Thanks to your feedback from the 2010 Reader Survey, we've added more questions to the questionnaire we use to collect our real wedding profiles. We also added a way for people to self-identify themselves with tags — another suggestion from y'all! Here's the very first survey with the new questions.

The Offbeat Bride: Highland, Customer Service Manger and Hair/Makeup Stylist

Her Offbeat Partner: Jack, Wedding Photographer and Graphic Artist

Location & date of wedding: Floyd Lamb State Park, North Las Vegas, NV — January 24, 2010

What made our wedding offbeat: Jack is transgendered, and the way we decided to tell our family (well, Jacks half of the family, mine already called him, "he") is by having our officiant (who is also in an awesome rock band called Thrown Clear) pronounce us "Husband and Wife" and use all male pronouns throughout the ceremony.

Continue reading "Highland & Jack's winter wedding in Las Vegas" →

The offbeat bride: Melissa – Grad Student, Office Wench, Heavy Metal Muse (and OBT member "Metal Melissa")

Her offbeat partner: Phil – drummer of Centaurus, repairman

Location & date of wedding: Our Backyard! Chicago 'burbs, IL — 06-26-2009

What made our wedding offbeat: From the start we wanted to do something that completely embodied our personalities. Dia De Los Muertos was the perfect fit! It is a custom that is spiritual, quirky, morbid, and unique -– just like us!

Continue reading "Melissa & Phil's Day of the Dead, heavy metal Mexipalooza wedding" →

You want it — you got it! All the great details and even greater wedding porn from Oonagh and Dylan's Toronto wedding! And, inspired by this wedding, this whole week we'll be featuring amazing Toronto weddings in so many different shapes and sizes and colors.

The offbeat bride: Oonagh, Documentary Theatre Artist and Personal Trainer (and OBT member "OonaghDuncan"

Her offbeat partner: Dylan, Engineering Technologist

Location & date of wedding: Gladstone Hotel in Toronto — 12 September 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Dylan and I walked down the aisle together (me in a $199 gold tutu) towards my Dad (a judge) who was marrying us. We wrote our own vows that had ended with me launching myself on Dylan with emotion before we were officially instructed to kiss.

All the flowers were "ditch flowers" from the roads near my Mum's farm, except for my bouquet, which she had created from paper printed with Harlequin romance novel cover art.

Continue reading "Oonagh & Dylan's collaborative, creative, black-tie wedding with eco-considerations" →

You may remember, almost a year ago, when we featured OBT member Jen Han's pretty DIY skull projects. Well, here's the whole scoop on the entire wedding!

The offbeat bride: Jen, Microbiology graduate student (and OBT member "jen han")

Her offbeat partner: Grant, Chemistry graduate student

Location & date of wedding: The Hampshire House, Boston, MA — 07/10/09

What made our wedding offbeat: My fiance and I each picked one of our obsessions and made that the theme of our wedding. His obsession is Duke University Basketball and my obsession is skulls.

Continue reading "Jen & Grant's Duke blue wedding with skulls" →

The offbeat bride: Emma, Deputy Box Office Manager at The Lyceum Theatre

Her offbeat partner: Carl, Lighting Technician and Stage Manager

Location & date of wedding: Camden Town Hall followed by the reception at the London Canal Museum, Kings Cross, UK — 12/09/09

What made our wedding offbeat: We don't enjoy being the centre of attention, so we skipped many of the formalities like sit down meals, cake cutting, first dances & speeches, which made for a wonderfully relaxed day.

Continue reading "Emma & Carl's London, Retro Glam Wedding" →

Hey, remember the pirate wedding porn that I promised would knock yer boots off, and then it totally did? Well Mollie was kind enough to drop the details for us!

The offbeat bride: Mollie, Digital Alchemy, Graphic Designer & waitress extraordinaire (and OBT member "themolliellama")

Her offbeat partner: Scott,  Digital Alchemy, Web and Graphic Designer

Location & date of wedding: Pirates Ransom, Clearwater Beach, Florida — October 31, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Complete pirate wedding. Guest were not allowed on the ship without costume. We even had back up cheesy costumes if someone dared, but everyone really did it up! The whole wedding and reception was on the pirate ship (three hour tour, lol) and then we went to the bar at our hotel.

Continue reading "Mollie & Scott's "Piradical" High Seas Wedding Adventure" →

With winter and early spring weddings approaching fast, I figure now's the time to indulge in some fabulous bridal boots. So this week's shoe freak-out will be about wedding boots perfect for rain, sleet, snow, or even just a nice indoor venue.

Y'all should know me by now: I like daring (aka LOUD!!) wedding shoes, and I've geeked out a full range of boots here, ranging from spikey heeled boots to my beloved expensive-but-comfy Fluevogs to Doc Martins to rubber wellies perfect for rainy spring weddings.

So put on your shoe whore hats, and let's dive in, shall we?

Continue reading "Bad-ass wedding boots for winter or spring weddings" →

The offbeat bride: De Anne, Artist and Data Analyst (and OBT member "Deanderthal")

Her offbeat partner: Warren, Video Game Tech Support

Location & date of wedding: Grandma's house, Mt. Bonnell, Austin Texas — 9/18/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided that good food, photography and celebrating with our loved ones were more important that any tradition. So we had a big party that at which we just happened to get married.

There was no aisle, no ceremony seating, friends rang a gong to signal that Things Were Happening for five minutes, then it was back to the par-tay.

Continue reading "De Anne & Warren's "The Hitchening: The Party with a Wedding Inside!"" →

Happy almost-Halloween! Today marks our final post in our month-long celebration of Halloween weddings.

The Offbeat Bride: Steff, Copywriter and Braille Transcriber

Her Offbeat Partner: James, Geo-technician, Armourer and heavy metal drummer

Location & date of wedding: Spookers, Kingseat Hospital Grounds, Kingseat, New Zealand — 1 November 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: James and I met on an archaeological excavation five years ago, when I happened to look over my shoulder and notice a really cute grey amorphous blob (I'm legally blind) wearing an identical Iron Maiden shirt to mine. It took two years swapping our favourite metal albums and me running away from him before we eventually started dating. When we decided to get married, everyone knew it wouldn't be the usual sort of white roses affair.

Continue reading "Steff & James' Viking Heavy Metal Halloween Wedding of Epicness" →

In keeping with the season, it's time for our weekly Offbeat Halloween wedding!

The Offbeat Bride: Shel, Coordinator

Her Offbeat Partner: Mike, Fire Arms Instructor

Location & date of wedding: Holiday Inn Select, Trevose, PA — October 31, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We tried to make the day about the two of us, our love, and Halloween all at the same time.

We got married in a hotel, had pumpkin place cards, black and white everything. We had a life size motion activated skeleton bride and groom. We were introduced to the song, "Crazy Bitch." We had a shoe cake cutter and skelton bride and groom cake topper and I wore neon blue high heels.

Continue reading "Shel & Mike's Black & White Halloween Wedding" →

As promised, here is the full scoop on the black and white damask wedding as previously seen in the Jessica McClintock wedding trend post.

The offbeat bride: Amber, Punk Baby Bedding Designer

Her offbeat partner: ZaQ, Store Manager of Guitar Center

Location & date of wedding: Grandmas Backyard in LaMoille, IL — July 18th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: To start, we're very non-traditional and do everything ass-backwards. We have two toddlers, eleven months apart… THEN decided hey, we still like each other three years later, we should totally get married So we did!

Continue reading "Amber & ZaQ's Punk Rock Trashy Classy DIY Damask Wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Catherine

Her Offbeat Partner: Jeffrey

Location & date of wedding: Georgetown Ballroom, Seattle WA — 11/01/08

What made our wedding offbeat: We chose the Day of the Dead as our date so that we could include our passed relatives and friends. We had a reserved setting area for framed photos of them during the ceremony and a large Offerenda on the stage so they could enjoy the reception after. I also had three living bridesmaids and one deceased one, who was represented in the ceremony by a memorial picture I tied into my hat.

Continue reading "Catherine & Jeffery's Dia de los Muertos festival wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Jenny, Massage Therapist/Small Business Owner

Her Offbeat Partner: Qwenton, House Painter/Small Business Owner

Location & date of wedding: Last Meander Ranch (husband's parent's backyard) Lander, WY — 7/19/09

What made our wedding offbeat: We did everything our own way, had a TON of help from all our friends, and had the best party of our lives! We even had yard games (corn hole and monkey nuts) and a bounce house. It was a great excuse to get all of our friends and family together for a celebration.

Continue reading "Jenny & Qwenton's Wyld Wyoming Backyard BBQ Bouncehouse Extravaganza" →

The Offbeat Bride: Kimberley, Early Childhood Education Data & Policy Officer

Her Offbeat Partner: Dan, Musician/Book seller

Location & date of wedding: Barr Smith Lawns, Adelaide University and National Wine Centre, Adelaide, Australia — 1st November 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We embraced the traditions we loved and ditched the ones we hated. We made the whole experience as "us" as possible by using every decision as an opportunity to impart our personalities.

Continue reading "Kimberley & Dan's Skulls & Blue Birds Wedding" →

So, remember a few months ago when I announced my pregnancy? And pre-answered everyone's question by saying yes: I'd already registered offbeatmama.com, but wasn't sure I was going to do anything with it?

Well, guess what? I AM DOING SOMETHING WITH IT. With the help of a woman you're going to love named Erika, Offbeat Mama will be launching in about a month, and I need your help…

Continue reading "Coming soon from the Offbeat Empire: offbeatmama.com" →

Offbeat Bride: Sheva, Hairstylist

Her Offbeat Partner: Jared, Cad specialist

Location & date of wedding: Castle on the Hudson, Tarrytown, NY — October 31st, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Jared and I hate the traditional, and dread going to weddings. We decided to throw a huge bash on our favorite holiday, Halloween.

To ensure that our guests would losen up and have fun we had everyone dress up in costume. Jared wore jeans and we all decided to wear chucks and be comfortable. We got to be ourselves and had a stress free fun day.

Continue reading "Sheva & Jared's dark, elegant wedding with a twist of tacky Halloween fun" →

You've seen the fashion details from this wedding before, now get the all the yummy details from OBT member "ChelseaDee" herself.

The Offbeat Bride: Chelsea, Asst. Manager @ Hot Topic

Her Offbeat Partner: Keith, Sound Technician

Location & date of wedding: Maybery Gelvin Botanical Gardens, Mahomet, IL — 6/6/09

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was offbeat from the start, because planning was laid back. We got things done on our own time, and planned to do it all on our own. Our budget was small, about $5000 but we made it work! We had a local band play and everyone danced their tooshies off! A friend DJ'd for us, my aunt made 300 cupcakes(!!), a family friend made the cake, we designed our invites and printed them locally, made our own caketoppers, had my uncle and bridesmaid photograph the wedding, and generally did what we could to keep things personal!

Continue reading "Chelsea & Keith's Rockabilly/Psychobilly Wedding" →

We all know I'm a sucker for a colorful wedding, but my eyes almost fell out of my skull when Zahra emailed me about Anya's full-spectrum Australian rainbow wedding … the rainbow dress! The rainbow ribbon veil! The rainbow ribbon-flower bouquet! The RAINBOW EVERYTHING! Of course, it should surprise no-one that Anya runs a website called RainbowHairColor.com.

And now, who wants a ton more pictures, courtesy of Australia's Wildberry Design & Studio?

Continue reading "Rainbow wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Kell – Customer service (and OBT member Kell)

Her Offbeat Partner: Jason – Warehouse manager

Location & date of wedding: In the grounds of Chandeliers on Abbey in Yallingup, south Western Australia — Friday 31st October 2008 at 5:45pm

What made our wedding offbeat: There was only the two of us, our celebrant and our photographers on the wedding day. Our wedding was so personal and so important to us. To cement the friendship we'd always had and to vow what we already knew, that even when there was nobody else we could relate to, we would always have each other.

Continue reading "Kell & Jason's "The Crow" Inspired Halloween Elopement" →

I have a whole tag category for brides in glasses for y'all's myopic browsing pleasure … and I've got a new bride to add to the collection. This is Miss Sassy-Ass Adele from Australia:

And as if the glasses and the skull garter weren't enough to make this wedding seriously amazing,
check out the dramatic sky in this shot:

Continue reading "Another hottie bride in glasses" →