Happy new years, everyone! It was exactly one year ago today that I officially unveiled (har har) this website. And what a crazy fucking year it’s been.

I spent the first half of 2006 aggressively promoting the hell out of my book the traditional ways, with readings all over the country and lots of press with radio interviews, newspaper articles, and tv appearances. It was really REALLY exhausting, often demoralizing, and didn’t seem to do much for book sales, honestly. I mean, the book did fine … but not great.

The second half of the year I focused exclusively on promoting the book via this website and not only did book sales markedly improve, but I started making money from offbeat advertisements! Yay. That makes the entrepreneur in me happy. Traffic has gone from 8,000 visits in January 2007 to over 60,000 in December 2007. DAMN! You could draw all sorts of conclusions from this (mainstream media dead? print being eclipsed by web? elvis still alive?) but I’ll just say that I’m happy it’s working out. Thanks to each of you for being a part of that working out-ness!

With a year of content on the site now, I know it’s easy for things to get lost in the archives … and with there being a whole new wave of freshly engaged offbeat brides for 2008, I’m going to start occasionally linking to older posts that I think have stood the test of time, just as a way to keep older stuff fresh in the minds of newer brides and to keep from having to repeat myself.

Also, incidentally, today is Andreas and my “real” anniversary. We don’t really celebrate our wedding anniversary but we’re all about our “kissaversary,” which was New Years Day, 1998. WOOHOO! That baby wearing the pink wig? That was me the first night I kissed Andreas.

Three steps to making your sanican’t into a saniCAN!

I love this idea from Jessie:

I just wanted another great idea a friend of mine did recently at her wedding which was a roaring success. On the r.s.v.p. card they included:

Number of guests attending: _____

AND

Song request #1:__________
Song request #2:__________

Instead of paying for an expensive d.j., they hooked up their laptop, after downloading everybody’s tunes and had a friend play the list. The dance floor was packed all night long!

Yet another great concept for the “steal this idea!” vault, this one courtesy of Hope Meng, founder of Stich Lounge:

Red envelopes are traditionally given by chinese people on days of celebration filled with money. instead, we asked that all guests at our wedding participate in our ceremony by writing their wishes for our marriage on a card and placing it in the red envelope. the bridespeople and groomspeople walked down the aisle with baskets and collected all the wishes from the guests, then placed it at the altar. we were then married surrounded by everyone’s good wishes for our marriage. each envelope had a number written on it, from 1 to 60. We will open all envelopes labeled “1″ on our first wedding anniversary, all envelopes labeled “50″ on our 50th wedding anniversary, etc

Lots more pictures from Hope’s gorgeous wedding are over on Flickr!

(Thanks to hopemeng for the photo!)

Curious about the offbeat business behind Offbeat Bride? I wrote a white paper on my personal blog.

Grooms looking like lead singers.

I positively adore this thread on the Offbeat Bride social network: What offbeat grooms are wanting to wear. Hint: it ain’t a tux!

… All too often non-traditional wedding planning falls along remarkably traditional gender lines, so it’s refreshing to see grooms who are so actively involved in envisioning their weddings. I wish there were so many more! We’re making progress, but it was depressing to me when I pitched my lit agent with the idea of doing an “Offbeat Groom” partner book, her answer was a simple: “No one buys books for grooms. Except brides. There’s just not a market for it.” Sad!

Kent, the offbeat groom who started the groom thread, even started an offbeat grooms social network.

… Or at least Canadian brides are. Just one more way in which Canadians are more progressive than us Yanks. (via)