Miss Cellania
8 Very Different Weddings to Remember
by Miss Cellania - April 8, 2008 - 5:21 AM

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You can dress in white and have a traditional church wedding with rice, candles, and flowers, if that’s what you want. But don’t expect anyone outside the family to remember it years from now. Or you can make it a daringly different production that no one will ever forget. Like these people.

Zombies

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Christopher Downs and Amber Nolin were married in Kansas City on February 29th. The couple own a film company, and got all the details down for a complete zombie wedding at the Macabre Cinema. The bride was wheeled in on a gurney. “Christopher, you may now take your corpse bride and devour her.” Watch the video, if you don’t scare easily!

World War II

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Jo Rowell and Tony Cox of Hartlepool, England used a 1940s theme for their wedding last fall. The groom, a veteran, wore a vintage lieutenant’s uniform, and the bride wore a handmade period dress. Around 100 guests also wore authentic clothing from the World War II era. The ceremony began with a simulated blackout, and the bride entered to Glen Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.

Hello Kitty

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A chain of hotels in Japan offers Hello Kitty wedding packages. However, it would be easy to put one together yourself with all the Hello Kitty merchandise available, but it would be difficult to get the groom and the rest of the family on board with the idea. You can see a video of a Hello Kitty wedding in Hong Kong, but be warned, it’s very pink.

Science Fiction

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Terry and Liz dressed as Darth Vader and a Jedi for their wedding in January. It wasn’t just a Star Wars wedding, but a general sci-fi theme. Terry’s father dressed as Ming the Merciless. His mother was a time lady from Dr. Who. The bride’s mother appeared as Professor McGonnagle from Harry Potter. Other guests were Jack Skeleton, Arthur Dent, Dracula, and a ghostbuster.

Goth

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Goth weddings are more common than ever, but still draw attention. Julie Williams and Dylon Holroyd got married last month in style, with the bride arriving in a coffin delivered by a hearse.

Pirate

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When Noogie and Lace got married, they stages a pirate wedding with the Fernandina Pirates Club. See more pictures at the club site.

Underwater

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John Santino and Toni Wilson had a scuba wedding 11 feet underwater off the Virgin Islands in 2003. They were joined by 106 scuba divers, which set a world record for the largest underwater wedding. Southeast Asia and Oceania have many resorts that offer underwater wedding packages. Mauritius offers wedding packages that include dive weddings and “submarine” weddings for those who aren’t experienced divers. See a video of a (somewhat staged) submarine wedding.

Disney

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Robb & Elissa Alvey love theme parks. Their website Theme Park Review is all about theme parks all over the world, so it was only fitting that their wedding was at Walt Disney World. But wherever yours is, you can buy everything you need for a Disney wedding, from Cinderella cakes to Disney wedding dresses. Disney resorts even has an online wedding planner.

See also Your Wedding: Star Trek or Star Wars?

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Comments (38)

  1. What no Medieval Faire weddings?

    posted by KJ on 4-8-2008 at 7:25 am

  2. Are the British WWII folks dressed in American uniforms?

    posted by fixedgear on 4-8-2008 at 7:26 am

  3. KJ, no renfair, cowboy, tartan, or redneck weddings this time around. There are so many of those, each could have their own post!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 4-8-2008 at 7:45 am

  4. I wish there were a way to post pictures in comments. My mom and her husband got married 3 years ago in Appomatox, VA, in full Civil War regalia. (He had been re-enacting for some time) It was the 140 anniversary of the battle at Appomatox, and as my mother had an ancestor that fought for the south there, and her husband had an anscestor that fought for the north there, it was only fitting that they reunite the families there. Both Generals Lee and Grant gave my mother away, there were gun salutes, the whole nine yards. It was quite a show, with about 500 in attendance. Unfortunatley, some people didn’t realize that it was an actual wedding and talked through the whole thing. I’m pretty sure they were yankees though. :-)

    posted by Jenny on 4-8-2008 at 9:54 am

  5. 150th anniversary, not 140, I can’t type.

    posted by jenny on 4-8-2008 at 9:55 am

  6. really though, i’m a moron, it was the 140th.

    posted by jenny on 4-8-2008 at 10:17 am

  7. really though, i’m a moron, it was the 140th.

    posted by jenny on 4-8-2008 at 10:19 am

  8. Presumably that mother of the Darth Vader groom was Romana (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romana), not just any old Time Lady.

    Also, if it’s the dude from The Nightmare Before Christmas it’s Jack Skellington, not Skeleton.

    posted by Erin on 4-8-2008 at 10:51 am

  9. And apparently someone was Londo Mollari from Babylon 5?

    posted by Michele on 4-8-2008 at 11:56 am

  10. I too wish there was a way to post pictures, I would put a few pics of MY wedding. We got married at the Texas Renaissance Festival 1 1/2 years ago. The whole party was in full garb, including most of the guests. I rode in a parade through the festival grounds on the way to the chapel, and my father even found hs family tartan and wore a traditional kilt. I could not have asked for a better wedding!

    posted by BustyMcLeod on 4-8-2008 at 1:51 pm

  11. I forgot to put my website on the above post. I have several pictures of the wedding on my MySpace page. Feel free to look!

    posted by BustyMcLeod on 4-8-2008 at 1:54 pm

  12. I’d love to put together a post sometime featuring mental_floss readers’ weddings! Send me some pictures!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 4-8-2008 at 2:57 pm

  13. Professor McGonagall!

    posted by annie on 4-8-2008 at 6:35 pm

  14. In 8th grade, my Latin teacher showed us her wedding pictures. She had a “Roman” themed wedding…
    in Latin…
    because she could SPEAK it.

    Good teacher, but crazy.

    posted by Lea on 4-8-2008 at 7:08 pm

  15. Am I the only one who checked out the disney bridal gown page and was hugely confused?

    What did -any- of those gowns have to do with their respective princesses?

    The Jasmine gowns were a bit skanky, and I did spot a randomly poufy skirt in Belle’s Spring collection…

    posted by Brammi on 4-9-2008 at 12:09 am

  16. I shudder to think of what the zombie bride’s wedding bouquet looked like lol.

    the pirate wedding reminds me of an episode of Ace of Cakes where a friend of the owner’s had a pirate wedding. it seems to be popular.

    My favorite one that I’ve heard of was a hardcore Star Wars wedding in which the Jedi groom had to fight Darth Vader (the father of the bride) in order to get married. those kinds of weddings sound like so much fun.

    posted by heather on 4-9-2008 at 1:55 am

  17. Wow, that first one is really creepy… but I do like the WWII theme, that’s probably the most realistic one that someone would do.

    posted by The Critical Bride on 4-10-2008 at 11:45 am

  18. Alas, the pirate wedding link no longer works. The bride is now the President of the Fernandina Pirates Club and the wedding pics can be found on our new website under the picture gallery.

    posted by Aspasia the Promulgator on 9-2-2008 at 7:23 pm

  19. I think the World War II wedding was a really cool idea. I don’t think a lot of people would have thought to have done that. The goth and pirate weddings looked cool too, though.

    I find the Hello Kitty theme for a wedding to be somewhat disturbing, actually. Then again, this is coming from someone who really dislikes Hello Kitty.

    posted by Pippin on 6-6-2009 at 8:07 pm

  20. I too clicked on the Disney wedding gown link. I felt just like you do! If I wanted a Disney character theme wedding dress, I’d want one that LOOKED like her dress! Just another way to make $$ without any substance. But if a woman wants to say “It’s Disney” when asked about her gown, I guess that would be enough for her… Sheesh

    posted by Deb on 6-24-2009 at 10:47 am

  21. The Hello Kitty wedding was cute and Chip and Dale of the Disney Wedding was cute as well.

    posted by Kari on 7-7-2009 at 1:37 pm

  22. It’s McGonagall, lets get the spelling right people!

    posted by Pinky on 7-23-2009 at 4:15 pm

  23. My neice was married at a flea market. Yes I know it sounds like a you might be a redneck joke, but it is true. I thankfully did not attend. Weddings make me cry and that would just spoil the flea market for me. ;)

    posted by James on 7-25-2009 at 12:27 am

  24. The WWII theme would be my ideal dream…..if I didn’t think theme weddings were a bit…..weird, prom-ish, childish – It’s your wedding, the ceremony to celebrate your committment to each other for the rest of your life. Isn’t that enough of a theme!?!? This isn’t a child’s birthday party!!

    posted by JES on 8-17-2009 at 4:38 pm

  25. my former sister-in-law and her husband had a turn of the last century (early 1900′s) wedding. everyone in the bridal party and most of the guests dressed up. i dressed as a gibson girl (but apparently was about 10 years off of the look they were going for.) still, the gents looked very handsome in their hickory stripe trousers, morning coats and top hats. the bride wore a beautiful white cotton lawn dress. it was one of the most fetching weddings i’ve ever attended.

    posted by aoife on 10-22-2009 at 2:10 pm

  26. The WWII uniforms are US Army paratrooper. The guys on the sides are corporal and staff sergeant, respectively. The patch on the guy on the right is of the 101st Airborne. I can’t tell on the groom, but he’s got parachute wings, and the bloused jump boots, so I’m guessing he has the same patch. Even the kid in the background is dressed in paratrooper fatigues!

    My husband and I had a beach themed wedding in Las Vegas, it was great. I was initially interested in a WWII themed wedding, but I had a hard time finding period clothing, especially that fit. Looks like the couple above did a fantastic job!

    posted by Michele on 11-10-2009 at 8:52 am

  27. I feel that a few years ago Disney had Princess wedding dresses that were actually fairly decent recreations of the characters’ dresses in the movies. Those were disappointing.

    posted by Tiffany on 4-14-2010 at 5:25 am

  28. “…The bride’s mother appeared as Professor McGonnagle from Harry Potter…”

    It’s Professor McGonagall, not McGonnagle.

    *Point of interest: McGonagall’s first name is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom (and the Roman counterpart to Athena).

    posted by Kelly on 5-2-2010 at 12:10 pm

  29. Why isnt the JK wedding included?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

    posted by Streak on 6-14-2010 at 7:42 am

  30. Because this article was published two years ago.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 6-14-2010 at 8:07 am

  31. It’s nice to see how many HP fans there are on here. :)

    posted by Chloe on 6-14-2010 at 8:43 pm

  32. Jack Skellington not Jack Skeleton

    posted by Canadiana on 6-15-2010 at 12:12 am

  33. Brammi: I looked at the collection of dresses by Disney a little bit but was put off by the fantasy airbrushing. The redheaded womans arms look disproportionately long; thinking of her hugging her new husband brought all sorts of strange imagery into my head. Not least of which involved spider mating rituals. (sorry)

    posted by elynorah on 8-8-2010 at 3:55 pm

  34. People have gotten married while in free fall, during skydiving!

    posted by Tom Rankin on 10-26-2010 at 1:40 pm

  35. Terry and Liz dressed as Darth Vader and a Jedi for their wedding in January. It wasn’t just a Star Wars wedding, but a general sci-fi theme. Terry’s father dressed as Ming the Merciless. His mother was a *Time Lady from Dr. Who. The bride’s mother appeared as Professor *McGonagall from Harry Potter. Other guests were Jack *Skellington, Arthur Dent, Dracula, and a ghostbuster.

    posted by anonymiss on 1-18-2011 at 3:07 am

  36. My wedding was pseudo-conventional…it was still bride wearing white traditional dress and I work black tie etc but what made it unusual is it took place in a hospital sanctuary as I had emergency surgery the Tuesday before. All the arrangements had been made, guests coming in from out of town….it was different to say the least!

    posted by robigus on 4-5-2011 at 12:37 am

  37. We had a Halloween Wedding on Oct 30, 2010. My husband and I and all the bridal party were vampires. My dress was red and the girls were in black. About 95% of our guest came in costume. Our cake was white with black spider webs and red blood dripping down and had a skeleton bride and groom on top. Our ushers were grim reapers and our minister was a demon. It was a blast and our family and friends still talk about it.

    posted by helenpro54913 on 4-11-2011 at 6:58 pm

  38. I agree that all except the WWII wedding are creepy. Period weddings, done tastefully, can be quite lovely. And btw, Glenn Miller’s name has two N’s. :)

    posted by Erica on 10-11-2011 at 2:58 am

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