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:
1. Print out the official offbeat check-list.
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!
