The Offbeat Bride: Shauna, Paralegal

Her offbeat partner: Mike, Video Game Developer

Date and location of wedding: June Mountain aka "The Moon," June Lake, CA - July 26, 2014

Our offbeat wedding at a glance:

"Once upon a time, a boy met a girl. He loved her and she loved him back. He asked if she would fly to the moon with him and she said yes. They have been there ever since." This is the story of us. On July 26, 2014, family and friends joined us on "the moon" for our wedding to witness our exchange of vows and to celebrate the future we were creating together.

We really wanted our wedding to tell this story, so we chose this vintage "Voyage to the Moon" theme. With a 9000 ft. elevation and pristine view of Mono Lake, June Mountain was the perfect spot. What made the venue especially unique is that we could use the ski lift to carry guests up.

The event really started when guests received invitations in the mail several months prior, which included their "tickets to the moon." Then the week of, when they checked into their hotels, they were each given their "boarding passes."

On the big day, a shuttle took guests from the hotel to the base of June Mountain. Upon arrival, guests were lead on a red carpet over to the lift and greeted by one of our ushers who was stationed under a striped carnival tent with a big "MOON" arrow sign pointing to the mountain. The boarding passes were clipped as everyone boarded the lift and ascended the mountain to the moon.

Tell us about the ceremony:

Mike and I are not religious but my family is very Catholic. While I recognize the Catholic tradition as a part of my heritage and I respect that many of my family members have chosen this path, Mike and I are making different choices. There was some gentle pressure by family members to have a religious ceremony but this is not what we wanted. What we did agree on was that our ceremony would exhibit a universal reverence for life - and so this is what we did. Our officiant was a Buddhist minister and the ceremony featured one reading inspired by Carl Sagan as well as another, the famous Biblical passage from Corinthians, "Love is patient, Love is kind..." read by my mother.

For the procession, we of course opted to float up on the lift with our wedding party. The ceremony opened with David Bowie's "Space Oddity," which really set the stage as we each ascended the mountain and walked down the aisle.

The bridesmaids each represented different sky goddess (Stars, Moon, Sky, and Venus) and carried metal orb bouquets.

For our post-vow ritual, we did a flag ceremony where our parents presented us with our flag (it had our monogram on it), which we very reverently planted on the moon (to the sound of the Richard Strauss' opening to the film, 2001).

Tell us about your reception:

Our welcome table had a vintage-style paper moon photo booth where guests could take pictures. The wedding cake was a giant moon-shaped cake and the grooms cake was an Earth cake (that showed the Earth's layers when it was cut). Our centerpieces were metal orbs with LED candles next to a stack of fabric-wrapped books; place card holders were bottles of moon dust. Everything was DIYed.

When doing our formal cake tasting with arms linked, instead of landing in my mouth, the cake fell down the front of my dress. Mike reached his arm down to grab it and then ate it!

Also, we had our initials,M&S, in large silver letters over the fireplace in the reception area. A funny moment was when someone switched them around to say S&M. It was pretty hysterical.

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding?

I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted things to look a certain way, to get everything for really cheap, for guests to have a certain experience, for family to feel validated, and for friends to feel good. I learned quickly that you really can't have it all. My advice is to decide beforehand what's REALLY important to you and then don't sweat the small stuff. I made a big deal about shoes for my bridesmaids. In hindsight, I don't know why I made such a big deal about it. No one even noticed and you can't see them in the pictures. I feel lucky that, despite my moments of Bridezilla-ness, they still love me and are still my friends.

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