NY's Milestone Images presents: Top 10 moments in offbeat wedding greatness

Angela, aka. New York based wedding photographer Milestone Images, is back with another guest post full of her offbeat and wonderful wedding porn! This time Angie shares with us her Top 10 favorite wedding details from the offbeat weddings she shot this year. Psst: Make sure to read all the way through for a chance to get hooked up with something extra special. -Megs

I've been thinking a lot about Ariel's Thanksgiving post, about how grateful she is for this community. (Me, too!) She talks about the emails she gets from vendors that took a chance with Offbeat Bride and now email her to say they can support their families doing work they enjoy. I confess, I sent her an email like that about a year ago.

Look, wedding photography is HARD work. The hours are long. The labor is physical, and the post-production work and retouching can be incredibly intricate and therefore sometimes tedious. But, oh, when you LIKE the couple you're photographing, it's a whole other ball game.

Because of all of you, I am able to work on my own terms for people I GENUINELY LIKE. The clients who find me through Offbeat Bride keep me inspired. Their creativity sparks mine. Their love stories lift me up and make me laugh. I can't tell you how many times my offbeat couples reach out to me and say, "We're gamer/marching band/Ren Faire/theater geeks" in a "crazy Jewish/Italian-American/special needs" family and I'm like, "Y'all are my people!"

So here, for your enjoyment, are my top ten favorite ideas, personal touches and offbeat couples from the latest busy season. Steal 'em, adapt 'em, make 'em your own! My gift to you…

1. Scott and Lauren got married in a historic mansion with a library, a ballroom and a billiard room. When they told me, I joked that the theme of their wedding should be the board game "Clue." They stuck with a vintage French motif, but we did dream up my favorite wedding party pose of all time. Every attendant took on a different role. I brought all the props, because there was no way the maid of honor was flying in from L.A. with a lead pipe.

2. From Haley and Ross… An American bride from Oregon meets her British fiancee halfway elope in New York. Thank God they caught one of the last planes to leave Western Europe ahead before volcanic ask from Iceland shut down every airport in the region.

3. Aine took the plunge… with me! Aine and Matt booked a day-after session that ended in their pool. Only the bride was up for underwater photos, however, so my husband and second shooter extraordinaire snapped this one of us together. Hee! Best of all, the chlorine got rid of the grass stains on the bottom of the dress from the outdoor ceremony the day before.

4. Jared proposed to Gwen in her garden. She has the ultimate green thumb, so her bouquet included a jade plant that she was able to transplant and tend to after the wedding.

5. I loved Melanie and John's Sufi Dance. Instead of a receiving line, Melanie and John did a circle dance with their guests.

6. I'm not sure which I loved more: Katie and Lisa's Dr. Seuss-inspired "Bride 1 and Bride 2" sweatshirts or the Cupcake Truck that came to the wedding.

7. Sarah and Tucker had the ultimate DIY steampunk wedding. Between making their own accessories, centerpieces, jewelry, invitations, etc., they didn't have time to learn the choreography from the Thriller video, even though Sarah really, really wanted to. Luckily, there was someone at the wedding at the wedding who knows their entire thing… and that would be me. Many thanks to Joel for shooting my public dance debut there on the left. I grabbed my camera there at the end and everyone sort of swarmed me. This zombie photo was completely spontaneous and rather unnerving, actually.

8. Bill and Jess' first dance song was sung by Kermit (with a little help from the bride's sister). The vintage feather caps belonged to their great-aunt.

9. Cyd and Jonathan are in love and expecting. Cyd's father? BROUGHT A SHOTGUN TO THE WEDDING. This? Was awesome and funny and totally not at all creepy because he is so excited to become a grandpa.

10. I loved all the little ways that Saumya and Sandeep made their wedding, which united them in an arranged marriage, their own. We see a lot of red wedding dresses on Offbeat Bride, but in India, red is THE color to wear. Saumya opted out of the traditional red sari in favor of a green choli worn with a hot pink lengha skirt and yellow dupatta veil. Although some Indian grooms will stand on their tiptoes to jokingly make it a little harder for the bride to greet him with the traditional flower garland, Sandeep's family took it one step further by lifting him high out of her reach. Saumya didn't miss a beat; with a boost from some cousins and nabbed him in mid-air. Love it.

It's people like the ones in my Top Ten that make working every Saturday night feel like I'm among friends. Since that's how I started shooting weddings in the first place, I feel truly grateful that I can continue to shoot with the same sense of joy and authenticity that put me on this creative path in the first place.

In that spirit of gratitude, I want to give back…

Couples from OBB always get a 10% discount from me, no matter what. The first two couples to mention this feature, get in touch with me and officially book (i.e. with a contract and deposit, all formal and fancy-like), will receive 20% off their total package price. That means two offbeat couples can save $600 off my most popular package — unlimited hours on the wedding day, plus rehearsal/dinner coverage the day before. So, email, call, send smoke signals, just get in touch with me as soon as you can!