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What's Geekier Than a Ferengi Bridesmaid?
gbulmash asks: "The newly updated "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton not only offers thrills, chills, and a Borg invasion... It's offering Trek-themed Wedding Packages. You can be married on a replica of the Enterprise bridge by a costumed starfleet officer and have additional Trek characters as guests. I thought "how geeky", but then remembered the guy who paid $22,550 for Joaquin Phoenix's white armor from Gladiator , claiming he was going to wear it at his wedding. All this has inspired me to ask what's the geekiest or nerdiest thing you've ever encountered at a wedding? There was a thread on geeky party favors for a wedding last year, but this question goes beyond that... getting married by a Gandalf impersonator, a cake shaped like Cthulu, groom dressed as Darth Vader and his best man is a stormtrooper. I know tales like these are out there, so please share them."
Asking your girlfriend to marry you in front of millions of geeks around the world...
I think it was April 26th, 1999, or shortly after. My fiancée and I were discussing when we should get married. My sister had a wedding coming up as well and we didn't want our weddings to conflict. I was thinking about this User Friendly comic and said "Well, we can eliminate May 19th, or none of our friends will be there."
My fiancée responded, "Well, we could have it May 19th, if we had it at the theater. . . ."
Went down and asked the local Edwards theater manager if we could have the wedding May 19th in the lobby. He had to check with Mr. Edwards himself, but we got the ok. People were already in line outside the theater.
I called the state for what was required to officiate a wedding. They referred me to the Universal Life Church, which I found offered on-line ordination. So I instant messaged a friend of mine at work and he went and got his ordination real quick, printing his certificate out at work (I think it still hangs in his cubicle). He agreed to dress as Qui Gon Gin and quote Yoda in the ceremony ("Do, or do not. There is no try.")
A friend of mine volunteered his for his wife, a very talented seamstress, to make our costumes. We set out to find the assorted props and such that we would need to complete the experience. I picked up a toy Han Solo blaster from Toys 'R Us. It was made of orange plastic. I used a black magic marker to color it black, adding a few highlights and scuffs.
We camped out overnight the last day, night and day before tickets went on sale. My boss gave me time off since he knew it was for getting hitched and all. We bought tickets for the first show after 5pm on the 19th (although a lot of the guests went to the midnight one too), so the most people could attend.
Everyone was in costume. I was Han Solo, she was Princess Leia and Darth Vader gave her away, Chewbaka was my best man while Boba Fett looked on. Jedis, with their lightsabers drawn, lined the isle. The ceremony music from the end of Episode 4 filled the lobby for the wedding march, and after the wedding we played the original celebration music from the end of Episode 6.
Then the manager let us all go straight to the theater to get good seats for the movie. No standing in line outside necessary (which some people had been doing all week). We lined up outside the theater while they finished cleaning it up. My wife and I walked down the line of guests and shook their hands. A reverse wedding line is much more efficient then a traditional one.
I ran to use the restroom before the movie started, and I ran into a guy who saw I was dressed up and said Did you hear someone got married out in the lobby?
"Anything is possible with enough programmers, time and pizza." (Substitute caffeine for time as needed.)
I mean really, you're making a promise to spend your life with someone and they basically make a joke of it. Why would you do that? It's supposed to be a solem occasion.
Supposed to be solemn? Sez who? When you get married, you're welcome to have whatever wedding you want, of course. But I think it's more important that weddings be serious and meaningful to the participants. Serious doesn't have to mean traditional, boring, or solemn.
A friend of mine got married a few years back. He is a delightful, creative freak, as are many of his friends. A traditional, solemn wedding would have made him and his friends miserable. Why would they dedicate their lives to making interesting art and causing lively trouble, only to pretend otherwise on their wedding day?
Answer: they wouldn't. As with everything else they do, they took traditional answers and shook them up. They had a wedding that was serious, heartfelt, and quirky, filled with love and laughter. It might have been their wedding but it was also their wedding.