I am a totally offbeat bride wanna-be … completely trapped in a semi-traditional girl. Last week I sent out save the date cards. Awesome — designed using my Photoshop skills, picture of us, love it. Then came the mailing. I went to Target to buy a sharpie to write the addresses on the envelopes. I almost paid $12 for a pack of 15 Sharpies because I wanted the brown one. Why the brown one? Because it matches the wedding color scheme.

Sometimes I need to be saved from myself. Thanks for the site — it really helps me keep perspective sometimes and be true to who we are and what we want. From reminding myself that it's much more sane to buy a $1 black sharpie to making me feel like it's ok not to want to talk about my wedding 24/7, you're doing wonders for us girls who haven't quite crossed the "I'm wearing a red dress if I damn well please" line yet. So thank you for supporting my semi-independentness. — Les

P.S. I realize that purchasing a black sharpie over a brown one doesn't make me an independent bride, but it shows me that I haven't completely gone over to the dark side.

Les, you are so welcome for the inspiration and perspective. To me, offbeat isn't a toggle switch — it's not an are or aren't. It's not a contest. It's all shades of grey and what's important is thinking for yourself and making decisions based on your own beliefs and values instead of the defaults that are spoon-fed to brides everywhere. Regardless, this site is here to inspire and challenge all brides who need a little more offbeat in their lives … not just the red dress wearers.

The offbeat bride: Brit, Admin

Her offbeat partner: Cecilia, Accountant

Location & date of wedding: Historic building outside Boston, MA, October 13, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: We made the decision early on that we would keep whatever traditional wedding elements we liked, and ditch those we didn't! This meant the white dress was out, along with "tossing" of anything, but the ceremony and reception with all our friends and family were in. We had a modest budget, and incorporated lots of DIY. I made all of our paper products, centerpieces and my bouquet. We also used rented audio equipment and mix cd's for the music and did all the decor ourselves. Other things that puzzled our families included walking down the aisle together, not having a bridal party and planning the entire thing ourselves.

Continue reading "Brit didn't let getting sick ruin her wedding!" →

Can you steer me in the direction of wedding hair for chicks with dreads? My mom is fucking tripping (which is so completely weak considering that I'm 32 and paying for the shindig) so I thought I'd get her to chillax with some dready wedding goddess hair pix. Thanks so much… I must say Mama~ Andreas SCORED! (Will you thank him for sharing you with us?!) — Reba

Aww, *blush*. Thanks, Reba! I'll remind Andreas of that next time he's irked at me for leaving a trail of girlwind detritus behind me all over the house.
Ok, now to answer your question about wedding dreads! Hoo-boy. This is a beloved topic of mine, since back in the day (creak creak creak) I used to have some wild dreads myself. There's so much great inspiration for you out there!

Let's start with what not to do. I was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding back in 2000, and we went to a traditional hair salon to get our make-up and up-dos. Here's how I ended up. The look was sorta psychedelic Marge Simpson, and while it was relatively tidy, I'm not sure I'd recommend the look to anyone else. (And don't even get me started on the heavy make-up. Dre could hardly look at me all day!)

Anyway, for lots of inspiration for how you could style your dreads, keep on reading…

Continue reading "How to style your dreads on your wedding day" →