When Offbeat Bride was first designed in 2006, it was structured as a book promotional blog. As we all now know, the site has evolved into something quite different over the past 3+ years, and so I decided it was finally time to overhaul the site's design in a way that better fit what it has become.
Now with a new look!
Ok, so the first thing you notice is obviously ... IT LOOKS DIFFERENT! Shout out to my designer Iris for making the magic happen. While I wanted to keep the same noir feel to the site, we did some major tweaking with things. It should feel pretty familiar in terms of where things are, but we made it more clear what was what. For instance, the "Advice" tab on the old site has always been just a link to the archive of Advice blog posts, and now it's clear which of the tabs are blog post filters — from the BLOG tab, you can view posts by Advice, Wedding Porn, Vendors (which includes shopping posts), and DIY (ooh, new category!), and Local. And ooh: how sexy is that featured post module at the top of the homepage? I'll be using it to feature the best of OBB, past and present.
Now with more category common sense
In an effort to make it a bit easier to find content that you like, we've done some cleaning up in the categories — we've broken Wedding Porn out into Decor, Fashion, Favors, Flowers, Food, Venues, and Invitations.
We've also broken Real offbeat weddings out into regions: Western, Midwest, Northeast, and Southern US; and then Canada and Global.
Oh and we added an icon for each category, so at a glance you can get a feel for what's what.
Now with comments that actually work
Want a picture to display with your comments?
Click here to do it! It only takes 3 minutes and as an a bonus, your picture can show on other blogs where you comment, too!
I recently wrote about ditching IntenseDebate Comments, the system I'd been using for Offbeat Bride comments. Now that we're back to WordPress comments, things, well, actually work. You can still sign up to get notified of comments by email, and now everyone can edit their comments! We'll be adding more commenting features in coming weeks — stuff like Facebook Connect so you can comment using your Facebook account, and Report Comments so that you can tell us when you see something spammy, bitchy, or otherwise shady.
Now with more SQUEE! ...and a few bugs
I encourage y'all to click around and get a feel for all the new awesomeness. As you do so, I'm sure you'll find little things that are, uh, less than awesome ... as in slightly broken. We're probably going to be cleaning up on Aisle Offbeat Bride for a couple weeks, so please do let me know if you see something wonky. Redesigning a site with over three years of archived content makes for some major challenges, and while we've tried to catch most of the bugs, I'm sure we missed some.
But mostly — YAYAYAYAY! You're looking at months of hard work, and I'm so excited to finally be able to share it with y'all!
Oh, and one last thing: if you're thinking to yourself, ZOMG I HATE IT, give it a week to settle in. (We're still working on stuff!) If you still hate it, then let us know what's bothering you.
UPDATE
Thanks to everyone for all your feedback! It means a ton to me that y'all feel so passionately about the site that you're willing to take the time to share your thoughts with me! Ultimately, of course, the site's redesign is not going to be to everyone's liking, but we're working to integrate some of the suggestions y'all provided.
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.
Kristine said
Shiny!
Heather said
Well said, Kristine!
Amber M said
who's first thought would be "I hate this"?! hahaha I luuuurves it. <3
Ariel said
Oh, lots of people HATE change. Even if it's good change, it's foreign!
Lily said
I hate change… Im sorry, I cant help it.
Ariel said
Me too!
All I ask is that you give it a week to see how it sinks in. Then let me know if you have specifics with the new design that are tripping you up.
Taryn said
I hate change too…. it makes my purse so heavy! :p
Ariel said
http://instantrimshot.com
Brandi Partain said
The only thing I do not like about it is that it is a bit hard to tell what article is the newes. I read every day and like to know what is the "most up to date" thing that has been posted.
Jenny said
I agree. If you're an everyday visitor and like to look at everything on the site ( I love the rea weddings, and the fashion porn, and the photog porn and all of it really) its a little confusing to navigate to the newest posts. Too many clicks…
Wish said
I agree.
Very confusing.
Amber M said
oh! question: how do I add a picture so I'm not anonymous jane/joe anymore?
Ariel said
Great question! You can set it up at Gravatar.com — and then your picture will show up on any site that uses Gravatar, which is MILLIONS of 'em.
Uggh said
Testing. Testing.
Cool. My gravatar shows up. I like the new wordpress comments.
Celeste said
PRETTY AWESOME. I admit, I usually hate change, but I can definitely see the potential here. My immediate favorite change is the new categories (DIY, regional, etc.). Love the icons too! =)
Great job, OBB Team! =D
Theresa said
Not a fan, hopefully I'll come around.
Theresa said
Changed my mind, I love it
Ariel said
HA!
Princess Lasertron said
love the new site! very very slick design.
I think this is very representative of the offbeat empire brand. congratulations!
Princess Lasertron said
awww no gravatar. I gotta figure out how to make that work here.
Ariel said
Your redesign was a huge inspiration — so thank you! Oh and as for gravatar: do you have it synced with ALL your email addies? Took me a while to realize you could add more than 1.
Pennypoppycakes said
I've been a fan of OBB since it started and I lurv the changes. It'll make it easier to do research for my own wed-shin-dig!
Kate said
I like the general layout…I think. 'm still warming up to it.
But I am very, very sad about the lack of color, both here and over on the OBT. The plain dark grey is sad, and I don't think it looks as good with the wonderful customized art at the top as well as the old layout did.
What is "Clean" to you is "dreary" to me – or even confusing over on the OBT. Ok, maybe not confusing, but the different colors seemed to help differentiate different sections over there – sparating groups from wedding planning updates, etc. Now it's just a sea of grey that's harder for the eyes to sort through.
I don't get it! You live in Seattle too, how can you want MORE GREY in your life? AAAAHHHHHH!
I mean, hey, it's your offbeat empire, and it's not like I'm going to stop reading because there's too much grey (no chance in hell). Even if OBB had a background that was a picture of a garbage heap it would still be the best website around.
But that's my two cents… Reorganization? Good. Excess of asphalt color? Bad.
Ariel said
Thanks for the feedback, Kate. I do want to keep the OBB discussion separate from the OBT one, though. I feel like offbeatbride.com is filled with color — it's got a dark background (which is *extremely* intentional branding), but the palette is full of blues and greens and pinks.
The OBT thing is just a clean slate — we'd had the McDonald's/Boot design for 2 years, and my eyes were tired. It likely won't stay that way for long.
bigDEE said
I think the navigation & organization of the new layout is absolutely amazing. I even get the thought process behind the branding. However, something seems slightly off about the background. Perhaps a lighter gray would still convey your intentions? When I design, I love minimalist design (in fact, *epic squee* over the OBT redesign) so kudos on that. There are a few things I've nitpicked over since looking at the design but overall, it looks great. It's clean, easily navigable, and the re-design lends itself more towards the business aesthetic than the prior layout. So with that said, *throws confetti* congrats on the launch!
DQ said
See, with the very dark background I am not seeing Lots of colour at all, i am just seeing slate grey! I quite like the redesign, but the dark dark background is real headbutt to me.
Serena said
Love the new design. So much easier to navigate. I love the way you've divided up the homepage and how I can easily see the many different sections now. I'm excited to see how easily I'll be able to locate previous posts that caught my eye while planning my wedding now. As a photographer I'm a visual beast and my eyes tell me you did a great job.
As for the grey – I like it – my wedding photography site is grey too. I chose it for the way it keeps focus on the colorful photos and compliments the black and white images too.
Serena said
One thing I can't find is how to submit wedding photos to you. Where is that? I just photographed a Pi Day (3.14) Wedding in Bellingham, Washington where the bride wore a green dress, they built a cake topper out of pieces from their combined Lego collection, the ceremony was held in their favorite Italian restaurant, and they posed with a giant silver robot for a wedding portrait. I think it begs to be shared with everyone here on OBB.
Ariel said
Check the FAQ linked under the ABOUT section for information about how to submit weddings.
Serena said
Thanks! I found it.
Bec said
Love love love it!
It's so clean & fresh & easy to navigate. Great job guys!
Evita said
Bravo! I love it. It may even get a LURVE. }:)
Brigitta said
It's big. It's bold. It's utterly slick.
I LIKE it! (Give me a few more days to love, but I'm sure I'll get there
)
Bandora said
The change is shocking at first but I know that it will grow on me, specially because the things that I may dislike now are actually improvements that I know that I'll be appreciating very soon.
I love you guys were able to combine functionality with good looks. And just the fact that it's change makes it feel like a brand new website and triggers the desire to go digging.
Specially like the Local section, can't wait for Florida to be added.
Ariel said
"specially because the things that I may dislike now are actually improvements that I know that I'll be appreciating very soon."
Wow, thank you for this.
I wish everyone felt this way about redesigns!!
Jessica_Iowa said
Dear loves,
OMG thank you so much for the new brake down of categories!
I could not be more delighted and thrilled to try the new design out!
Enjoy your day you earned it.
Love,
Jessica
PS. How can I get at pretty picture with my comments?
Ariel said
Aww, thanks Jessica! Head on over to Gravatar to set your comment picture.
Jessica*Iowa said
Have headed over and look forward to my slightly changed name to fit into the Gravatar universe.
Syd said
I love the larger font, and I think the darker colors are very nice. I find the site much more readable now. Good job!
Ariel said
My web dev and I were like "Dude, we're getting old. MOAR BIGGER FONTS!"
alexandria[pro] said
I personally looove the grey background. It's such a great neutral colour, and I think it has more personality than black. But since it's still a neutral, you get to use any and all fun bright colours on it. Huzzah!
I can't wait to see what happens with the OBT!
<3 <3 <3
Hannah said
My initial reaction was 'noooo, what did they do?' Guess I have to get used to the new design. I've been clicking around and really like the breakdown into categories.
I miss the tags next to a post, though. I've looked, but can't find them. I used them quite a lot to get stuff out of the archives. I liked clicking on the actual tag, because it enabled me to see how you would name things within the context of a blogpost (this is why the tag-cloud doesn't work as well for me, although I like the idea and I'm in favor of both tag-cloud and list of tags next to a post).
But maybe I'm overloooking the tags?
Ariel said
The tags are DEFINITELY still here! They're listed under "Related posts," between the post and the comments. That said, I kinda miss 'em being up near the top of posts too, and may make a change to that if I just can't get used to it. We use tags a LOT on OBB, and I want to make sure that they're obvious enough that people can make use of them too!
Ariel said
Actually, now that I think about it — I'm going to add tags back at the top of the post today. The fact that someone (aka you!) who knows&likes tags couldn't find them … that means that the majority of OBBs (who don't know what tags are) would NEVER see them. So I'm going to add 'em back at the top of the post.
Thanks so much for the feedback — super helpful.
Ariel said
Ok — I've added back tags at the top of the post. Thanks again for the feedback!
Hannah said
Today I saw the tags right-away and then I looked whether you answered my comment. You did! Thank you for reacting so quickly and sharing the thought process
. And yay for the tags being back on the top of a post!
MarquesaJen said
I love it! The contrast makes it much easier to read and focus on. I'll be getting on gravatar later on.
Giggles said
My screen is 1024 wide. Which means that the site doesn't quite fit on my screen. Not a huge problem. But the facebook/rss/twitter/etc tab at the top is covering the first horizontal tab (blog) under the title image. Again, not a huge problem. It's real hard when everyone has different sized screens. And even then you can't count on them to have their browser as big as the screen.
Ariel said
Thanks for this feedback, Giggles. According to my stats, 15% of my readers are at 1024 wide … so I need to make sure the site looks ok for y'all. Give me a few weeks to work on this.
Ariel said
Fixed!
colleen said
ariel, the sense of community you create with all the feedback and tweaking on this website is inspiring! congrats on the redesign/relaunch.
Laura said
Oooh, it's lovely! Thought I'd gone to the wrong site for a moment.
cicatricella said
wow, it's gorgeous! I haven't been on the site for a couple of days, the new look both here and on OBT is great! so much cleaner. Going to go explore a bit now….
Kaloof said
I like it. It'll be interesting trying to get around for the next week though ^_^
Ariel said
Keep me posted and let me know what trips you up as you're getting around. I like to think I know how folks use the site, but sometimes I'm very very wrong.
Ria said
Generally when things change I just wring my hands and yell "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" for a while but I think I like this! I'll need to get used to it but it's shiny.