The official offbeat wedding checklist
Advice
By
on January 10, 2008
74 Responses
Of course every bride's checklist will be different, but we have a few suggestions
Newly engaged?
Be sure to check out our Wedding Planning 101 guide!
Finally, a checklist for Offbeat Brides! Obviously, no one checklist can meet everyone's needs, but this one is hopefully a bit more slanted toward nontraditional concerns. That said, it assumes you're got about a year-long engagement — some of you are waaay longer, and some of you manage to do it all in three months. Your mileage may vary.
Download our FREE printable checklist!
This is just the first page of our printable checklist
Want an interactive version of this checklist?
Members of the Offbeat Bride Tribe can personalize this list via our interactive, color-coded, awesometastic checklist tool.
- Existing members can get started here.
- If you're not yet a member, click here to sign up.
About Ariel Meadow Stallings
Author of Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, Ariel acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives, loves, and dorks out hard in Seattle, WA.
Melissa said
I would love to rent a farm animal or two for my wedding.
Kelli Russell-Selwyn said
We are having our wedding right down the road from a farm and they have goats! So, right after the reception the photographer, my partner and I are going to go feed the goats and take some awesome photos! Our retirement plan is to own a goat farm, so we thought it was fitting.
Ariel said
Goat-related weddings featured on OBB:
http://offbeatbride.com/2009/0…-love-fest
http://offbeatbride.com/2010/0…rm-wedding
Megan said
Oh, it looks like you forgot "schedule mani/pedi trial run 3 months before the wedding to ensure color matches your table linens and accent flowers."
Seriously, though: Thank you for this!
Rachel said
Perfect! Thanks for posting this. Definitely better than anything in those "wedding planner" books.
Baxter said
This is so amazingly helpful.
Me said
I am always afraid I'm forgetting something major. Thanks so much for this!! It's so much better than the other ones that are available!
Zan said
Thank you so much for this. It is now getting down to crunch time and although I have a wedding planner, I am also a bit of a control freak (thanks Mom) and need to make sure I dictate to her everything I need. She won't know unless I tell her, so thanks.
Danielle said
This list is awesome because it uses a word that most other wedding sites don't–IF.
AJ said
Sedative! That's brilliant, I wish someone had recommended that for me, I got about 2 hours sleep night before my wedding and looked it. People say they couldn't tell and the adrenaline got me through the day easily, but I can still see tired eyes when I look at my pictures. I'll definitely be recommending to my friends they snag a valium from somewhere.
Brittany said
I love this.
The only thing that I would change is when to choose your officiant. If you have someone in mind that you'd like, it's basically her/his availability and the venue that decides the date of your shindig.
Liana said
The list is great, except that I'm a bride in pants! I'll have to customize my list a little more
Ariel said
Ooh, Liana, good point. I should change it to say "outfit."
Jada said
Oh my god this list is amazing! I love my shirt too.
rainbo said
who doesn't love a checklist that involves masturbation…way to go!!
thanks
Samantha said
Thanks!!!
sarah said
Oh god… there's so much stuff that needs to be done that I keep overlooking… I guess we're going to do a lot of "winging it." I'm gonna need to do a lot of masturbating and sedative-munching. Oh well.
dragonfly said
Anyone considering having farm animals around their wedding really needs to RECONSIDER IT! I live on a farm & we would never consider renting an animal out for a wedding. Take this from someone who's mother wanted swans swimming in her pool & whose father threatened to serve the poor birds for dinner after he got done cleaning up the poop right before the guests started arriving. Now I have to got back to hitting my head on the wall. My son is getting married soon – possibly at our farm. I'm thinking I'll hand out shovels, rakes & pitchforks to the guests as they arrive. Good luck every one.
Ariel said
Psst, dragonfly: it was a joke.
sarah said
Seriously, though, why do so many wedding places advise to "start thinking about hairstyles" like 6 months before the wedding? Am I missing something? Is this something that I should really put 6 months worth of thought into?
Ariel said
Sarah, I guess the logic is that if you want to grow it out, it could take six months? That's the only justification I can think of.
Kelli Russell-Selwyn said
Yeah, I've encuntered a lot of "Oh, well you need to decide how you'll wear your hair so you'll know how long you'll need to let it grow." I guess most people just assume I'm going to grow it out. If anything, I was thinking of buzzing it again, it was so beautiful!
Sean said
Or in my case,
1. Get license
2. Make sure park is clear the day of ceremony
3. Get married
4. Eat and drink
5. Hot married sex
I realized that after dumping a number of specific expenses like getting my hair done and having a fancy cake that dumping all of it and going bare bones is much easier/cheaper/smarter. S'nice.
Hillary said
Hey Ariel, I could totally support the Offbeat Bride Podcast!
sje said
Love the list, especially the frequent use of the word "if". You seem to cover all the big stuff, without getting down to teensy, stupid, princess-type details.
Harper said
OMG, don't make the mistake one of my Customers did and get your Gown details done LAST! 1:Get the Venue then 2:Get your Gown/Costume details/deposit/contract/shopping done! 3:Then deal with everyone else's minutia…
From a Gown Designer's perspective everyone's coming in to the shop at once wanting your full attention and the Calendar Juggling Act becomes chaos with just one last minute forgetful Girl…and we haveto charge accordingly to make it work! Save your budget for fun things, not Rush Fees
Brigitta said
seriously amazing! thanks so much.
Anna said
holy shit! is it too late to elope?
liz allen said
No Kidding and I'm 54 and it's starting to be a task. People are coming up to me saying we can't wait and I'm thinking shit I didn't even think of you to invite. It's just becuz they have waited so freakin long to see me get married for the FIRST time.I'm thinking just masturbate and forget about the whole thing!