H'okay… thanks to Offbeat Mama reader and mommy blogger Laura who passed this on to Offbeat Shrie, who sent this on to me! Whew.

This colorful bride is Megan (love the name) at her rainbow themed wedding in a public park in Nevada City, California. Megan tells me that it was all planned and carried out in a matter of three weeks. And that's from proposal to wedding!

Megan sez: "I LOVE colors, as you can see from my photos. I made my dress 100% from scratch all by myself. I wanted it to be very colorful and ruffly so that's what I did. I also made my little top hat because I didn't really want to make a veil, as my hair was already colorful enough and I didn't want to cover that up."

And I am absolutely in love with Megan's hair, by the way. Also, her friends seem kind of awesome as well.

Well, basically there's a lot of crazy and wonderful stuff about this wedding. So head over to Megan's Flickr page if you want to see more photos from Megan and Ryan's outdoor rainbow wedding.

The offbeat bride: Emily, psychology student

Her offbeat partner: Emory, graphic and motion designer

Location & date of wedding: My parent's backyard on a small lake in Hartland, Wisconsin — Oct. 10, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: It was an entirely vegan wedding. Our cake toppers were urban designer toys. We wrote the ceremony and our vows and wore dressy-casual clothing that suited our personalities. We played indie-rock music throughout the reception, drank local beer, and basically treated it like a laid-back party!

Continue reading "Emily & Emory's small, vegan, indie-rock wedding" →

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

Now, let's dive into some more nuanced data…

Continue reading "Reader Survey results, Part 1" →

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!

The offbeat bride: Libby, Pediatric Office Manager/child holder-downer (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Jobe, Central Office Tech

Location & date of wedding: Columbia Park, Portland, OR. — July 26th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Jobe wanted a court house wedding, but I have a lot of important friends and family that I wanted to share our day with (I'm a cancer survivor, and eight years ago I wasn't sure if I would ever get to this point in my life). I just wanted to have a big party with vegan and vegetarian food, and promised Jobe a three – five minute ceremony.

Continue reading "Libby & Jobe's vegan/vegetarian picnic wedding" →