Aurora and Thompson were married in Gainesville, Florida. Their day had a unique theme, Kermit and Miss Piggy leading the ceremony, and a guest list that stayed deliberately small. 35 guests attended and everyone stayed at the same bed and breakfast, owned by the bride’s aunt and uncle. Aurora described their theme as medieval tropical to anyone who asked, and guests dressed to match. Her gown was made by her mum and she bedazzled her own boots. All of the décor and flowers were DIY.

The ceremony was held at the Baughman Centre, a nondenominational chapel located along Lake Alice on the University of Florida campus. The couple arrived to the end credits music of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and exited to the opening credits as it was what they watched together on their first date. Their officiants were close friends Maggie and Emma, both newly married themselves, dressed as Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. There were many tears.

“Thompson and I both absolutely sobbed during the entire thing and no one could hear or understand us besides each other, which was ok with me!” Aurora said. “We wrote our own vows, which were mostly serious and personal. Our officiants absolutely brought the house down! My best friend since 9th grade, Jake, caught my bouquet! He is not married yet, though.”

As many of their friends, and the bride, are part of the LGBTQ+ community, it was important to the couple that their vendors were celebratory of that too. “It was important to us, and although it did not feel super easy to come by in north Florida, I’m so glad we did this.”

The reception was laid back and fuss free, with trays of cigarettes in place of traditional favours. Food was served as hors d’oeuvres rather than a formal sit down meal. Aurora DIYed most of the decor and flowers, and her mum helped build a giant cardboard moon for photos.

One of the biggest projects was the bride’s dress. “My mum is extremely talented and generous and all of the time I got to spend with her while she was working on it was really special,” Aurora explained. “She really made my dream dress a reality, and made a lot of visits up to Rochester, NY, where we live, to do fittings and help out with all our DIY projects. I also added rhinestones to my shoes, which was a VERY rewarding process, though it has been hard to find other occasions to wear them for!”

After the reception, everyone relocated to an arcade down the road to play pinball. “I insisted that we find a normal, un-hipster arcade for this. We wanted it to be absolutely outrageous and budget friendly! Our wedding was fantastic and all our vendors were so accommodating and kind to us. Our advice to other couples is just to do whatever you want!!! Some things are not going to go as planned, but you will still have a great time.”

Rosie and Tyler met through Hinge. Four months later they got engaged and just ten months after they first started talking, they were married. “It was a whirlwind romance”, Rosie told us. “We knew instantly we were best friends and soulmates – people told us we were being crazy but we didn’t care! We knew what we knew. We heal the broken parts of each other and and lift up the beautiful mess. It was young love found in a generational hellscape of toxic dating culture.”

Giving themselves six months to plan and doing it all themselves, they brought together Tyler’s Texas upbringing and Rosie’s childhood fascination with fairies for a wedding. There were cowboy boots, antique lace, handmade clay favours and a bucking bronco. After a church ceremony in the village, everyone headed to Rosie’s childhood farm for the reception in a stretch tent.

Rosie’s starting point was the Cottingley fairy photographs, whose staged woodland scenes fed her love of vintage imagery and make-believe. “We wanted our quirkiness and love of a free spirit, full of imagination and whimsy to shine”, she explained. “Both of us drew inspiration from what brought us joy in our childhood, or what we thought sculpted us most into adulthood. It was the perfect blend of vintage with an edge of mystery.”

Rosie walked into the ceremony to Enya’s Caribbean Blue. The couple had written their vows together and chose to make the same promises to each other. For Tyler, saying those words was the part of the day that stayed with him most. “I think in that moment despite being in a room with nearly 200 people, when you are saying the vows that you wrote specifically for each other, the focus is only on the other person, and the words you say to each other have so much weight behind them.”

The ceremony ended with Rosie singing Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird. They left to another Songbird, this time by Oasis, before driving themselves back to the farm in Rosie’s Land Rover Defender.

They handmade almost everything. They designed and carved lino stamps, then hand-printed around 180 invitations, along with their RSVPs, orders of service and place names. When the RSVPs came back, they turned them into bunting for the church and reception.

Rosie’s mum helping by making bunting from fabric printed with their designs. Family lace came out of the attic, and old net curtains and strips of tulle became hanging decorations. They used the same lino designs to create roughly 180 ceramic badges and pins, cutting and glazing each one before firing them in Rosie’s granny’s kiln. Guests received fairies or bull skulls, the latter a reference to the Texas Longhorns.

They recycled coffee jars and Campbell’s tomato soup tins to use to hold flowers and candles. Even the confetti was homemade, made by drying petals from every bouquet Tyler bought her throughout their relationship.

The bride carried a dried flower bouquet from Everlasting Pastels and the rest of the flower were supplied by their families. Rosie’s grandma grew them with help from Tyler’s mum and their neighbours, and both families arranged them. The couple’s mums built the flower arch that framed the church entrance.

For Rosie, getting dressed meant revisiting what her younger self would have wanted to wear. She wore a Sarah Seven dress which she shortened so her vintage shoes could be seen. All her jewellery was antique family heirlooms. Tyler wore cowboy boots and an antique butterfly brooch, also from Rosie’s family.

Their advice to other couples is to do exactly as they did – use your own taste and life experience to inspired your day. “Your wedding can be as basic and straightforward or as eccentric as you want as long as it’s you”, they concluded. “I think being able to use our wedding as such an authentic creative outlet was one of our favourite parts for both of us. The long evenings spent sewing and crafting were so special, they are moments that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.”

Gargoyles, gothic poetry and cocktails with their cats’ faces on them. Averi and Roy’s wedding at Chateau de Harpe in Portland, brought together their taste for the spooky and their enthusiasm for making things. Garden lighting and fog set the atmosphere, while guests helped themselves to temporary tattoos designed by the bride.

“The wedding had a romantic, moody, gothic-inspired feel with a modern edge”, Averi said, “We wanted the day to feel dramatic and a little unconventional while still being timeless and elegant.”

The couple were inspired by venue’s gargoyles, adding moss, flowers and lighting to create the gothic setting they had in mind. Working on the flowers with florist Bella Bloom became a favourite part of the preparations. They loved seeing each other get so invested in the plans, with a florist who shared their excitement.

Averi made the favours herself, including rhinestoned matchbooks and custom lip balms, alongside crystal and moss boutonnieres. Guests could build their own trinket bags, and the temporary tattoo station gave everyone a chance to wear a piece of her artwork. Roy also had a custom piece of art made from love notes Averi had written him.

Making so much themselves helped keep costs down. They also reused moss donated by Averi’s cousin following her own wedding the previous September. It found a second outing among the décor, contributing to a setting the couple would happily have taken even further. “If we’d had more to spend we would get even wilder with our floral instalments,” Averi explained, “ivy and flowers dripping absolutely everywhere, moss in the fountains – Bella Bloom was an absolute delight!”

The couple saved their first sight of each other for the altar. During the ceremony they read gothic poetry. Elsewhere, they picked through the traditions according to what appealed to them. The garter toss was out, and the flower-filled moss baskets were staying firmly in people’s hands. They also agreed to spare each other a face full of black wedding cake!

Having their loved ones together was the part they treasured most. Friends and family had travelled from out of state, with everyone gathered in the same place for the first time. Their cats, Lucie and Pepper, got a place on the drinks menu: a Gimlet and a Whiskey Sour, each served with a dissolvable picture of the relevant cat’s face.

Throughout the planning, the couple valued suppliers who understood both the venue and their vision. Their advice is to change direction if someone is failing to meet your needs, and to find people who are invested in what you want to create. “Be open to change and pivot if a wedding vendor is not meeting your need”, they advise. “Our vendors were instrumental in the success of our exquisite day, they understood the venue. They were collaborative and passionate about our vintage, sultry, spooky vision!”

Jaci and Jason got married on the first day of a music festival, leaving the next three days free for celebrating. Their ceremony took place at the campgrounds of Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, with a friend in a full priest costume conducting proceedings.

Festivals have been part of their relationship for years, so choosing one for their wedding came easily. “It was perfect for us”, Jaci said. “Festivals are somewhere we feel ourselves and they’re important to us and our relationship. We got married the first day of the fest and had the entire three days to celebrate! People were giving us little gifts all weekend and made us feel so special. It’s our happy place and seemed like a no brainer for us.”

Jaci carried a crochet bouquet and Jason wore a matching boutonniere. Their outfits were not from wedding specific places either which really kept the costs down. Their biggest expense was their rings, which they chose because they wanted something one-of-a-kind.

After the ceremony posed for photographs wearing clown noses, juggled together and finished with Jason wheeling Jaci away in a wagon with a Just Married sign attached. Their friend’s priest costume also fitted right in. “I think traditional weddings are too serious!” the bride concluded. “People need to loosen up and be silly and connect with their inner child.”

Cass and Rich finished their legal ceremony and headed straight for the bumper cars. Still in their wedding outfits, which for the bride was a suit from ASOS, they spent Friday at the funfair outside the register office before going for drinks. Then, the next day, they took over Crookes Social Club for a big party with a £10,000 budget, a ceiling full of tinsel and a vision of a camp music video.

The working men’s club had a stage backed by red velvet curtains, giving them a ready-made setting for the ceremony and the party. Bunty Decor dressed the ceiling with streamers, while custom beer mats, heart-shaped place cards and signage carried their ideas through the room. Cass wore a dress bought on Vinted for £90 with a custom-made cape.

With the paperwork sorted the day before, they could write Saturday’s ceremony themselves and have a friend lead it. Guests arrived, got a drink and chose somewhere to sit, cabaret-style, facing the stage. At the end of their vows, Cass and Rich fired money guns into the crowd, blasting out notes printed with their own faces.

“We wanted friends involved as much as possible,” they explained. “As we’d already had the legal ceremony, we were able to get a friend to be the celebrant on Saturday which was lovely and personal. We then had a roster of friends doing various different DJ sets for the reception, and Fun Again designed a custom poster for them which we printed loads and stuck all over the venue.”

The couple wanted to invite “basically everyone we know”, so they kept the food and seating flexible. Sharing platters came out after the ceremony, catering for everyone’s dietary requirements, and guests could tuck in, move around and catch up. There was no seating plan or formal sit-down meal to organise, and the venue was free to hire because of the money taken behind the bar. Later into the evening they had woodfired pizzas come out.

“Whilst the main thing is obviously getting married, for us the party was really the centre of the whole thing,” Cass said. “We’re both very social people and love a party so it was important to us that this went off!”

When asked which wedding rule they would change, Cass replied: “That they have to be formal – absolutely fine if that’s what you want, but don’t be afraid to have fun and be silly either. I also spent a lot of time on various wedding planning Reddit and Facebook groups and I personally would like to ban plastic tat from Shein with circuit stickers on in that same italic wedding font. Nobody needs flip flops from your wedding!”