Search results for "peacock"
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 The offbeat bride: Monika A, Fluevog Asst Manager, Professional Tarot Reader and part time vegan baker
Her offbeat partner: Carter , build and release computer engineer
Location & date of wedding: Hakone Gardens, Saratoga , CA — September 20, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: When a Pagan, tarot reading, Fluevog Pimpette decides to marry a Floridian, blond/blue eyed, computer geek, atheist, your wedding has to be offbeat! We found our middle ground in having the wedding in an amazing Japanese Garden, which was alive with nature and her beauty. We did almost everything ourselves and don't regret any part of the year of collecting cutlery, making cherry blossom center pieces, and searching Craigslist for the perfect table cloths.
Continue reading "Monika & Carter's Neo-Victorian, Pagan-Atheist, Japanese, Peacock, Love Fest" →
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 The Offbeat Bride: Taryn, Public Servant
Her Offbeat Partner: Craig, Public Servant
Location & date of wedding: Gothic Church and Wine Bar in Windy Wellington, New Zealand — 20 June 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: Every little detail was perfectly us! We made a whole heap of compromises to keep family happy, but they were easy things to do because we love our families. However we also pushed back on things that were really important to us. Craig's cousin Jessica is his best friend, and it was really important to him to have her in his groom's party, even though that upset some people. My family is traditional South African Indian Seventh Day Adventist and Craig's is pure Kiwi Party Animal so it was always going to be a delicate balancing exercise.
Continue reading "Taryn & Craig's Silly, Fun-Filled, New Zealand Winter Wedding" →
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You might remember OBT member "AuberrySwirl's" wedding from this post highlighting the awesome bridesmaid's peacock inspired fashion. Now get all the beautiful peacock-y wedding goodness…
 The Offbeat Bride: Aubrey, Grad Student — Higher Ed. Administration
Her Offbeat Partner: Tom, Chemical Engineer/Environmental Consultant
Location & date of wedding: St. Thomas Lutheran Church and Niswonger Performing Arts Center, Van Wert, OH — 21 Feb 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: I think our attempt to bring back our old ancestral traditions, ironically, is what gave our wedding the most offbeat look and feel to our family and friends. In their own words, they had never seen anyone do a Fir Bough Walk for luck, or Nuremberg Two-sided Bridal Toast; they never would have thought to decorate the reception like the Rhine River Valley Wine Region or play Hide-and-Seek with German gnomes. But we thought it was the thing to do since both of our families predominately hail from Deutschland, and we had already decided to honeymoon there.
Continue reading "Aubrey & Tom's Jazzy, German Custom-Filled, Peacock-themed Wedding" →
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 Uncommon wedding dresses may be a little more common than you think. A Chinese designer showcased a flowing wedding dress sewn almost entirely out of peacock feathers in Nanjing, China this spring and a Hollywood couple had a duct tape wedding at Universal Studios, complete with a duct tape suit for the groom, a duct tape cake and duct tape flowers… it was even sponsored by Manco (Duck Products) of Avon, Ohio!
This saavy bride definitely wore white… white wool that is. FROM HER OWN FLOCK! Talk about DIY!
Louise Fairburn designed the dress, which cost £1,500, and had a spinner and a dressmaker spend 67 hours constructing it with wool from her rare Lincoln Longwool sheep, Olivia.
The award-winning sheep-breeder and English "Little Bo Peep" wanted her dress to make a statement about wool, and that it's not necessarily only meant for home-knitted beanies. The smashing handmade wedding dress purportedly stunned her husband (who was also outfitted in a wool waistcoat as well) when he first saw his future wife walking down the aisle.
Want more zany DIY dress ideas?!? I though so. Check out this elegant and classy gown made out of condoms, or this fresh and stunning little prom number made out of coffee filters!
Oh and PS: Thanks to everyone who emailed us about the wool dress! There were lots of you. 
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 The Offbeat Bride:
Tiffany, Librarian
(and OBT member "TippyLooHoo")
Her Offbeat Partner:
Brandon, Electrician
Location & date of wedding:
Friday the 13th, March 2009
Kilworth Memorial Chapel in Tacoma, WA & BPIC in Browns Point, WA.
 What made our wedding offbeat: One of the biggest things that made our wedding offbeat was that it was on a Friday the 13th. And our colors reflected that: orange, black, purple, and white. We tried to do everything as cheap as possible. I bought most of our decorations, supplies, etc. on Ebay. We decorated everything ourselves. I made my very own nearly flowerless bouquet. We didn't use tradition music for the ceremony. Oh, and all of my bridesmaids were men.
Continue reading "Tiffany & Brandon's Orange Friday the 13th family blending" →
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Want to go straight to the wedding website templates? Click here!
I know that not everyone wants a wedding website that's covered with roses and ribbons, so I decided to offer wedding websites complete with exclusive, wedding website templates created by indie wedding invitation designers.
 Some of the exclusive Offbeat templates include the gothic one with the crows, the vintage one with the clock gears, the dark neo-Victorian one from the likes of Royal Steamline.
I've just added several new designs from Modern Girl Invitations and Claire Hammond … including a Peacock-perfect woodsy design, dramatic red & black damask design, a bubbly retro orangesicle one, and several others … all of which have matching paper invitations available!
So, if you need a wedding website that isn't all lace and roses and doves and ribbons, one that gives you tools like blogging, online RSVP, push-pin guest-mapping, and tons of other stuff — go give it a try.
(Yes, you can change your template as many times as you want, and it's free to start building your page!)
UPDATED: Check out more new wedding website template from Royal Steamline, based on an Alice in Wonderland tea party theme.
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I opted to not carry a bouquet; put something, anything, in my hands and watch me awkwardly bend, fold and fondle it into oblivion. Plus, for some strange reason, I didn't feel like spending a load of money for flowers that I was just going throw away at the end of the day. But if I wasn't so fidgety I would have definitely been one of those brides that opted for a bouquet alternative to flowers.
Since Offbeat Bride Kerry started a discussion called "Bouquet Alternatives" on the Offbeat Bride Tribe a wealth of amazing offbeat bouquet porn has been popping up. I thought I'd share a few of the unique and inspiring ideas.
OBT member Zan suggested making this bouquet out of "beautiful, cheap, fashionable feathers" that she'd seen at Hobby Lobby.
Continue reading "17 wedding bouquet alternatives for fearless brides" →
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As some of you may remember, last month I launched a partnership with Nearlyweds, offering wedding websites with bad-ass templates designed exclusively for Offbeat Brides. It's been super fun this last month checking in on the sites that are being created (the boys from Nearlyweds keep me updated) and I've decided I just can't keep 'em all to myself! I'm going to try to feature one of y'all's wedsites monthly so you can see all the cool shit y'all are doing.
 'We met in a bar. A college bar, which might be even worse.' This month it's Allison & Josh over at http://weddingcon09.nearlyweds.com. These two will be getting married in Bloomington, Indiana in June, and if their wedding blog is any indication, they're going to have a great time.
Allison's blog posts were cracking me up. She decided that "fiancé" sounds weird — so she calls Josh "My Beyonce." HA! Seriously, her blog is hilarious. Here's her take on her bridesmaids:
It was really easy for my to assemble my starting line up for el weddingtando. I'm going for what used to be untraditonal but is now thankfully becoming more mainstream…I'm letting them pick their own dresses! I could hear the excitement in their voices as I laid down the decree. "I want you to look sophisticated and sexy. Hey if you look better than me awesome! I gots myself a man already no one else I need to impress."
 They're using the Art Nouveau Peacock theme, one of the offbeat designs from indie designers. (AND YES: I WANT MORE TEMPLATE DESIGNS. DESIGNERS, WHERE ARE YOU!?)
They're also using all sorts of Nearlywed's cool features like the guestbook mapping, photo albums … the works! Can't wait to watch and see how the page evolves as the wedding gets closer…Congrats Allison & Josh. And Allison: please keep cracking me up on your blog. KTHX!
If you'd like to make a wedding page of your own — what are you waiting for?!
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The offbeat bride: Paula, Psych Student & PT Office Manager
Her offbeat partner: Graham, Company CEO
Location & date of wedding: St. Michael's Church (ceremony) and The Art Gallery (reception) in Christchurch, New Zealand on January 24th, 2009
What made our wedding offbeat: Anyone who saw the photos and doesn't know me made comments along the lines of "That dress is…. different". As my maid of honor said, if you know me, it made perfect sense!
Continue reading "Paula & Graham's Elegant Modern Masterpiece Wedding" →
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The offbeat bride: Michelle, Engineer (not the kind that drives trains)
Her offbeat partner: John, Doctor (not the kind that helps people)
Location & date of wedding: 54th floor of TD Bank Tower (Canoe Restaurant) in Toronto, ON, Canada on September 2nd, 2008
What made our wedding offbeat: There was never any question as to our wedding date – even before it was discussed, we both knew it would be September 2, the day we met 9 years ago. It just so happened that September 2 fell on a Tuesday this year! Having a weekday wedding made the planning so much easier – we had no trouble finding a venue or vendors, and everyone was flexible when it came to cost.
Continue reading "Michelle & John's Intimate Concrete Jungle Sunset Wedding" →
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 I've featured lots of alternatives to the standard "clump of flowers" bouquet (check out all my non-floral bouquet posts) but this photo may feature the ultimate alternative: gorgeous feather fans.
Now, this may not be an option for the vegans & vegetarians in the house … but for a hot summer wedding, can you picture the loveliness of all these fans in motion? The fluttering of feathers and little breezes of air in the bridesmaids hair as they stand at the altar? Why, it's positively cinematic!
(Thanks to bethany_bezdecheck for the photo.)
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 Ladies, I have been working on this for months, and I am so excited to announce that I am partnering with Nearlyweds.com to offer wedding websites with exclusive offbeat design templates!
Because really: where else but Offbeat Bride are you going to find wedding websites with rockabilly, goth, peacock, or steampunk themes?
We're totally keeping it in the offbeat family, too: many of the exclusive offbeat templates were designed by Aerin of aeiou design, who's wedding I ogled a few months ago. If there's anyone who truly gets offbeat wedding aesthetics, it's an offbeat bride herself! (PS: Indie designers, here's how you can submit your templates!)
I've also featured Nearlyweds on Offbeat Bride before — of all the bazillions of wedding website services I've tested out, I love love love them the most. I'm a big fan of their web 2.0 features like guest mapping, and I love how if you like your wedding website template, you can get paper invitations that match. They've got online RSVPs, blogging, unlimited photo uploads … all the stuff you'd want, wrapped up in a nice well-designed package. (They're also a Seattle company, and I like my hometown geek-heroes!)
 So, enough talk from me … it's time to get started designing your new wedsite! You can sign up for a free trial below. If, after two weeks, you love it as much as I do, you pay $49 … which covers hosting for as long as you want your site up! As a bonus, if you use the promocode offbeatbride, you'll get 10% off.
I hope to be adding new designs regularly, and I'm doing a poll to hear which wedding website templates you'd most love to see:
Continue reading "Wedding websites for people who aren't into froof" →
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 Congratulations on your engagement! My name is Ariel and I'll be your partner in crime as you navigate the wilds of planning your wedding, wherever it may be on the offbeat spectrum.
Take a deep breath and let Offbeat Bride hold your hand and stave off that impending bridentity crisis. Here's how to get started with your wedding planning and Offbeat Bride:
2. Remember that your wedding is not a contest.
3. Start designing your wedding website.
4. Subscribe to get your daily dose of offbeatbride.com via Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, or RSS. Or, you can enter your email address below to get an email whenever the site is updated:
5. Immerse yourself in the Offbeat Bride gallery, filled with over 6000 photos of nontraditional weddings, with new photos added every single day.
6. Snag a copy of my book … here's why you should buy the book and not just read the website.
7. Check out a few Offbeat Bride manifestos to get a feel for what this site is really all about.
8. Get your partner involved! For grooms, that could mean emailing him about offbeat groom posts and the The Offbeat Groom Gang.
9. Get an "Altar Your Thinking" tshirt. They're perfect for meetings with stuffy vendors.
10. Learn how to find what you're looking for! Use Offbeat Bride's built in search to find local ideas for your city or state. Or try searching for your wedding's theme (i.e. peacock), colors (i.e. red and black) , or style (goth, rockabilly, hippie). You'll find a search box near the top right of every single page of offbeatbride.com:
11. Read back in the offbeat archives, filled with over two years of inspiration, full of great topics like wedding advice, ideas to steal, and of course wedding fashion.
12. Join the Offbeat Bride Tribe to network with other nontraditional types planning their weddings.
Don't forget to take a deep breath and appreciate the awesomeness of love and commitment. Aww, yeah. We're going to rock this wedding shit together!
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 After working on offbeatbride.com for almost two years now (and Offbeat Bride the book for another year before that!) I've started to see some definite trends in offbeat bride styles.
I mean yes: we're all doing our own thang, but there are definitely elements that seem to pop up repeatedly in offbeat weddings.
To celebrate this, I decided that this Halloween I would dress up as, well, YOU! I wanted to see how many offbeat bride trends I could pack into one outfit.
No one in Seattle will get this costume at all — "goth drag queen?" "weird mary poppins?" — but I don't care. I did it for y'all because I love your style.
SO, how many offbeat trends can you see in these shots? We'll start easy: Red wedding dress? Check. Actually a prom dress? Check. Purchased off eBay? Check!
Oh, but there's SO much more…
Continue reading "My halloween costume: YOU!" →
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 I'm all for white dresses, red dresses, blue dresses, purple dresses, but ZOMG I actually gasped out loud when I saw this picture of Kelly Devoto's fantastical colorful peacock-y wedding dress — which it turns out was actually designed to be a prom dress.
Seriously, it's like a My Little Pony and Tinkerbell totally got it on nasty-style in a magical rhinestone shop and this dress was their sparkling bastard love child. And I mean that in the very best possible way! I'm totally in love.
I've got a detail shot of the bodice and bouquet below, along with the bride's story of where she got the dress. I'm looking forward to telling you much, much more about this Los Angeles wedding some day in the future.
Continue reading "Prom dresses make daring wedding gowns" →
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But there's an awesome woman behind all those amazing 
