The Offbeat Bride: Megan, Wedding Planner

Her offbeat partner: Collier, limousine driver

Date and location of wedding: Spirit Mountain Resort, Duluth, MN - October 31, 2015

Tell us about the ceremony:

As misty rain fell over Lake Superior, our friend, Jayanthi, sang "Hope There's Someone" by Antony Hegarty. Andrew, dressed as the Babadook, read a Walt Whitman quote from Leaves of Grass. The bridal party entered to "The Widow's Lament."

A church bell heralded my entrance as I walked alone down the aisle, but everyone laughed when that bell turned out to be from "Hell's Bells," and the electric guitar kicked in. Since we both wore rings for the duration of our engagement, we chose a handfasting ceremony.

The recessional was to "The Promise," by When in Rome.

Tell us about your reception:

Our reception was a costume party held in Spirit Mountain's Moosehead Saloon. The colors were black and orange. We had a costume contest and a cobweb cake decorated with a fondant spider. Thousands of handmade bat decorations hung everywhere.

What was your most important lesson learned?

If you choose to hire your friends, such as the seamstresses, you can get exactly what you want for about the same cost or less, while supporting the local economy. But make sure expectations and deadlines are laid out well in advance, with contracts if necessary, to avoid conflict.

We never got that "the day of the wedding, it's just gonna work out" feeling we'd heard so much about. Maybe that's for more traditional weddings. Maybe that's the trade-off for having more unique expectations?

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