Thanks so much to Linda for sharing her photos with us in the Offbeat Bride photo pool. We'll be sharing LOTS more of them and all the magical details with you tomorrow…
Jezebel recently did a post addressing how wedding costs can add up (In The Long Run, Your Wedding Could Cost You Big Time), and while the post itself is somewhat interesting, I was completely taken by a comment posted by a user named geekgirlliz, who caters weddings.
Here were geekgirlliz's excellent tips on how to save money if you're going the catered-hotel-wedding route:
This week's shoe gazing post is all about buckled wedding shoes.
Buckled heels, buckled boots, buckled flats. White, red, pink, silver, gold. Big heels, little heels, no heels, platforms … I tried to get a little bit of everything, always imagining how great they would look both peeking out from under a relatively traditional white gown, or as a show piece with tea length dress in some daring color. I tried to get a range of splurgeyness, too — from $60 to $600.
As usual, I like my shoes loud and your tastes may vary. But if you're looking for buckles, ladies, I got you covered…
So, here's the deal: you're ready to marry your sweety. You would propose, but you think they may already be planning something and you don't want to step on their proposal planny toes. What do you do? Sit around and wait? HELL NO! You follow Shelby's example here and make a video letting your partner know, "I Am Ready":
So first, how about some more cold hard facts from the 2010 reader survey?
Y'all are social media geeks! 40% of you have a blog and 40% of you use twitter. 20% of you use our Facebook fan page to follow Offbeat Bride updates, and 20% of you use RSS.
You're mostly urban, with two thirds of you identifying as living in a large or small city.
Y'all are faithful: 50% of you said there were no other wedding websites you read as frequently as Offbeat Bride. Aww. That made me feel all warm and snuggly inside
Working with indie businesses is important to almost 70% of you, which is AWESOME — although don't lie, girls: I know a ton of you buy your dresses at that chain that rhymes with Cravid's Fidal.
Some of y'all have long engagements planned:
My very favorite question on the survey was "Do you identify with any offbeat subcultures?" With my illustrious undergraduate degree in Sociology, I make no secret of the fact that Offbeat Bride is in part a way for me to have a steady stream of subcultural stimulation. Metalhead! LARPer! Fanfic author! Lolita! Rollerderby girl! Rivethead! Straight edge! I am NONE of these things, but am obsessed with all of them.
I encouraged y'all to check as many cultural identity boxes as you felt applied, and here's how Offbeat Bride readers identify:
[Married lesbians] don’t have any societal roles but we still get by just dandy as a married couple. Which means you straight ladies don’t need the rules either. You might have more pressure to adopt them, I'll admit, but always remember that you don't need them. Those rules are bullshit, plain and simple.
If a "rule" doesn't work for you and your partner, toss it on out the window! The rules are more…guidelines. Not even very good guidelines. In fact, as a graduate student of marriage and family therapy I can mention here that the current "rules" tend to lead to "role fatigue" (that thing you're worried about in which you get stuck with all the responsibilities of the housewife and the worker and the mother and then you don’t have time to be yourself) which leads to unhappy wives, unhappy husbands, no sex life, and the next thing you know you're fighting over who gets to keep the kids in your two year long divorce.
Almost 2500 of you took my 2010 Reader Survey in January, and I figured I'd say thank you by sharing some of the results.
First, the nitty gritty:
Unsurprisingly, 98% of you are women, with 1% each identifying as male or transgender (Aside: big thanks to the reader who suggested I add "Neither/Both" as a gender option. I'd let the survey software autopopulate the gender question with Male and Female as the only options, which was dumb. Sarah Dopp of Genderfork recently wrote a great post on this)
The majority of you are in your mid- to late-20s
85% of you are white and 7% of you are multi-racial
13% of you identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, or otherwise queer
So, I've spent almost a decade working in marketing and PR, so I totally expect emails from publicists trying to get the attention and business of Offbeat Brides. I mean, this is an ad-supported site, so emails from businesses are expected and for the most part welcomed. But every once and a while I get an email from a publicist that's SO weird that I just have to share it with y'all.
Looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift? Forget expensive flowers, overpriced chocolates and five-course dinners, show your love by taking advantage of the $14 offer on all [Big Tax Preparation Company]™ online tax preparation products. Nothing says “at least I’m responsible” like up to 70 percent off [Big Tax Preparation Company] online products. All you have to do is register to use any [Big Tax Preparation Company] online product from Friday, Feb. 12 through Sunday, Feb. 14 and your Federal tax return will cost just $14. To take advantage of this sweet deal, visit http://www.[Big Tax Preparation Company].com/valentine.
With love for taxes,
[Name Redacted], On behalf of [Big Tax Preparation Company]
Because nothing says "I'm planning a non-traditional wedding" like filing your taxes online, ladies!
Announcing the birth of our sister site: Offbeat Mama! 
