About the Offbeat Bride Tribe

Also known as the OBT
The Offbeat Bride Tribe is a private social network for kick-ass, independently minded women (and men!) who just happen to be getting married and have been inspired by Offbeat Bride, both the book and the website.

The network features an inspiration forum for sharing ideas, as well as special interest groups for everything from DIY brides to vegetarian brides to halloween brides to young brides to LGBT brides etc. There’s also an active blog network, where brides post updates about how wedding planning is going, share ideas, and get support from each other.

We ask all prospective members to answer a few questions about themselves before their membership is approved. Don’t worry: we’re not judging you on how “offbeat” your wedding is (remember: this isn’t a contest!). We’re just trying to get to know you and keep the board free from most vendors, journalists, spammers, and other non-wedding-planning people.

Before you sign up, please review the rules for the group below…

OBT Code of Conduct:

BE POSITIVE & PROACTIVE
Commiseration only gets you so far and there’s not much we can learn from each other’s complaints — there’s so much more to be learned by sharing lessons, tips, and inspiration. Yes, wedding planning can be frustrating and venting can be a release, but the focus of the OBT is proactive sharing and ideas — not on reactive bitching! Rather than complain about how your family doesn’t understand you, try sharing a lesson you learned about how to best deal with family challenges. If you reeeally need to vent, the OBT’s Bitchin’ Brides subgroup is a great spot.

BE RESPECTFUL & TOLERANT
This network is a place where to turn for support and encouragement. We all have different ideas about what offbeat means, but at its core it’s about being authentic to who you are as you step into an institution that’s heavy with tradition and expectations. This means that while you might not want to get married in a sequined wedding dress, it might just be the perfect expression of another woman’s personality. Members are encouraged to be tolerant and respectful of others, especially when your opinions differ. This rule also extends outside the community: mocking other brides, other weddings, other wedding planning communities, etc, is not ok. Basically, the only thing we’re intolerant of on the OBT is bashing, hating, and intolerance.

BE USEFUL & USE THE TOOLS
We have tons of tools to help make your content on the network easy to find — please use ‘em! This means taking the time to familiarize yourself with OBT’s different features (inspiration forum, special interest groups, blogging platform) and putting your content in the best place. You don’t need to be super tech savvy to use the OBT, but you do need to be patient enough to learn a bit about how the network works before posting. We have a group specifically set up for new members called the Newbie Cafe. Join it!

What’s not ok on the OBT?
PLEASE, NO TROLLING
Remember, the OBT is a private online forum. All members are considered guests of the group, and membership can be revoked at any time for any reason — especially for people who post disrespectful, contrarian messages with the sole intent of getting people riled up.

PLEASE, NO WEDDING VENDORS
The OBT is not the place for wedding business owners. Vendors, if you’re interested in reaching out to hundreds of thousands of offbeat brides, please consider advertising on offbeatbride.com.

PLEASE, NO CASTING AGENTS OR JOURNALISTS
Nope, you can’t use the group to look for brides for your tv show or hunt for sources for your wedding article. If you’re looking for perspectives on offbeat bridal trends, contact Ariel.

PLEASE, NO WEIGHT LOSS/NEGATIVE BODY IMAGE DISCUSSIONS
This is a touchy subject, but the OBT just isn’t the place to talk about how you want to lose weight for your wedding. We completely support using web communities as a tool to support healthy weight loss. But we’ve just seen too many wedding communities get overtaken by weigh-ins, body image issues, self-hate, and unhealthy, triggering discussions. As mentioned earlier, the OBT is about positive, proactive communication — and that especially includes body image issues.

THE SHITTY DISCLAIMER:
This is lame to have to say, but it’s worth getting out there: The OBT is a private online network, and we reserve the right to delete any member or content from the OBT at any time for any reason. All members are considered guests, and membership can be revoked if you chose not to follow the guidelines.

If this disclaimer strikes you as too controlling, we totally understand. There are lots of online wedding communities, and we fully support finding the one that fits with your values.

If this all sounds good … GO SIGN UP! After you submit your application for membership, it can take a couple days for us to get you approved.