Offbeat Bride has talked about how much we love the idea of making your own wedding ring before. So how could we not take this opportunity to show you exactly how OBT member "merryf" and her FH created their own wedding bands.

Last Saturday my FH and I did the most extraordinary thing and made our own wedding rings. Not designed, but actually took metal and, after eight hours, ended up with wedding rings.

My FH found a ring making studio in New York while surfing the Web. It was all his idea, and I went along with it. This was the one thing that he wanted to spend money on for the wedding. How could I say no?

New York Wedding Ring is right in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC subway. The goldsmith, Sam, was so nice, and so helpful. He takes just one couple at a time, so all his attention was on us. The nicest thing was that he didn't touch our rings at all — they were ours to make, and he demonstrated what he wanted us to do on a ring that he made at the same time. (Well, at one point he did help me when I got frustrated and threw it down on the table.) At one point I helped my FH and then he helped me, and that's nice to know that my ring has a bit of him in it, and his has a bit of me.

It wasn't all fun — the sanding and polishing almost put me to sleep and for the life of me I could not file the edge in a straight line. And my FH got a "corkscrew" instead of a circle when he bent it in a machine. And it was not cheap — it was about $1,400 and the actual cost of the metal was just a fraction of that, (the main cost was the time we spent there) but we had a lot of fun, and I learned that I can use those sort of tools and I'm not afraid. It's the ultimate DIY project.

And here is how we did it…

Continue reading "Fire! Hot Metal! We made our own wedding rings!" →

We're doing a "vegan wedding" theme week on Offbeat Bride! And I love that there are enough vegan weddings out there to profile for a whole animal-friendly week. Do take note that though not all of the weddings are ENTIRELY vegan, but, like anything, there are various styles of vegan weddings, whether it includes just the menu or their lifestyle choices in general. -Megan

The offbeat bride: Fran, a mundane office worker (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Siobhán (also known as Von), youth worker and geek

Location & date of wedding: The Derby Conference Centre, a listed Art Deco building with gorgeous original 1930s interior. The ceremony was held in the lecture hall, a small theatre shaped room, then we had the celebrations in their giant sunken lounge in Derby, UK. — 31st October 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Living a non-traditional life meant our guests weren't expecting a traditional day from the start, so we had complete freedom. We're bisexual so it was important our day was a celebration of not just our love but of love generally. The top table included a sibling's wife and girlfriend from their poly life, with a toast to the fact we could even have a legal ceremony.

Continue reading "Fran & Siobhán's feminist, disability-friendly, colourful, vegan wedding" →

Photo Pink is back, YAY! You may remember Photo Pink from when we profiled them before, and they became super popular with OBBs almost immediately…

"I saw this post and contacted Photo Pink, since I ve been hunting for a few months to find a photographer. Not even 24hrs into the process they are AWESOME. I highly recommend talking with these folks; they are friendly, responsive and most of all REAL PEOPLE." -Heather

Well, now they're back to share with us Heather and Bryan's Brooklyn wedding, complete with tons of awesome offbeat details, captured perfectly (of course) by photographers Liesl and Randy.

Keep reading to see some beautiful NY wedding porn and get the info on their sweet Offbeat Bride discount…

Continue reading "New York wedding photography by Photo Pink" →

In my never-ending search for loud-and-proud wedding shoes, this week I'm venturing into the wilds of animal print shoes. Really, it's a wonder it took me this long since really — is there such a thing as an understated animal print shoe?

Cheetah, leopard, zebra, pony … none of these animals were actually harmed in the making of this list of wedding shoes. But I went pretty much ape-shit and grabbed so many styles to show that there are TOO many. I've set this post to only display 10 at a time. To see more, you'll need to refresh the page.

Continue reading "Scandalous animal print shoes" →

Thanks to your feedback from the 2010 Reader Survey, we've added more questions to the questionnaire we use to collect our real wedding profiles. We also added a way for people to self-identify themselves with tags — another suggestion from y'all! Here's the very first survey with the new questions.

The Offbeat Bride: Highland, Customer Service Manger and Hair/Makeup Stylist

Her Offbeat Partner: Jack, Wedding Photographer and Graphic Artist

Location & date of wedding: Floyd Lamb State Park, North Las Vegas, NV — January 24, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Jack is transgendered, and the way we decided to tell our family (well, Jacks half of the family, mine already called him, "he") is by having our officiant (who is also in an awesome rock band called Thrown Clear) pronounce us "Husband and Wife" and use all male pronouns throughout the ceremony.

Continue reading "Highland & Jack's winter wedding in Las Vegas" →