Add flavor to any wedding
DIY
By
on June 13, 2008
8 Responses
It's officially wedding season, and while many of you might be planning offbeat weddings, chances are good that you have a couple traditional weddings to attend this summer. Here's one non-intrusive, respectful way that you as an offbeat guest can bring a little offbeat flavor into any wedding:
Conduct your own photo project at the reception
Make a nice sign that says something like "CONGRATULATIONS, JOE & JANE!" Get as crafty as you want with it, or just print out a piece of paper. Then, bring your sign and your camera to the wedding, and during the reception, ask your fellow guests if you can photograph them holding the sign.
You'll end up with a bunch of photos sort of like these, which you can then print and make a sweet Blurb book for the newlyweds.
This is also a great way to interact with your fellow guests — you don't have to talk too long to anyone, but can make a point to meet everyone and make them feel a part of something fun.
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.
jennifer said
I like this a lot! Good heads up! There's nothing like setting yourself a photography project to spice things up!
Karen said
What a simple way to make a big contribution to any wedding. I think any bride and groom would be thrilled to get additional photos like this to remember their day!
blablover5 said
That would be really cute for kids, especially if they can add some glitter and ribbon to really gussy up their sign.
laura said
Beatrix is sooooo cute!!!
Quail said
While this is a really cute idea to do at any wedding, I as an offbeat bride who is having a religious wedding (potentially including Corinthians) wonder what's up with the hating? This post is the sort of thing that enables the indier-than-thou contests – and I thought it wasn't a competition.
Ariel said
Great, great point Quail — I edited the post to soften out the judgey tone. Thanks for calling me out!
Quail said
Hey, no problem Ariel. I appreciate the edit – it still gets the point across (hey, any wedding could be in need of a little mixing up!) and it really is a great idea.
It's kind of a sore spot, since it bothers me that people will assume that we went 'traditional' because we are having a pretty religious ceremony when we are going out of our way to make it reflect our beliefs and values of social justice. I know some guests will hear the religion and just label us – and I'm trying to not let it bother me just like many brides and grooms are having the opposite judging problem of "what? No God!?!?!"
Hehe, and thus my rant ends. I love the site, and I totally feel the love here even though I'm not a red-dress bride.
amanda said
I not sure I would consider myself exactly an off beat bride–but I have enjoyed exploring the brides you've written about.
I took your idea here in this post and spun it a little. I used a white board and white board markers to allow guests to write whatever they wanted.
Since I was the bride, I asked my cousin to help me by collecting the photos for me.
Some just wrote "congrats" and their name, but others gave martial advice and others were just silly.
My husband and I LOVED looking at these photos later after the wedding. They are SO special.
Thanks for the wonderful idea!!
We have them on our flickr stream in a set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/a…244669227/