Puppets Stand Up for California Couple at Unusual Wedding

— -- At every wedding, you've got the usual suspects. There's the minister. The judge. The wedding crasher.

In that respect, Tammy Caplan and Joe Gold's wedding was pretty typical. Not typical: the usual suspects were puppets.

"Weddings can be so serious," Caplan said. "We wanted a creative, fun vibe."

The couple had plenty of time to figure out exactly how they wanted their wedding to play out. They've been together for 15 years.

"We had plenty of ideas," said Gold.

"More ideas than we have time," Caplan added.

The puppet idea won out and was a huge hit with family and friends. The wedding images were captured by photographer Robert Orsa.

"We kept it from everyone except the vendors until the day before the wedding, when we had to tell the wedding party," Gold said. "but the guests were totally surprised."

The team of puppets included in the ceremony: a judge, a ship's captain, a rabbi ("I grew up Jewish and I thought my parents would want a rabbi," Gold said) and a minister. It was the minister puppeteer that was ordained and actually married the couple. The couple's wedding video captures the humor of the event.

"We did actually want to get married," Gold said.

The puppet theme continued with puppet making at the reception. There was then a puppet dance at the end of the night.

So what's next for the couple?

"I don't know. Maybe Tammy will give birth to a puppet," Gold joked. "But I think our parents might be a little disappointed."