Nicole & Dean’s Offbeat, Personalized Maryland Wedding at Brookeville Academy

Images: Shanna Edberg Photography | Submitted via Two Bright Lights

I mean I can never say no to a real DC area wedding features a bride in a dress color other than white! Nicole ROCKED her red wedding dress and all the details of this adorable, intimate & small budget Maryland wedding are just so fun. As self proclaimed “geeks”, Nicole & Dean opted for a “first video game” instead of a first dance and they walked down the aisle to Battlestar Galactica – um hell yes. Their wedding was a 100% them and was made possible by all their family & friends. Enjoy!

Pretty much *all* of our wedding was offbeat. We’re a very geeky, nontraditional couple, and like many couples, we have a lot of student loan debt. We wanted to show our family and friends a fun, meaningful time without breaking our (very small) budget, which was a challenge in the area. We also paid for the wedding pretty much on our own.

I chose to wear a red dress because I almost never wear white. I wanted to wear a color that I felt beautiful and comfortable in. We chose red and black because they’re bold, striking, beautiful colors. Folks on the groom’s side wore fighter jet lapel pins to showcase Dean’s love for planes, and folks on the bride’s side wore neuron lapel pins or necklaces to showcase my love of brains! We wrote our own ceremony and vows to incorporate our love of science, video games, and other geeky things.

We were very fortunate to be able to use our ceremony venue. We were married at the Smith Center near the Meadowside Nature Center, which generally doesn’t allow large groups (besides non-profits) to use their venue. They actually usually don’t allow members of the general public to rent their space. However, Dean’s grandpa, who passed away years ago, used to take Dean there when he was little. The staff at the Smith Center worked with us and with the Meadowside Nature Center to find a way to allow us to have our ceremony on their property. It was really meaningful for Dean and his family, because it felt like his grandfather was able to be there in spirit.

Click inside for all their fun science & geek themed wedding details!

We wanted to have a sciencey/geeky wedding because it’s a big part of who we are. We incorporated my love of neuroscience, and Dean’s love of aerospace. We had lots of little geeky details, like laboratory glassware for centerpieces and test tubes as party favors. I also hand-made 1000 paper cranes out of scientific papers.

Our amazing friends and family really helped us pull together for our wedding. One of our best friends acted as our officiant, and the groom’s dad provided us with a sound system for use in our ceremony and at the reception. He also sang during our ceremony, and played DJ during our reception. Our friends and family also helped us clean up and decorate our ceremony space, and helped us set up for our reception.

The groom’s mom let the bridal party get ready in her ballet studio space. Our friend Garvi Sheth, who makes lovely bracelets and necklaces, made me my Something Blue bouquet charm. Our friend Shanna Edberg, a very talented photographer, provided us with amazing pictures from the wedding (and also took some fantastic engagement photos of us at the Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress). We couldn’t have pulled it off without all of the fantastic, talented people who helped us bring it all together!