The Offbeat Bride: Jules, Audio Visual

Her offbeat partner: Aubrey, Analyst

Date and location of wedding: Beach and Bellows Campground, Waimanalo, HI - September 14, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We are nature lovers and spend a lot of time camping on the beaches of Oahu where we both live and met. We wanted to elope originally, but then wanted to give our moms a special day to see their babies get hitched. We ended up with a simple celebration at the beach with camping, fire, BBQ, and great company. We are lucky enough to live in paradise so we took advantage of the beautiful place we call home!

Tell us about the ceremony:
We wanted a very personal ceremony. We wrote our own vows and walked in together. A friend was ordained and married us, which was great because she has seen us become the couple we are today from the beginning. She talked about moments our whole group of friends have had together along the way. We are a family of misfits on this island and it's a beautiful thing.

Being surrounded by the bright colors of paradise, the waves crashing, the bright smiles of our friends and family, and much laughter was priceless and exactly what we wanted. You could feel the aloha in the air!

Our biggest challenge:
We didn't want to stress out about anything and we did a pretty good job at that. Our only concern was that we were camping with minimal shelter and rain was a huge possibility. Mother Nature was on our side, though, and we only got about a minute of rain later into the night.

My funniest moment:
The funniest moment was when all the ladies insisted that they had zero interest in catching the bouquet, and then when the time came they brawled for it!

Oh, and we had our moms take the first shots at the piñata (which was filled with mini bottles of vodka) and they killed it. Mamas on a rampage!

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?
Do it your own way if you can. Make it fun and do it together. Incorporating things that we built together and things we both made separately for this day was so much fun! Seeing everything fall into place was great.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Enough talk - show me the wedding porn!