Cemetery Engagement Shoot
If you follow me (Odd Lot Paperie) or know me, you know I love Offbeat weddings, engagements, couples etc. Literally anything that is off the beaten path needs to find me b/c I will cherish it and love it forever! LOL. But really I find the uniqueness and beauty in things other people wouldn’t, or a select few would. Such as an engagement photo-shoot in a graveyard.
I mean seriously BADASS right?
So how did I meet this amazing couple you ask? ETSY! I have a shop on Etsy where I have a ton of different designs on. Rustic. Masquerade. Fairy-tale. Halloween. Rockabilly and more. Cat found me via an Etsy search I believe for Offbeat Halloween Wedding Invitations and liked a particular style I had in my shop. These were the Halloween Wedding Invitations she liked, but she needed a Save the Date so they could add photos. I’ll let her tell you all about her search below…it’s quite interesting!!!
Our Search for the Perfect Save the Date & Invitations
Our search for the perfect Save the Dates & Invitations was extremely long. I am pretty sure we have been searching for invitations for over a year. When we needed to get strict about what we wanted we decided to look on Etsy since that is where the creativity lies. We wanted something different and not like anyone else’s. We wanted purple/red/black
colors, graveyard scene and Hallowedding feel. We couldn’t find our invitations or save the dates at a generic place because that isn’t us.
We took to the search on Etsy and typed in: Gothic Halloween wedding invitations. Of course, we did type different words but eventually one night I (Cat) found Julie’s page, OddLotPaperie, on Etsy. We found the perfect invitation for our wedding here. It had our colors of our wedding with a graveyard, spiderweb, moon and more. It was so perfect.
After talking to Julie, we decided we wanted to do our save the dates within the same theme of the invitations. Julie designed the most beautiful save the dates even though she didn’t have them in her shop currently. All I had to do was ask if she could create and tell her our vision and viola! Check them out!
And Julie, we cannot wait for the invitations in the next few months!
Why the Gothic Halloween theme?
We are not traditional and never would want a traditional or generic theme. Traci’s favorite holiday is Halloween. Cat love’s gothic décor and we both felt the two could make a great theme. We are the type of couple who stands out in our own ways.
We had a graveyard engagement photoshoot for the gothic Halloween theme of our wedding. Til death will never do us apart, as our love is eternal! Our photographer , Garret Torres was amazing and so on-point with the whole experience and photoshot.
Back in January 2013, I (Cat) had went onto Plenty Of Fish (an online dating website) with the hopes of finding someone but not expecting a miracle. Plenty of Fish had this aspect on the website where you clicked through photos and then if you liked someone, you clicked meet me. I pressed “Meet Me” on Traci and was pretty sure she would never send a message back. That night I wrote maybe 5 different long messages in Word but ended up deleting them all. Ultimately, I ended up never sending her a message. I thought to myself, “if she doesn’t send me a message by tomorrow, I will delete my profile.” Well she wrote me back, the message said: “Hello, How are you?” I almost didn’t respond because that’s all she was going to say to me?! She didn’t know I wrote 5 messages the night before but none of them were perfect enough. Obviously, I responded (thankfully!). We wrote messages back and forth for a few weeks. We attempted to meet one weekend but a few days before Traci fell on ice and hurt her knee. Then the next time her Aunt died. I was pretty sure she was fake and never really wanted to meet me. Also, thinking she was just stringing me along. Eventually, we had our first date in Middletown, NY at the Galleria Mall. The date went on for over 6 hours that day. I knew that day that she was the one. Yes, that sounds cheesy, but it was the absolute truth. I mean, she missed the Grammy’s to talk to me in her car in the parking lot of the mall.
On our 3 rd date (02/22/2013) Traci asked me out, “Will you be my peapod mate?” and a year later I had asked her to marry me “Will you be my peapod mate forever?” I had known we weren’t going to get married anytime soon but I knew I wanted her to know how serious I was. While I was going to college in Northern NJ, I went to Build A Bear to make a bear that looked like me. This bear was to be used as a distraction. I bought fake rose petals and created hearts with what I loved about her. I spent a few months talking over which ring to get with her two best friends at the time. She was going to Utica College for Occupational Therapy on the weekends. On our 1 st year anniversary dating I came with her that weekend because of that reason (02/22/2014). She was at college and wanted to have lunch with me, but I told her no, just stay at school (because I didn’t want to clean up what I created in the hotel room). I decorated the whole hotel room. The hearts from the door to the bed, with the bear in the bag. Red rose petals in the form of a heart on the bed. I had set up my phone to take a video of the whole thing too. Traci came in after school was over, unsure and awkward. She read each heart and walked to the bag on the
bed. When she grabbed the bear, I got on my knee after grabbing the box behind the television. She refused to turn towards me because she could see me on my knee. Eventually she turned and then I turned into a blubbering mess, she refused to say yes until I asked the question fully. Luckily, I was able to get the words out and she said yes. We celebrated by eating sushi and now 6 years later I graduated college and we are getting married!!
Dreams for Our Wedding:
Traci and I dream for our wedding to simply go smoothly. Of course, it is as any couples hopes for. We hope that everyone comes in costumes or at least dresses in a Halloween attire of some sort. We want a day where everyone is comfortable to be themselves and enjoys their night celebrating our love. We want our wedding to be filled with acceptance and love. We want it to be a unique wedding, one where our friends and family walk in knowing this is our wedding. We want our wedding to be non-traditional and weird. I (Cat) also want a wedding where I can be free to enjoy the day/evening. As someone with sensory issues and autism, it is hard for me to enjoy weddings typically. I need to use earbuds that knock down the sound. We have a DJ who understands and knows my noise sensitivity, so he plans to not have music as loud as any other typical wedding. As one knows this wedding is less than typical our wish is that it will still be a fun, beautiful Hallowedding experience for everyone.
Fun Lil Details to add:
We had a graveyard engagement photoshoot for the gothic Halloween theme of our wedding. Til death will never do us apart, as our love is eternal. We plan to have some rock music and non-traditional type of music at our wedding day because it is a mutual love between the both of us. We have been together 7 years on Feb 22,2020. We are number type of people and that is why we chose 10/30/20 for our wedding day. Despite the fact that many wedding venues tried to make us change it to a Saturday or Sunday, we have been adamant since the beginning. A funny thing to know is that we went to 14 wedding venues but number 13 which is both our favorite number was the winner. We have two cats; a blue-eyed snow spotted Bengal named Kali and a Bombay cat named Night Fury. We are known as hobbles and wobbles… that is a funny story but maybe too long. Basically one gets hurt a couple times a year and sometimes it can be at the same time. We work together. Our love is real and we have a relationship not like any other we know. We communicate and understand each other. We barely argue. In the past almost 7 years we have probably had a handful no more than 5 arguments. Traci is my pea pod mate forever, this love—I never expected to be real. Sometimes I am still pinching myself wondering if it’s a dream.
As always, odd Lot Paperie not only works with local (Quincy, Illinois) bride and grooms, but we service the whole United States and other countries as well! Online is a wonderful thing and distance should not stop you from having the invites you have been dreaming of! It’s as easy as an email conversation or skype face to face. Let me ROCK those wedding invitations, save the dates etc and make your wedding unforgettable!
Cheers!
~Julie Waterkotte/Odd Lot
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