Annika and Leon love Tolkien, fantasy worlds and video games, so they built their wedding from that foundation. They planned the day entirely by themselves, with the help of many talented friends, and held it at Mildenstein Castle in Saxony, Germany.

“We planned, designed, decorated and prepared everything ourselves and had a lot help from our super talented friends”, Annika told us. “Our friends played music at the ceremony and afterwards, took our pictures, created my beautiful wedding gown, baked the most delicious cake we ever tasted and helped us with the decoration of the venue.”

Narrowing down guest list proved to be one of the hardest parts. Budget limits meant making decisions early, and with more than a year between planning and the day itself, some relationships changed between the invites going out and the day happening. “It was surprisingly difficult for us to choose who to invite”, Annika explained. “While all the guests we invited are all very close to our hearts, a few of the people we grew closer with since we invited everyone were not part of the wedding. This taught us that a wedding guest list is always a snapshot of this moment in time.”

Doing everything themselves, and in a very non-traditional way, did mean they found most wedding ‘advice’ online to not be very helpful at all. “Every time we researched wedding preparations it left us feeling demotivated and anxious. If we would have followed that advice the wedding would have cost at least four times as much and we would be starting our married life with extreme financial stress.” Instead, they worked things out on their own terms, speaking to friends and dealing directly with their non-mainstream venue and caterers.

As they had already completed the legal ceremony with close family, this castle celebration was able to be exactly as they wanted it. Their witnesses led the ceremony before the couple shared their vows. Both had written about the two trees of Valinor without realising the other had done the same. “We cried, our guests cried and everyone was happily teary-eyed”. they said. The ceremony ended with a handfasting, followed by a mead reception and a cake inspired by Telperion and Laurelin.

Afterwards, a cannon was fired in the courtyard. Guests explored the castle museum or spent time outside while the couple took photos. Games organised by their best man and woman brought everyone together before the evening moved into the knight’s hall. The spaces had been set up the day before with help from friends, including interactive details like dice-based cocktail stations. The evening party kicked off with a fire show by Discrahelios and their first dance was a choreographed routine which included a sword fight!

Their advice to other couples who want to do things on their own terms? “A wedding doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg and you don’t need a wedding planner if you are able and want to put in the work yourselves”, they concluded. “Lean on your community. Organising something together with our loved ones was an alternative act in itself. We appreciate all their help so much and will always gladly offer our skills and expertise to support them as well. It’s nice to have a beautiful venue, table décor and so on, but the memories you will cherish the most are the conversations and moments you had with your love, friends and family.”