP.
• The wedding programs will look like baseball programs, with the bridal party listed as the starting lineup, the minister as the umpire, our parents as the managers, etc.
• Trish’s dress has a Mets blue sash, and my tuxedo vest will have the Mets logo on it.
• We even found a place that makes boutonnieres out of baseballs! And Trish’s flowers will be either blue or white or orange and white.
• The tables will be blue and orange and named after Mets players instead of the typical 1-12, and we’ll be at the number 41:Tom Seaver table. (We were going to make each table a baseball stadium that we have gone to.)
• We will be introduced at the reception as a starting lineup, and Trish’s daughter is going to throw out the first pitch to me. (ed. – awwww) I also think the bridal party is going to make arches with baseball bats for us to walk under.
• The last hour of the reception, instead of being a Viennese hour, will be a baseball hour with peanuts, Cracker Jack, ice cream in batting helmets, pretzels, hot dogs, etc. And we are going to change into “Team Wilder” baseball jerseys for that.
• Finally, the thank you cards will look like baseball cards featuring me and Trish.

Now that’s taking a wedding theme all the way!

(Photo by)

Why am I bringing this up for the umpteenth time? Because it comes to my attention every now again that there are plenty of people who think there is a definite right way to get married, and if you’re not getting married the right way, your marriage is doooooooomed. The right way usually involves white dresses, high heels, bridal veils, bridesmaids, groomsmen, big churches, solemnity, being escorted down the aisle by daddy, traditional music, limos, a tiered cake, father-daughter dances, circulated nibbles, an open bar, and at least 100 of your closest relatives and friends, if not a great many more.

The fact is, however, that some brides and grooms don’t want wedding attendants or butlered hors d’oeuvres or a gaggle of attendants or any of the other pomp and circumstance that frequently surrounds the modern wedding. Some couples don’t even particularly want guests other than a handful of witnesses, and where it’s a legal possibility, there are people who choose to have their officiant and a wedding photographer provide for the legal necessities. And sadly, sometimes these brides and grooms feel guilty about wanting small weddings, if a question posted to Metafilter is any indication.

But the question itself isn’t as important as the answers, which in my mind were gorgeous and I wanted to share some of them here for anyone reading who might be feeling a bit odd about not wanting that big wedding pushed by advertisers everywhere.

Mr. Adams and I picked a minister out of the Yellow Pages and were married at our favorite bar/restaurant. We, the minister and our witnesses all sat in a large booth throughout the short ceremony. Afterward we had a very small reception for family and friends at an Italian restaurant nearby whose ad (”Try our banquet facilities!”) I’d read on a placemat. Almost 16 years later every time we see a movie or TV show about weddings and bridesmaids and seating plans and picking out the “right” gown, we both turn to each other and say emphatically “I’m SO glad we didn’t go through that!” – Oriole Adams

It’s 20 years on for us, and no regrets. I’m not a centre of attention type of person at all, anyway (female). I did know one lass who married young in a registry office, and her second wedding was all Gone with the Wind. If I was to take on another man at this stage, I have an even smaller wedding and as before, concentrate on the marriage. – b33j

Got married by a judge at the courthouse with just a couple of friends present as witnesses. No diamond ring, no honeymoon, no party, no nothing. We didn’t even get our wedding bands until a few months later. We had next to no money and neither one of us was interested in a shindig anyway. We just had our five-year anniversary and our marriage keeps getting better and better. We’ve never had a single regret. – feathermeat

My husband and I were married with just our parents as witnesses. We all went out for dinner at a nice restaurant afterwards. That was 17 years ago and we’ve got no regrets that we did it that way. Granted, we had both been living on our own for quite a while when we married, so we had all the “stuff” (food processors, china, towels) that a lot of younger couples count on getting from a big wedding. – rhartong

My husband and I married each other, alone together on a mountain in Colorado — where the law lets you do that. It was only last August, but I haven’t regretted it yet. It’s true that if you don’t throw a wedding, you won’t have wedding memories, but why assume that those memories would be so great? Maybe some bad or disappointing things would happen, including all the effort you put into trying to make sure the memories would turn out good. And all that effort could instead be put into real love and the beautiful details of your normal life together. There are so many memories to be had: Why try to manufacture conventional wedding-type memories, when the best things that happen to you might occur the next time you go for a walk or eat breakfast or go to bed with your husband? Today. – Alizaria

There you have it — small weddings are weddings as much as any other. And doing away with some or all of the trappings of the modern wedding won’t doom you to an eventual divorce. Far from it! I think that maybe those couples who choose small weddings are just so confident in their relationships that a big affair can seem like overkill.

Obviously, the most rabid baseball fans will want to hold their weddings at the ball field, but that’s not always possible. Perhaps you and your intended could find a way to take a few post-wedding photographs on a pitcher’s mound… maybe not that of your favorite major league team, but still. Run the bases. Have yourself a bridal at bat. Tag each other out. Have fun with it!

This awesome baseball themed wedding invitation from Byvik Ink Letterpress is surprisingly classy. It starts out its life as the ball, then opens to reveal a beautiful pattern of twisting vines and stylized flowers. If your all time favorite team has red in its colors, you could easily take this red and gray wedding invitation and make it your own.

A certain Sarah bought her Andy a pair of seats from Dodger stadium, which then became the seats at the sweetheart table at their elegant baseball themed wedding. Other awesome details include reception menus affixed to Cracker Jacks boxes and a ring bearer who carried a baseball glove instead of a ring pillow.

Mini-gumball machine favors from Bridal Wedding Favors let your wedding guests take a piece of the baseball theme home with them, and then there is the requisite baseball cake topper with a bride up to bat and a groom poised to throw a perfect pitch. As you know, I’m not one for little bride and groom toppers, but if you’re going with a baseball theme, go all the way.

Finally, consider turning your reception sweets into a tribute to the team you spend baseball season cheering. Custom cookies, like these from A Dozen Eggs Bake Shoppe, make a great baseball themed wedding favor or an alternate dessert for those who don’t fancy cake. For those that do fancy cake, I suggest you opt for something like this, but in your team’s colors.

Congratulations, Mike — play ball!

While it is a pretty insane idea — though a wonderfully create one — I must say I do like it a lot better than the “pay for my wedding just because I asked you to” schemes or the “pay for my wedding” registries. Parrish and Geyer are putting some real effort into paying for a wedding in an offbeat way. And is having your living room stuffed with bags and bags of aluminum cans all that much worse than having it stuffed with wedding favor boxes, ribbons, silk flowers, and seating chart mock-ups? All right, maybe it’s a little worse, if only because donated cans might not be entirely clean.

Like the idea? If you’re in Spokane, you can drop off your cans for this quirky couple at the Instant Sign Factory or they’ll gladly pick them up from your place (if you have enough to make it worth it, I imagine). For those not in Spokane, Parrish and Geyer recommend that you recycle your own aluminum cans, buy yourself a coffee or beer, and if you’re so inclined, send the leftover cash to them.

(Photo via)