The offbeat bride: Lisa, content editor and writer

Her offbeat partner: Ewoud Benoist, careworker

Location & date of wedding: Chequers Hotel in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, Uk — 17th July 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: I wore a red, 50s style dress made by Joanne Fleming in Brighton. I also wore a pearl necklace that belonged to my nanna who passed away in 2002. My bridesmaids wore black. The groom wore a black suit with matching red tie and a borsalino hat. And Ewoud and I walked back up the aisle to 'I Walk the Line' by Johnny Cash.

Continue reading "Lisa & Ewoud's 50s style wedding planned from Amsterdam" →

It's been a year since we had our last Q&A with Milestone Images, and we thought we'd check back in with New York based photographer, Angela, and see how a year full of Offbeat Brides has been treating her…

From Lesley and Todd's wedding.

We love hearing from the photographers that create offbeat wedding porn. Would you tell us about some of your favorite OBB weddings from last year?
The weddings I shot for people who found me through Offbeat Bride have been amazing. These celebrations have ranged from everything from a Wednesday morning elopement in Central Park to Lesley and Todd's beautiful New England coastline wedding to Jen and Ken's autumnal, DIY, summer camp wedding with campfires, cabins and a treasure hunt and Laurie and Sam's cocktail party wedding in a Manhattan loft. They essentially threw a great cocktail party, halfway through which they exchanged simple vows before a justice of the peace, then went right back to a cocktail party. It was great.

From Emily and Jeremy's wedding.

Emily and Jeremy's wedding was pretty unforgettable too, come to think of it. My favorite part was probably the water gun ambush in the middle of the best man's toast. Ha!

Oh! and Henry and Stephanie's wedding!…

Continue reading "A year of Offbeat Brides: another Q&A with Milestone Images" →

Well, it's Friday. That means it must be time for me to have my regularly scheduled freak out over wedding shoes.

This week I'll be pawing over wedges, which I figure are extra appropriate for those of you planning a destination wedding, beach wedding, or casual summer thang.

As always I aimed for a range of colors (white wedges! red wedges! blue wedges!) and costs (from forty bucks affordable to zomg those shoes cost as much as my entire wedding budget).

Yet again I went maybe a little overboard with my selections. Gird your shoe loins, ladies. We're going in…

Continue reading "Wedding wedges" →

Theresa, a PhD student, vegan and rad Australian, posted this short and sweet tutorial about how she made super-kitschy "parental flowers," little giveaways her parent's could take with on their trip back to the states after the wedding. They're just too easy AND adorable not to share. Take it away Theresa! – Offbeat Shrie

We wanted to have something special to give our parents at the wedding, but we didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for flowers from a florist — especially since my parents wouldn't be able to take real flowers home with them to the US.  So we decided to make them ourselves, and all for less than $10.

So, behold our parental flowers, awesome and flippin' cheap!

Continue reading "How to DIY your own floral fascinators and buttonhole flowers" →

Recently a friend of mine sent out a tweet asking for gift ideas for her bridesmaids in which she added "…and don't say jewelry." Which got me to thinking, what are some good bridal party gifts for the ladies that aren't jewelry. Even a check of the OBB archives brought up mostly jewelry suggestions, so let's fix this. Here is a jewelry-free bridesmaid gift guide.

1. Flasks: This was the winning decision generated from my friends Twitter inquiry. Someone suggested "monogrammed flasks! Boys get them, why shouldn't the girls?!" I like this hot pink one that can be engraved. But yet another friend of mine pointed me in the direction of these funky flasks from Pylones USA which are SUPER unique.

2. Stationery: I know, I know, kinda boring, but at the same time, super useful. And you can find tons of sources for unique stationery pretty much anywhere, and it's not hard to make yourself.

3. Fascinators and hair accessories: They can wear them in wedding as well as a every day life. Etsy has an incredible selection of 'em. Or the DIY inclined make them themselves using our tutorial.

4. Custom pottery: In our last post about bridesmaid gifts a couple of commenters mentioned "text bowls" from Esty seller Paloma's Nest. At $22 each, it's a cute and affordable way to tell your girls that you love them. Plus it gives them a place to put all the baubles that you won't be buying for them.

5. The gift of adventure: What about something like surf lessons or take the girls zip-lining. This idea would be perfect for a destination wedding — find something to do unique to the area and take your gang on a group trip. Not ones for adventure? Do a spa day or something — mani-pedies, or massages for all! Your friend will have fun and it's great for group bonding.

Continue reading "13 jewelry-free bridesmaid gift ideas" →