I've gotten a few emails asking about the nitty gritty of Offbeat Bride, and how things are run behind the offbeat curtain, as it were. If this kind of thing is interesting to you, read on!

The Offbeat Empire (as I lovingly call it) is my full-time job, and I gotta say that after a decade of corporate servitude for companies like Microsoft and Amazon, it's fucking awesome to self-employed. I love finally having the time to focus on my own schemes instead of scheming for someone else. The Empire at this point includes Offbeat Bride and Offbeat Mama, and will hopefully expand to include Offbeat Home later this fall.

One of the joys/pains of being self-employed is that you get to wear a LOT of hats, and mine include:

Continue reading "A peek behind the offbeat curtain" →

The short answer: very, VERY carefully. The longer answer? Watch:

We've featured tons of non-floral bouquet alternatives, but here's one alternative I think we'll be seeing more of in the future: Rachael's bridesmaids carried red glass lanterns instead bouquets … and the result was stunning…

Rachel had a TON of a great details at her red & black wedding. Check out all the photos here, and be expecting a full profile in the near future! Oh, and if you're inspired by the lantern idea, you can find a few here.

So, I've never really understood the whole "inspiration board" thing. I guess I'm just not a collage maker, so organizing my wedding ideas that way just didn't appeal to me.

Evidently, however, I DO like to play with dolls, because I've recently been sucked into ShopStyle, which essentially lets you create "Looks" based on their big ol' catalog of clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories, etc.

It sounds silly even to a superficialite like myself, but OMG, I've lost several hours of my life to creating Offbeat Bride Looks:

Continue reading "ShopStyle and the digital paper dolls" →

I just got this email from a reader, and had to share it with y'all…

At the risk of sounding like an overenthusiastic thirteen-year-old text addict: OMG, Ariel!!!

Your book (2nd ed.) arrived from Amazon today. I just finished reading it in a single sitting/laying down. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. A long while. It might have been the humanure essay, or possibly your wholehearted cheering of penis-cake eating as a married couple…whatever the reason, your book took a relatively crappy day in Iraq and made it fantastic.

Yeah, I said Iraq….

Continue reading "My favorite book review" →